Forget free lunches or afternoon massages. With egg-freezing and targeted cancer tests now on offer, technology companies are demonstrating that pricey medical treatments may be among the best perks they can provide their employees.
Case in point: In Foundation Medicine‘s third quarter earnings call this afternoon, the Cambridge-based company’s president and chief executive officer Dr. Michael Pellini announced that as of 2015, Google will begin covering the cost of administering its FoundationOne and FoundationOne Heme tests to “all employees and their families navigating cancer treatments.” The company’s tests identify genetic mutations found in either cancerous solid tumors or cells affected by blood-related cancers like leukemia or lymphoma, and then identifies targeted drug therapies.
The process is deceptively simple: An oncologist takes a sample of the cancerous cells and then sends it to Foundation Medicine to be sequenced. The company then looks for mutations in the sample that match its library of hundreds of known cancer-related genes. If there’s a match, Foundation sends the doctor and patient a report that identifies three possibilities for treatment, suggesting drugs that are either on the market and approved for the cancer, or other drugs that might be effective in off-label use. Additionally, the test identifies ongoing clinical trials that the patient may be able to take part in as an alternative form of treatment.
But offering bespoke cancer treatment options does come at a cost, and the list price for the treatments is not insignificant: $5,800 for the FoundationOne test, and $7,200 for FoundationOne Heme. Google’s willingness to cover the costs for its over 46,000 employees is another huge step for the company, Pellini said, as was the recent announcement that the Priority Health insurance company would begin covering the cost of the tests, which is an “important milestone in our ongoing reimbursement efforts.”
Google’s venture arm has backed Foundation Medicine in several rounds of funding, so this comes as a solid endorsement of the product. All of this bodes well for the company, as Pellini reported that Foundation made $16.4 million in revenue this quarter, double that of the same period in 2013.
Image: Via Ed Uthman on Flickr
