Deal Expands Company’s Genetic Testing Capabilities, Managed Care Access

HUMMELSTOWN, PA/October 2, 2017 – Prescient Medicine, a Pennsylvania-based predictive health intelligence company, today announced its acquisition of PGxL Laboratories, a leading reference lab for pharmacogenetics testing. The acquisition will expand Prescient’s laboratory capabilities, and allows the company to grow its relationship with local, regional, and national health insurers, potentially offering patients better access to their suite of pharmacogenomic tools.

Pharmacogenomic testing provides information on an individual’s ability to process certain drugs based on their genetic makeup. Prescient’s validated genetic test, LifeKit^® Predict, is a new tool that assesses an individual’s genetic risk of opioid addiction. LifeKit^® Predict, along with the company’s other genetic tests, will be processed at the Louisville facility by the end of the year.

“In light of the current opioid crisis, it’s important that, as a company, Prescient continuously finds opportunities to develop, enhance, and refine tools that can better predict and inform patient outcomes,” said Keri Donaldson, MD, founder and CEO of Prescient Medicine. “The purchase of PGxL is an opportunity to better service the growing list of clinics, doctors, and patients who see the value in important clinical tools like LifeKit^® Predict, and just as importantly, it’s an opportunity to become a part of the Louisville community. We’re excited about the potential to drive better access to our genetic tools for the patients who need them most.”

About the Opioid Epidemic

The numbers tell the story. The U.S. opioid crisis is the largest public health crisis in history, with more than 59,000 opioid-related drug overdoses in 2016 alone, making opioids the spawn of the deadliest drug overdose crisis in U.S. history. Accordingly, the economic impact of opioid abuse is no less daunting.

Nationwide, opioid-related hospitalizations cost about $20 billion annually. Societal costs for opioids—including for social services, public safety, and criminal justice—will be about $83 billion in 2017. Nearly one-quarter of that economic burden is paid by public, tax-funded sources.

And it’s only getting worse. The U.S. is the world leader in opioid prescriptions and it’s estimated that as many as 650,000 people will die over the next 10 years from opioid overdoses—more than the entire city of Baltimore. That means that the U.S. risks losing the equivalent of a whole American city in just one decade.