NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Biodesix said today that it has received a positive coverage decision from Highmark, a Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate, for its Veristrat lung cancer test.
With the decision, Veristrat, which is intended to help guide second-line treatment in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, gains access to Highmark's membership of 5.3 million people, the fourth-largest membership among BCBS-affiliated companies.
Veristrat uses MALDI mass spectrometry to measure plasma protein profiles of NSCLC patients with the aim of determining appropriate treatment for patients without epidermal growth factor receptor mutation or whose mutation status is unknown.
"Highmark's decision to cover VeriStrat enables a significantly larger patient population to benefit from the prognostic and predictive qualities of our proprietary test," Biodesix CEO David Brunel said in a statement.