Biodesix, Inc. today announced that its VeriStrat® test received a positive coverage decision from United Healthcare (NYSE: UNH), one of the largest commercial insurance company in the US, with a published 44.7 million covered lives. In its Medical Policy (#2015T0535EE), United Healthcare describes VeriStrat as “…proven for guiding treatment decisions in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)….”
VeriStrat, included in the standard of care guidelines, is a blood-based proteomic test that provides physicians with prognostic and predictive information that helps guide treatment of advanced NSCLC. Patients with a VeriStrat Poor test result have a shorter median overall survival than those with a VeriStrat Good result. Understanding the patient’s disease state can help inform physicians’ decisions on chemotherapy, palliative care or clinical trials.
“Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men in the United States with an estimated 5-year survival rate between 1-5%. Providing physicians with a rapid, non-invasive, precision medicine-based approach to understand in advance which lung cancer patients will respond to which therapies is critical,” said David Brunel, Biodesix’ CEO. “We are pleased that this coverage decision will make VeriStrat more accessible to patients around the country.”
United Healthcare published its coverage position in the May 2015 volume of its Policy Update Bulletin, and is effective as of June 1, 2015.
VeriStrat and Biodesix are registered trademarks of Biodesix, Inc. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.
About Biodesix
Biodesix® is a molecular diagnostics company advancing the development of innovative blood-based tests in oncology for precision medicine. VeriStrat® is a commercially available multivariate serum protein test for both predictive and prognostic utility in advanced NSCLC. The company provides physicians with diagnostic tests for earlier disease detection, more accurate diagnosis, disease monitoring and better therapeutic guidance, which can lead to improved patient outcomes. Biodesix discovers, develops and commercializes multivariate protein and genomic diagnostic tests on various discovery platforms. In addition to developing novel diagnostics independently, the company partners with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to develop companion diagnostics to improve utility of therapeutic agents.
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