Biodesix Receives Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Coverage for VeriStrat Test
Lung cancer diagnostic deemed medically necessary to guide treatment decisions
Biodesix, Inc., a fully integrated molecular diagnostics company dedicated to personalizing medicine, today announced that its VeriStrat® test received a positive coverage decision from Highmark Inc., a Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) affiliate organization and one of the largest insurance companies in the United States. Highmark announced its intention to extend coverage to the VeriStrat blood-based test to help guide second-line treatments for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who do not have an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, or whose mutation status is unknown. Highmark has a membership of 5.3 million people, and is the fourth-largest Blue Cross Blue Shield-affiliated company.
VeriStrat is a non-invasive diagnostic assay that predicts differential treatment outcomes between two types of therapies for second-line treatment of inoperable, advanced NSCLC: chemotherapy or the targeted drug erlotinib. Physicians use VeriStrat results, in combination with other clinical and pathological factors, to guide therapy decisions for NSCLC patients. With test results reported in less than 72 hours, physicians can assess the patient’s VeriStrat profile just prior to making second-line treatment decisions.
“Highmark’s decision to cover VeriStrat enables a significantly larger patient population to benefit from the prognostic and predictive qualities of our proprietary test,” said David Brunel, CEO of Biodesix. “When physicians are enabled to prescribe personalized treatment options, patients receive a higher level of care that can support a greater quality of life.”
Highmark has communicated its criteria for coverage; its policy will become effective on October 27, 2014. Details on Highmark’s policy can be found on its website.
Biodesix and VeriStrat are registered trademarks of Biodesix, Inc.
About Biodesix
Biodesix is a molecular diagnostics company advancing the development of innovative products for personalizing medicine. The company provides physicians with diagnostic tests for earlier disease detection, more accurate diagnosis, disease monitoring and better therapeutic guidance which may lead to improved patient outcomes. Biodesix discovers, develops and commercializes multivariate protein diagnostics based on their proprietary mass spectrometry based discovery platform, ProTS®. VeriStrat, a multivariate serum protein test, is Biodesix’ first product developed with ProTS. The commercially available test provides oncologists with information to help them select between erlotinib and single-agent chemotherapy for advanced lung cancer patients. VeriStrat has been studied in over 80 clinical trials and ordered for over 5000 patients. Tests are processed in Biodesix’ CLIA-certified laboratory and results are reported in less than 72 hours. In addition to developing novel diagnostics independently, the company also partners with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to develop companion diagnostics to improve utility of therapeutic agents. For more information on VeriStrat, please visit www.VeriStratSupport.com. For more information about Biodesix, please visit www.Biodesix.com.
Media Contacts:
Chempetitive Group for Biodesix
Kena Hudson or Jordona Jackson Smith
510.908.0966 or 805.674.7347
Biodesix@Chempetitive.com
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