Vectra Provides Important Information to Help Rheumatologists Identify Patients at Increased Risk of Joint Damage
Vectra Provides Important Information to Help Rheumatologists Identify Patients at Increased Risk of Joint Damage
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Oct. 18, 2018 – Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), a global leader in personalized medicine, announced today that Bendcare, a large professional organization empowering community rheumatologists in the United States, has endorsed Vectra® testing for adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Bendcare focuses on the optimization of the patient journey and the specialty medical office through provider and patient education, product acquisition, and world-class products and data solutions, including a revolutionary prospective data analytics platform called Columbus.
“Our goal is to help our physician members optimize patient care and achieve the best possible outcomes for their patients with RA,” explained Kathryn Garrett, R.N., EVP of Payor Solutions, and Pathway & Therapeutics Chairperson at Bendcare. “We believe that Vectra’s ability to objectively assess disease activity and predict radiographic joint damage progression provides unique, important information beyond traditional measures of disease activity. This served as a basis for our decision to update the American Arthritis & Rheumatology Associates pathways to incorporate Vectra and integrate this measure into the Columbus repository.”
Vectra is the leading personalized medicine test for patients with RA, and it is used periodically to assess changes in disease activity. New data recently presented demonstrated that Vectra was three times better at predicting radiographic progression in patients with RA compared to historical measures of disease activity.
“We are pleased to see that the Bendcare organization recognizes the value Vectra brings to physicians and patients and supports Vectra testing for patients with RA,” said Elena Hitraya, M.D., Ph.D., a rheumatologist and chief medical officer, Myriad Autoimmune. “Vectra can help identify patients at increased risk of disease progression. This knowledge will assist physicians when choosing the appropriate therapeutic regimen and needed frequency for disease monitoring and assessment.”
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that mainly attacks the body’s joints, leading to significant morbidity and financial burden. Approximately 60 percent of people with inadequately treated RA are unable to work by a decade after its onset. The American College of Rheumatology estimates that RA affects 1.3 million people in the United States.
About Bendcare
Bendcare, LLC is a management services and technology innovation organization to America’s largest rheumatology group practice, American Arthritis and Rheumatology Associates (AARA) operating in 22 states. With over 160 providers since its inception in 2015, AARA gives physicians the ability to empower patients with lifelong chronic diseases. With the new infrastructure solutions powered by Bendcare, rheumatologists can optimize and simplify their practice, and the care team can focus on quality outcomes, improved patient satisfaction, and stable practice performance in defining Value-based Reimbursement. For more information, please visit www.Bendcare.com.
About Vectra
Vectra is a multi-biomarker molecular blood test that provides an objective and personalized measure of inflammatory disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Vectra demonstrates unsurpassed ability to predict radiographic progression and guides medical management decisions to improve patient outcomes. Vectra testing is performed at a state-of-the-art CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) facility. Test results are reported to the physician five to seven days from shipping of the specimen. Physicians can receive test results by fax or the private web portal, VectraView. For more information on Vectra, please visit: www.vectrada.com.
About Myriad Genetics
Myriad Genetics Inc., is a leading personalized medicine company dedicated to being a trusted advisor transforming patient lives worldwide with pioneering molecular diagnostics. Myriad discovers and commercializes molecular diagnostic tests that: determine the risk of developing disease, accurately diagnose disease, assess the risk of disease progression, and guide treatment decisions across six major medical specialties where molecular diagnostics can significantly improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. Myriad is focused on five strategic imperatives: build upon a solid hereditary cancer foundation, growing new product volume, expanding reimbursement coverage for new products, increasing RNA kit revenue internationally and improving profitability with Elevate 2020. For more information on how Myriad is making a difference, please visit the Company’s website: www.myriad.com.
Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, myPath, myRisk, Myriad myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, myChoice HRD, EndoPredict, Vectra, GeneSight, riskScore Prolaris, ForeSight and Prelude are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements related to Bendcare’s endorsement of Vectra testing for patients with rheumatoid arthritis; and the Company’s strategic directives under the caption “About Myriad Genetics.” These “forward-looking statements” are based on management’s current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the risk that sales and profit margins of our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services may decline; risks related to our ability to transition from our existing product portfolio to our new tests, including unexpected costs and delays; risks related to decisions or changes in governmental or private insurers’ reimbursement levels for our tests or our ability to obtain reimbursement for our new tests at comparable levels to our existing tests; risks related to increased competition and the development of new competing tests and services; the risk that we may be unable to develop or achieve commercial success for additional molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services in a timely manner, or at all; the risk that we may not successfully develop new markets for our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services, including our ability to successfully generate revenue outside the United States; the risk that licenses to the technology underlying our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and any future tests and services are terminated or cannot be maintained on satisfactory terms; risks related to delays or other problems with operating our laboratory testing facilities and our healthcare clinic; risks related to public concern over genetic testing in general or our tests in particular; risks related to regulatory requirements or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries and changes in the structure of the healthcare system or healthcare payment systems; risks related to our ability to obtain new corporate collaborations or licenses and acquire new technologies or businesses on satisfactory terms, if at all; risks related to our ability to successfully integrate and derive benefits from any technologies or businesses that we license or acquire; risks related to our projections about our business, results of operations and financial condition; risks related to the potential market opportunity for our products and services; the risk that we or our licensors may be unable to protect or that third parties will infringe the proprietary technologies underlying our tests; the risk of patent-infringement claims or challenges to the validity of our patents or other intellectual property; risks related to changes in intellectual property laws covering our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and patents or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries, such as the Supreme Court decision in the lawsuit brought against us by the Association for Molecular Pathology et al; risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the United States and internationally; the risk that we may be unable to comply with financial operating covenants under our credit or lending agreements; the risk that we will be unable to pay, when due, amounts due under our credit or lending agreements; and other factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” contained in Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as any updates to those risk factors filed from time to time in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or Current Reports on Form 8-K. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Myriad undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.
