After nearly a decade of legwork, MolecularHealth is now officially open for business. The Texas-based MolecularHealth received its Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certification for its laboratory, which is approximately 7,000 square feet and is based alongside the company’s corporate headquarters in The Woodlands, about 30 miles north of Houston. MolecularHealth will initially offer two tests under its TreatmentMAP brand: a gene panel that targets about 500 known cancer genes, and whole-exome sequencing of cancer tumors. The gene panel will retail for $5,000, and the exome sequencing test will retail for $15,000, prices a company spokesperson said were “market competitive.” MolecularHealth officials said they had opened talks with payers and hospitals to cover and carry the assays. A company official said in 2013 that MolecularHealth had planned to perform as many as 2,000 tests in calendar 2014, but a spokesperson declined earlier this month to provide any specific estimates. In addition to providing the assays, MolecularHealth will provide logistical support, including potential treatment options for patients, and help in persuading insurers to cover such treatments. MolecularHealth will be marketing its services through a five-person sales staff, which is expected to grow in the coming months. The company’s commercial and business development […]
After nearly a decade of legwork, MolecularHealth is now officially open for business.
The Texas-based MolecularHealth received its Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certification for its laboratory, which is approximately 7,000 square feet and is based alongside the company’s corporate headquarters in The Woodlands, about 30 miles north of Houston.
MolecularHealth will initially offer two tests under its TreatmentMAP brand: a gene panel that targets about 500 known cancer genes, and whole-exome sequencing of cancer tumors.
The gene panel will retail for $5,000, and the exome sequencing test will retail for $15,000, prices a company spokesperson said were “market competitive.” MolecularHealth officials said they had opened talks with payers and hospitals to cover and carry the assays.
A company official said in 2013 that MolecularHealth had planned to perform as many as 2,000 tests in calendar 2014, but a spokesperson declined earlier this month to provide any specific estimates.
In addition to providing the assays, MolecularHealth will provide logistical support, including potential treatment options for patients, and help in persuading insurers to cover such treatments.
MolecularHealth will be marketing its services through a five-person sales staff, which is expected to grow in the coming months. The company’s commercial and business development staffs will be headquartered in the Boston suburb of Newtown, Mass., where it is currently recruiting a marketing director and a health economist.
“Boston is a hotbed of cutting-edge science, and a major biotech hub,” said MolecularHealth Chief Commercial Officer Laura Housman, a longtime former executive with Novartis. “As we work toward generating adoption of our oncology treatment decision support offering over the coming months, it’s important that we have a presence in Boston, where many of our current and potential partners and customers are located.”
MolecularHealth has a third office in Heidelberg, Germany, that houses its European operations.
Much of MolecularHealth’s top executive staff was formerly of U.S. Oncology, including its chief executive officer, Lloyd Everson, M.D. He served as U.S. Oncology’s president and continues to serve on its board of directors.
The company, which was founded in 2004, is funded in part by Dietmar Hopp, a German software entrepreneur and billionaire. Company officials would not disclose how much Hopp or the company’s other backers have invested in the venture.
Takeaway: Another molecular laboratory firm plans to address the cancer market in the United States.
