NEW YORK ─ Salt Lake City-based Sera Prognostics announced on Tuesday that it is partnering with health insurer Anthem and its HealthCore subsidiary to conduct a study to determine whether Sera's PreTRM test, along with clinical interventions, can lead to improved health for newborns and mothers.
The primary objective of the study, called Prematurity Risk Assessment Combined with Clinical Interventions for Improved Neonatal OutcoMEs (PRIME), is to evaluate how pairing Sera's PreTRM test with clinical interventions may mitigate preterm birth risk, improve neonatal outcomes, and reduce overall healthcare costs in this population.
Financial and other terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
The PreTRM test measures and analyzes proteins in the blood that are highly predictive of preterm birth. It enables physicians to identify, as early as 19 weeks of pregnancy, which women are at increased risk for premature delivery, enabling more informed clinical decisions based on each woman's individual risk, so that her care can be personalized to address her risk, Sera said.
The PRIME protocol is based on using risk stratification to provide an early individual risk prediction for spontaneous preterm delivery in asymptomatic, singleton pregnancies.
The study is designed to measure the impact of a test and intervention on outcomes and costs, and provide a blueprint for how the healthcare industry can more effectively identify and manage high-risk pregnancies and reduce preterm birth, Sera said.
Indianapolis, Indiana-based Anthem will cover the utilization cost of the PreTRM test for those assigned to the intervention arm of the randomized clinical study.