Karius Partners with Capstone Health Alliance to Widen Access of Liquid Biopsies

Karius, a provider in liquid biopsy solutions, is partnering with Capstone Health Alliance, a group purchasing organization focused on supply chain savings in hospitals and other organizations, to streamline patient access to the Karius Test.

The Karius Test is a lab-developed test that can non-invasively and rapidly detect more than 1,000 pathogens throughout the body from a single blood sample. Through the partnership, doctors at over 265 Capstone member hospitals across the U.S. can now more easily order the Karius Test for patients harboring hard-to-diagnose infections.

Capstone and Karius are focused on expanding access to medical care—especially for patients at high risk, such as those with compromised immune systems. There will be nearly 3 million hospitalizations this year in the U.S. alone from infections in the immunocompromised.¹ For these patients, infections can be particularly dangerous, and targeted early treatment is key to a positive clinical outcome.

“We are thrilled to partner with Capstone Health Alliance to accelerate access for patients to our metagenomic infectious disease test,” says Brad Perkins, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Karius. “With better access to the Karius Test, we’re excited for the opportunity to get fast, accurate tools into the hands of clinicians to empower earlier diagnosis and treatment of potentially life-threatening infectious diseases.”

The partnership aims to broaden institutional access to microbial cell-free metagenomics technology used by the Karius Test, which is currently being utilized across institutions nationwide, including children’s hospitals and transplant centers. Clinical evidence has demonstrated that the Karius Test helps clinicians diagnose bloodstream² and deep-seated infections.^{3 4}

“The Karius Test is a much-needed addition to a doctors’ toolkit against infectious disease, especially now that several potentially deadly infections with overlapping symptoms are making a comeback,” says Robin Lincoln, Capstone’s Chief Contracting Officer. “Capstone can provide easier access to this platform to over 265 hospitals representing 36,000 licensed beds in our alliance. We are pleased to partner with such a reputable company as Karius to work together to broaden the awareness of this potentially life-saving test option.”

As noted in New York Times and GenomeWeb, facilities within the Capstone network have already begun using the Karius Test to identify rare infections including peritoneal tuberculosis and tularemia, as well as species of Leptospira and Nocardia.

References

¹Claims-based analysis from Clarify Health, 2021
²Armstrong A., et al. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2019;66(7):e27734. 
³Hong D., et al. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 2018;92(3):210-213.
⁴Rossoff, et al. Open Forum Infect Di. 2019;6(8):ofz327.