NEW YORK – DermTech said this week that it has signed agreements with Highmark. Alongside a favorable coverage policy, the deals enhance access to the firm's noninvasive melanoma test. Highmark and its Blue-branded affiliates provide health insurance to approximately 7 million members in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York. "We are pleased to expand our connection with one of the largest Blues plans in the US and further reduce barriers to access with our test now available as an in-network benefit," Chris Murphy, DermTech's senior director of payor access, said in a statement. The company claims approximately 133 million total covered lives in the US.
German diagnostics firm Cerca Biotech said this week that its quality management system has achieved ISO 13485:2016 certification for the design, development, production, and distribution of in vitro diagnostics and software for molecular testing. The Berlin-based company, a subsidiary of Shuwen Biotech, offers MammaTyper, a PCR-based breast cancer subtyping test.
Colossal Biosciences said this week that it has teamed up with BioRescue, a consortium aiming to save the northern white rhinoceros from extinction through assisted reproduction technologies and stem cell-associated techniques. The partners plan to assess the genetic diversity of the species in historic museum samples in order to help decide whether to restore lost genetic variability in a future northern white rhino population. With the help of Colossal's FormBio bioinformatics spinoff, they will also conduct a genetic population study of the southern white rhino, a sister taxon of the northern species, to identify key aspects of a healthy population. Colossal will provide its genome sequencing and gene editing methods to the project, focusing on edits that will improve genetic diversity in living cells and will mitigate the impact of disease or lost adaptability to climate change.
Biocept said this week that it has completed enrollment in the feasibility phase of its FORESEE clinical trial, in which it is evaluating its CNSide liquid biopsy assay as a tool to monitor treatment responses and help guide treatment decisions. The firm enrolled 40 patients with breast or non-small cell lung cancer with leptomeningeal metastases. Biocept expects to have results from the feasibility phase during the first half of 2024 and to begin enrolling patients to the trial's validation phase.
Abbott said this week that its board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $.51 per share, payable Nov. 15 to shareholders of record on Oct. 13.
Agilent Technologies' board of directors this week declared a quarterly dividend of $.23 per common share payable Oct. 25 to all shareholders of record as of the close of the market on Oct. 3.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on GenomeWeb.