Myriad Genetics Launches New Vectra® Cardiovascular Risk Assessment for Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To help more patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), a leader in genetic testing and precision medicine, today launched the new Vectra^® Cardiovascular Risk assessment that can predict the risk for cardiovascular (CV) events in patients with RA. This new test result incorporates information on RA inflammation assessed by Vectra Score and three additional biomarkers, combined with traditional risk factors. Vectra is an advanced blood test that objectively measures inflammation caused by RA.

“Due to inflammatory processes, patients with RA have approximately 50% greater risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of mortality among patients with RA, which accounts for 30-40% of deaths.” said Elena Hitraya, M.D., Ph.D., rheumatologist and chief medical officer with Myriad Autoimmune. “The newly developed Multi-Biomarker Based CVD Risk Score (Vectra Cardiovascular Risk) can accurately predict the risk of major CV events over the next three years, both overall and in important subgroups of patients with RA. Knowing a patient’s future risk of potential joint damage, from Vectra, and cardiovascular events, from Vectra Cardiovascular Risk, clinicians can make more informed treatment decisions with the goal of achieving better health outcomes.”

To view the Vectra Cardiovascular Risk Test Report, please visit the following link:  

The Vectra Cardiovascular Risk result gives a patient’s 3-year percentage risk of a heart attack, stroke or CV related death. The percentage risk identifies the patient’s category of cardiovascular risk: low, borderline, intermediate and high, based on thresholds derived from the risk categories previously established by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association. Vectra Cardiovascular Risk accurately predicts cardiovascular events in patients with Low, Moderate or High Vectra Scores.

The manuscript entitled “Derivation and internal validation of a multi-biomarker-based cardiovascular disease risk prediction score for rheumatoid arthritis patients” was published in .

Four out of five rheumatologists have used Vectra Score to assess RA disease activity and they have ordered more than one million tests for their RA patients. The American College of Rheumatology included Vectra (Multi-Biomarker Disease Activity Score MBDA) as a disease activity measure that meets the minimum standard for regular use for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Those recommendations were published in the journal .

About Vectra Cardiovascular Risk

Vectra Cardiovascular Risk is a clinically validated assessment that accurately predicts risk for CV events in the next three years in patients with RA 40 years of age and older. Vectra Cardiovascular Risk incorporates a personalized assessment of inflammation in order to give a patient’s CV risk. Physicians can receive the assessment by ordering with their Vectra Test or calculating the risk in VectraView, the provider portal, within 90 days of a Vectra result.

About Vectra

Vectra is a multi-biomarker molecular blood test that provides an objective and personalized measure of inflammatory disease activity in patients with RA. Vectra demonstrates unsurpassed ability to predict radiographic progression and can help guide medical management decisions to improve patient outcomes. Vectra testing is performed at a state-of-the-art CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) facility. Test results are reported to the physician five to seven days from shipping of the specimen. Physicians can receive test results by fax or the private provider web portal, VectraView^TM. For more information on Vectra, please visit: . For more information on Vectra Cardiovascular Risk, please visit: .

About Myriad Genetics

Myriad Genetics Inc., is a leading genetic testing and precision medicine company dedicated to transforming patient lives worldwide. Myriad discovers and commercializes genetic tests that determine the risk of developing disease, accurately diagnose disease, assess the risk of disease progression, and guide treatment decisions across medical specialties where molecular diagnostics can significantly improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. For more information on how Myriad is making a difference, please visit the Company's website: .

Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, myPath, myRisk, Myriad myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, myChoice CDx, Vectra, Prequel, Foresight, GeneSight, riskScore and Prolaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements related to the launch of Vectra Cardiovascular Risk assessment and its potential to improve RA treatment and outcomes; and the Company’s strategic directives under the caption "About Myriad Genetics." These "forward-looking statements" are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: uncertainties associated with COVID-19, including its possible effects on our operations and the demand for our products and services; our ability to efficiently and flexibly manage our business amid uncertainties related to COVID-19; the risk that sales and profit margins of our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services may decline; risks related to our ability to transition from our existing product portfolio to our new tests, including unexpected costs and delays; risks related to decisions or changes in governmental or private insurers’ reimbursement levels for our tests or our ability to obtain reimbursement for our new tests at comparable levels to our existing tests; risks related to increased competition and the development of new competing tests and services; the risk that we may be unable to develop or achieve commercial success for additional molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services in a timely manner, or at all; the risk that we may not successfully develop new markets for our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services, including our ability to successfully generate revenue outside the United States; the risk that licenses to the technology underlying our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and any future tests and services are terminated or cannot be maintained on satisfactory terms; risks related to delays or other problems with operating our laboratory testing facilities and our healthcare clinic; risks related to public concern over genetic testing in general or our tests in particular; risks related to regulatory requirements or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries and changes in the structure of the healthcare system or healthcare payment systems; risks related to our ability to obtain new corporate collaborations or licenses and acquire new technologies or businesses on satisfactory terms, if at all; risks related to our ability to successfully integrate and derive benefits from any technologies or businesses that we license or acquire; risks related to our projections about our business, results of operations and financial condition; risks related to the potential market opportunity for our products and services; the risk that we or our licensors may be unable to protect or that third parties will infringe the proprietary technologies underlying our tests; the risk of patent-infringement claims or challenges to the validity of our patents or other intellectual property; risks related to changes in intellectual property laws covering our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and patents or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries, such as the Supreme Court decisions in Mayo Collab. Servs. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc., 566 U.S. 66 (2012), Ass’n for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., 569 U.S. 576 (2013), and Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. 208 (2014); risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the United States and internationally; the risk that we may be unable to comply with financial operating covenants under our credit or lending agreements; the risk that we will be unable to pay, when due, amounts due under our credit or lending agreements; and other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as any updates to those risk factors filed from time to time in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or Current Reports on Form 8-K. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Myriad undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.