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Medi-Cal is the state medical assistance program in California establishedto provide essential medical care and services to individuals or families onpublic assistance, or whose income is not sufficient to meet their individualneeds.
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"We are delighted that Medi-Cal has established coverage for Trofile,"said Bill Welch, Monogram chief commercial officer. "California has thesecond largest population of HIV/AIDS patients in the U.S. and now all publicpayers in the state provide coverage for Trofile. With coverage nowclarified, we expect that testing activity for Medi-Cal beneficiaries mayincrease."
Previously, the California ADAP Program (in November 2007), and thefederal Medicare Program (in September 2007) established coverage for Trofile.The AIDS Drug Assistance Program, or "ADAP", is a state and federally fundedprogram, administered separately in each state to provide healthcare coveragefor HIV/AIDS patients without other coverage. Throughout the U.S. 33 stateADAP/Ryan White entitlement state programs now have coverage established forTrofile.
Trofile is now a covered benefit with 24 state Medicaid programs,including California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,New Jersey, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin. In addition, Trofile is a coveredbenefit by Medicare, the Veteran's Administration, the Corrections and PrisonSystems and Department of Indian Affairs, as well as with a number of privatepayers.
Monogram introduced Trofile in August 2007, upon FDA approval of Pfizer'sSelzentry(TM) (maraviroc), and since then, almost 5,000 tests have beenperformed for patients throughout the U.S. In January 2008 DHHS Guidelinesfor Use of Antiretroviral Agents in HIV - 1 infected Adults & Adolescentsrecommend the use of the Trofile assay whenever the use of a CCR5 inhibitor isbeing considered as well as to be considered for patients who exhibitvirologic failure on a CCR5 inhibition.
About Monogram
Monogram is advancing individualized medicine by discovering, developingand marketing innovative products to guide and improve treatment of seriousinfectious diseases and cancer. The Company's products are designed to helpdoctors optimize treatment regimens for their patients that lead to betteroutcomes and reduced costs. The Company's technology is also being used bynumerous biopharmaceutical companies to develop new and improved anti-viraltherapeutics and vaccines as well as targeted cancer therapeutics. Moreinformation about the Company and its technology can be found on its web siteat www.monogrambio.com.
Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking. Theseforward-looking statements include references to the demand for our TrofileAssay, the potential use of our Trofile Assay for patient selection formaraviroc, the size and timing of clinical trials utilizing our products, theoutlook for maraviroc and our Trofile Assay, the number of patients each yearin the U.S. who potentially could be candidates for new classes of HIV drugssuch as maraviroc, expected protection provided by patents, possibleregulation of Trofile and our other products by the FDA, and activitiesexpected to occur in connection with the Pfizer collaboration. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors,which may cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipatedresults or other expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements.These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the risk thatphysicians may not use a molecular diagnostic for patient selection formaraviroc or other HIV drugs; risks re
