12 Dec 2019 09:54PM (Updated: 13
Dec 2019 12:50AM)
NEW YORK: CVS Health Corp said on Thursday it
will make it easier for patients with advanced cancer enrolled in some Aetna
insurance plans to receive broad genetic gene sequencing tests that can help
identify the best drug or treatment for them.
CVS has been running an oncology program in 12
states in which patients prescribed treatment regimens that follow National
Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines automatically receive prior
authorization approval, speeding the time to starting their treatment.
It will now add easier access to broad-panel
gene sequencing tests to that program for patients in its at-risk Aetna plans,
Alan Lotvin, CVS' chief transformation officer, said in an interview. In at-risk
insurance plans CVS, which acquired Aetna last year for US$69 billion, takes on
the risk of higher member costs.
Other non-Aetna health plans can also buy the
CVS program, the company said.
Under the program, genetic sequencing of
tumors would be available for patients with late-stage cancer or whose cancers
progress after prior treatments, representing about 30 percent of patients,
Lotvin said. The testing will be done by Tempus, a next-generation gene
sequencing company in Chicago.
Dr. Otis Brawley, professor of oncology at
Johns Hopkins University and former chief scientific officer at the American
Cancer Society, said the eased access to these genetic tests will help steer
patients away from chemotherapy to targeted medicines.
About 10per cent to 12per cent of patients
with small cell lung cancer benefit from a treatment typically used for certain
breast cancers, he said.
"One of the problems has been that these
patients don't get genetic sequencing or they get it so late they can't benefit
from the drug," Brawley said.
Drugmakers including Bayer AG have introduced
medicines that work well against cancers driven by specific rare genetic
mutations. But adoption of the broad genetic tests needed to identify those
mutations has been stalled over insurers' concerns that there is not enough
evidence to justify paying for their widespread use, Reuters reported earlier
this year.
The tests typically cost US$3,000 to US$5,000,
Brawley said.
Lotvin said CVS' pilot program had produced
observational evidence showing that following the national cancer guidelines
had resulted in fewer hospitalizations and chemotherapy treatments, improving
care, saving money and lessening the side effect burden.
Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Maryland, Maine, Montana, North Caroline, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
and Utah are in the pilot.
(Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and
Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
Source:
Reuters
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