On August 19, 2015 OPKO Health, Inc. (NYSE:OPK) reported that it has entered into agreements with Stratose, Three Rivers Provider Network and Fortified Provider Network for testing services from OPKO Lab, including the 4KscoreTest, the only blood test that accurately identifies an individual patient’s risk for high-grade, aggressive cancer (Press release, Opko Health, AUG 19, 2015, View Source [SID:1234507300]). The cumulative contracts, with some of the largest healthcare PPO network providers in the U.S., will give over 25 million people access to the testing services of OPKO Lab.
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"These agreements demonstrate the value of the portfolio of testing services offered by OPKO Lab, including the 4Kscore Test," said David Okrongly, Ph.D., President of OPKO Diagnostics. "We are gratified at the growing acceptance by health plan customers of the value offered to patients and physicians by the 4Kscore Test and our other testing services. We look forward to providing these services to their network participants."
OPKO Lab, a full service urological testing laboratory, is the provider of the 4Kscore Test. The 4Kscore Test is the only blood test that accurately identifies an individual patient’s risk for high-grade, aggressive cancer and is now included in the NCCN 2015 Guidelines for Prostate Cancer Early Detection.
"The expansion of insurance coverage for our proprietary tests such as the 4Kscore Test is a major focus for OPKO," said Phillip Frost, M.D., OPKO’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We expect insurance coverage to further accelerate after the closing of the pending Bio-Reference Laboratories acquisition."
About the 4Kscore Test
The 4Kscore Test is the only blood test that accurately identifies an individual patient’s risk for aggressive prostate cancer, the lethal form of prostate cancer. The 4Kscore Test uses a proprietary algorithm that incorporates the blood levels of four different prostate-derived kallikrein proteins, Total PSA, Free PSA, Intact PSA and Human Kallikrein-2 (hK2), plus the patient’s age, Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) status (nodule / no nodule) and prior negative biopsy status (yes / no) to calculate the percentage risk (probability) of finding a Gleason Score 7 or higher grade of prostate cancer. The four kallikrein panel of biomarkers utilized in the 4Kscore Test is based on over a decade of research conducted by scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and leading European institutions and is established as a recommended standard of care in the 2015 NCCN Prostate Cancer Early Detection Guidelines. The 4Kscore Test provides individualized risk for the presence of aggressive prostate cancer and adds new information to the shared decision making discussion between the urologist and the patient.