SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 23, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Assurex Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MYGN), today announced that new data on the use of the GeneSight® Psychotropic test to deliver medication cost savings for mental health disorders was published in the journal Clinical Therapeutics.[1] GeneSight Psychotropic is a precision medicine genetic test that helps guide medication selection in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and is the foundation of the Company’s industry-leading portfolio of tests for neuroscience disorders.
The study, entitled: “Economic utility: Combinatorial Pharmacogenomics and Medication Cost Savings for Mental Healthcare in a Primary Care Setting” is a subanalysis from a previous prospective study analyzing cost savings for patients receiving combinatorial pharmacogenomic testing.[2] The current study compared savings among various types of health care providers (HCPs) and analysed the cost of treatment decisions that were congruent with GeneSight test results (i.e., medication decisions in concordance with the patients’ test results) with those that were incongruent. Using pharmacy claims data from 2,168 patients with MDD, the new analysis compared medication costs six months prior to GeneSight testing and for one year post-testing.
The analysis measured both treatment congruence and cost savings per patient based on the type of healthcare provider administering care. The findings showed that primary care providers (PCPs) treat the majority of mental health patients receiving psychotropic medication prescriptions, including treatment resistant patients. In fact, patients treated by PCPs had tried a median of five medications, similar to psychiatrists whose patients had tried six medications. The data also demonstrated that PCPs who treated patients congruently with the GeneSight test saved payers and patients an average of $3,998 compared to incongruent decisions (p<0.001). Additionally, psychiatrists who treated patients congruently with the GeneSight test saved an average of $1,308.
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[1] Brown L., Lorenz R., Li J., et al, Economic utility: Combinatorial pharmacogenomics and medication cost savings for mental healthcare in a primary care setting. Clin Ther. 2017; Accessed online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2017.01.022.
[2] J.G. Winner, J.M. Carhart, C.A. Altar, et al. Combinatorial pharmacogenomic guidance for psychiatric medications reduces overall pharmacy costs in a 1 year prospective evaluation. Curr Med Res Opin, 31 (2015), pp. 1633–1643.
“In the treatment of major depression, clinicians and payers are looking for sensible options to improve patient care, while lowering overall costs to healthcare systems,” said Bryan M. Dechairo, Ph.D., chief medical and science officer, Assurex Health. “Prior studies demonstrated that the GeneSight test can be used to guide patient treatment decisions. Now, we know that GeneSight can lower costs across healthcare provider types, but was especially effective in generating cost savings among primary care physicians, which is important because they treat the majority of patients with mental illness.”
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About The GeneSight® Test
The GeneSight test helps healthcare providers make better treatment decisions based on a person’s genetic makeup. GeneSight testing is based on advanced CPGx® technology, a patented approach that analyzes variations and combinations of a person’s genes along with FDA-approved medications for behavioral health conditions and chronic pain. Numerous peer-reviewed, published studies have proven its clinical benefits and substantial healthcare cost savings. More than 18,000 healthcare professionals have used GeneSight to improve healthcare for more than 450,000 patients. Learn more at www.GeneSight.com.
About Assurex Health
Assurex Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc., is an informatics-based, personalized medicine company providing treatment decision support to healthcare providers for behavioral health and chronic pain conditions. Assurex Health is the only company in the category with multiple peer-reviewed, published studies that demonstrate the clinical validity and clinical utility of the GeneSight test, including its substantial healthcare cost savings benefit. The Company has grown every quarter and has expanded internationally through a partnership with Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). For more on how Assurex Health is helping people gain mental wellness, visit www.AssurexHealth.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 three strategic imperatives: transitioning and expanding its hereditary cancer testing markets, diversifying its product portfolio through the introduction of new products and increasing the revenue contribution from international markets. 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 and Prolaris 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 relating to the ability of the GeneSight Psychotropic test to drive medication cost savings for mental health disorders; the ability of the GeneSight test to guide medication selection in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD); GeneSight test being the foundation of the Company’s industry-leading portfolio of tests for neuroscience disorders; 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 described or implied in the forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to: the risk that sales and profit margins of our existing molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services may decline or will not continue to increase at historical rates; risks related to our ability to transition from our existing product portfolio to our new tests; risks related to changes in the 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 tests and any future tests are terminated or cannot be maintained on satisfactory terms; risks related to delays or other problems with operating our laboratory testing facilities; risks related to public concern over our 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, including but not limited to our acquisition of Assurex, Sividon and the Clinic; risks related to our projections about the potential market opportunity for our products; 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; 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 Annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016, 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.
Media Contact: Ron Rogers (908) 285-0248 rrogers@myriad.com Investor Contact: Scott Gleason (801) 584-1143 sgleason@myriad.com
