Cardium Therapeutics just announced that LifeAgain™ Insurance Solutions Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary, and AgencyONE, its commercialization partner, have entered into agreements to market and sell term life insurance issued by Symetra Life Insurance Company under LifeAgain’s BlueMetric Select™ term life insurance program for men with active localized prostate cancer. Expected to be available in all 50 states, this life insurance program was developed based on LifeAgain’s Advanced Medical Data Analytics Platform Technology (ADAPT™).
Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in our nation. Currently, men with elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) scores and active localized prostate cancer usually are considered uninsurable based on traditional underwriting standards. LifeAgain’s BlueMetric Select program was specifically designed to assist life insurance companies to provide eligible men with term life insurance coverage following a cancer diagnosis or upon the completion of a prostate cancer surgery, without the traditional multi-year waiting periods and additional medical re-qualifications generally required by most life insurance companies.
LifeAgain uses proprietary technology to enable a scalable, actuarial-based risk assessment based on a diagnostic histological biopsy or a prostate cancer surgery. Together with an applicant’s overall health, these factors may be used to support favorable underwriting decisions and to establish appropriate premium pricing based on the level of prostate cancer progression of each applicant.
“The American Cancer Society reports that there are more than 2.5 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Prostate cancer affects 1 in 6 men in the U.S., and over the next 10 years more than 8 million men under the age of 64 are expected to be diagnosed with an elevated PSA score. In 2013, more than 238,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and nearly 100,000 men will undergo prostate cancer surgery. Our new BlueMetric Select program provides men with a life insurance option that they may not otherwise have as they manage their personalized prostate cancer journey that will last a lifetime, that may include ‘watchful waiting’ and ‘active surveillance,’ after re-evaluating their families’ life insurance needs in response to their prostate cancer diagnosis,” stated Christopher J. Reinhard, Chairman and CEO of Cardium.
“We are pioneers in assisting life insurance companies in developing ‘survivable risk’ life insurance and believe that the introduction of LifeAgain’s BlueMetric Select program represents an important step forward for cancer patients, cancer survivors and their families, as well as the life insurance industry. As a result, we will seek to advance the BlueMetric Select program into international markets and expand our Advanced Medical Data Analytics Platform Technology into other medical indications, first in the U.S. market and then internationally,” Reinhard added.
Decades of medical advancements, improved early diagnosis and curative therapies enable today’s health care professionals to treat serious life-threatening diseases while providing improved prognosis and quantifiable mortality risk assessment. The National Cancer Institute reports that there are nearly 12 million cancer survivors in the U.S., up from only 3 million in the early 1970s, and that almost 5 million survivors received their cancer diagnosis within the past 10 years. This represents millions of highly motivated individuals who may seek life insurance as part of their personal and family planning, and yet life insurance is often unavailable for patients diagnosed with cancer unless and until they can effectively demonstrate that their cancer has been cured. LifeAgain’s advanced medical data analytics offers significant opportunities to develop life insurance products that such patients need, offering new and innovative solutions for the life insurance industry.
For more information, visit www.cardiumthx.com
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