The GeneSight® Precision Medicine Test Drives Significant Medication Cost Savings in Patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 04, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Assurex Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MYGN), today announced that a poster featuring the GeneSight® test will be presented at the Neuroscience Education Institute (NEI) Psychopharmacology Congress being held Nov. 3-6, 2016 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

In this subanalysis of a previously published study, patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) experienced significant cost savings when decisions congruent with the GeneSight report were made by healthcare providers.  In the previously published study, congruency with the GeneSight test was shown to deliver significant cost savings for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

“We believe that GeneSight has the potential to improve outcomes for patients being treated with psychotropic drugs and eliminate a significant amount of waste in our healthcare system,” said Bryan M. Dechairo, Ph.D., chief medical and science officer, Assurex Health. “We look forward to sharing these data with the medical community and payers.”

Below is a summary of the featured presentation at NEI (#NEI2016). 

Poster Presentation
Title: GeneSight Psychotropic Decreases Medication Costs for Patients with Anxiety and Bipolar Disorders in a Large, Prospective Case-Control Project
Presenter: Kim Horn.
Date: Friday, Nov. 4, 2016: 6:00-7:30 p.m. MT.

This study assessed the economic utility of the GeneSight test for 318 patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) when healthcare providers made decisions congruent with the GeneSight test report. Patients in the GeneSight-guided group of the previously published study were subdivided into two groups. The first group included patients whose healthcare provider made treatment decisions congruent with the GeneSight test report. The second group included patients whose provider made treatment decisions incongruent with the test report. The analysis compared total medication costs between the congruent and incongruent groups for patients based on their diagnosis of GAD.

The results showed that, for GAD patients, the savings for congruent versus incongruent decisions was $6,747 per member per year ($5736 vs $12,483, p<0.004). Importantly, GAD patients experienced greater savings in CNS medications (2-fold), antineoplastic medications (2.5-fold) and gastroenterology medications (2.8-fold). Patients with comorbid GAD and MDD whose medication regimens were congruent with the GeneSight test had the highest cost savings of any group ($10,573). This subanalysis showed significant cost savings for GAD patients when healthcare providers made decisions congruent with the GeneSight test report. Much of the cost savings came from classes of medicines used in primary care.

Anxiety disorders are commonly seen in the primary care setting and are often associated with comorbid medical illnesses, such as heart disease, migraine headaches and back pain for which patients with anxiety often seek help from their primary care provider. The GeneSight test may have enabled healthcare providers to more appropriately treat the underlying anxiety disorder, thereby reducing the number of physical complaints that previously required medication. Additionally, the previously published study showed that patients whose treatment was guided by the GeneSight test experienced increased adherence and reduced polypharmacy, which may have also contributed to cost savings associated with primary care medications.    

About The GeneSight® Test
GeneSight testing 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. Peer-reviewed, published studies have proven its clinical benefits and substantial healthcare cost savings. More than 15,000 healthcare professionals have used GeneSight with over 400,000 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 helps people achieve mental wellness with advanced CPGx®, a proprietary combinatorial pharmacogenomics technology that provides individualized treatment support for neuropsychiatric 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, EndoPredict, myPath, myRisk, Myriad myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, myChoice HRD, Vectra, Prolaris and GeneSight 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 Company presenting a new study at the Neuroscience Education Institute Annual Meeting being held Nov. 3-6, 2016 in Colorado Springs, Colo.; the accuracy and effectiveness of the GeneSight test in selecting psychotropic drug therapy or saving the healthcare system money; and the Company’s strategic directives under the captions “About GeneSight” and “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.

CONTACT: Media Contact:
Ron Rogers
(801) 584-3065
rrogers@myriad.com

Investor Contact:
Scott Gleason
(801) 584-1143
sgleason@myriad.com

Ads