It’s genetics!
More specifically, it’s the electrically-hot field of genetic testing that is disrupting the healthcare field. InformedDNA has been working in this field since the company was founded in 2007 in St. Petersburg. The company advises health systems, pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies in order to help those in the medical field better understand the genetic basis of cancer, for example, and other serious medical conditions.
“Many oncologists, or breast surgeons or frontline providers don’t have training in genetics, so they rely on [InformedDNA] to help them make those quick decisions by following standard genetic guidelines,” David Nixon, chairman and CEO of InformedDNA, said.
One of InformedDNA’s unique characteristics is its emphasis on accessibility.
Nixon used to work at a marketing communications firm that helped consumers make better decisions about potentially dangerous behaviors like alcohol and teen tobacco use. These days, Nixon still helps people, just in a different way.
InformedDNA’s goal is “ensuring that people everywhere have access to genetics expertise, not just those [who] are getting care at a wealthy academic center that can employ genetics experts,” Nixon said.
Co-founder and chief medical officer Dr. Rebecca Sutphen used to manage the genetic programs at both the Moffitt Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. During that time, Dr. Sutphen noticed a lack of access to genetics experts in local community settings, outside of large academic centers.
Dr. Sutphen co-founded a genetic counseling telehealth platform in 2007 that has since evolved into the largest in-network provider of genetic counseling, Nixon said. More than 80 million Americans have access to InformedDNA by way of their health plan, said Nixon.
InformedDNA targets and assists populations that are underserved due to their geographic location, socioeconomic status or both.
“[InformedDNA is] ideally suited to help cure those problems for the pharma companies by identifying patients all over the [United States],” Nixon said. “[The goal is] curing access issues from a geography standpoint, but also from [a] disparities [standpoint], because we have access to different minority populations and different socioeconomic levels that in an academic center, you just don’t see.”
InformedDNA has raised $24 million in venture capital, Nixon said. Some of its distant competitors include eviCore, Concert Genetics and GeneMatters, the first of which has raised $300 million in venture capital, and the second of which has raised $9.1 million in venture capital.
In the short term future, Nixon would like his company to create a pharmaceutical platform. As his company approaches the next decade, Nixon looks forward to continuing to build the genetic testing and counseling aspects of the company from a customer-oriented perspective.
“We’re going to go back to helping customers, and start managing the therapies informed by genetic testing, [such as] orphan drugs, targeted oncology therapies…where in order to see if that drug would be effective, you really have to understand the economics of the disease, or the tumor, and we are uniquely qualified to do that,” he said.
InformedDNA works with about 12 different health plans, nearly all of which have at least a million members. The company also works with more than 55 health systems, and about five or six pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. InformedDNA provides its telehealth genetic counseling service to about 1,400 patients per month.
Some of its largest customers include Dignity Health, AdventHealth and Kaiser Permanente Colorado.
