CareDx Extends Artificial Intelligence Leadership to Heart Transplantation

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CareDx, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNA) – The Transplant Company™ focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients and caregivers, today announced that through its ongoing partnership with OrganX, a non-profit health organization focused on cutting-edge digital health solutions, it plans to expand its HeartCare multimodality portfolio with a new artificial intelligence (AI) prognostic for cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV).

CareDx’s new AI prognostic for CAV helps to stratify patients based on their risk of developing CAV, a leading cause of heart transplant failure.^1,2 When used together with AlloMap® gene-expression profiling to assess immune quiescence and AlloSure® donor-derived cell-free DNA to assess organ injury, this new information about a patient’s risk for CAV and projected outcome has the potential to enable a more precise and personalized approach to interventions aimed at improving long-term heart transplant outcomes.

“CareDx, the leader in transplant innovation, aims to set a new standard of heart transplant care by adding artificial intelligence to its multimodality portfolio. This new capability will help clinicians personalize their care even further by incorporating a patient’s risk of CAV, a leading cause of allograft heart failure,” said Reg Seeto, CEO and President of CareDx. “We’ve already started to see the benefits of incorporating artificial intelligence to our KidneyCare multimodality offering, so this latest addition to our HeartCare portfolio is in line with our strategy to drive earlier data-driven interventions to reverse long-term mortality trends and sets the stage for the next wave of innovations.”

“It’s exciting to see CareDx make this AI-enabled CAV predictive scoring tool available to help physicians tailor interventions that can potentially help improve the quality of life and life expectancy for heart transplant patients,” said Dr. Alex Loupy, Founder of OrganX. “The ongoing partnership between OrganX and CareDx is bearing fruit, and I look forward to continuing to apply cutting-edge digital solutions to high-value applications such as this one that may help other transplant patient groups.”

In a large multicenter, highly phenotyped, prospective study of heart transplant patients, four CAV trajectories were identified, using AI technology. The trajectories identified were based on independent variables, which included immunological and biological profiles, demographic factors, and histological phenotypes.³ The prognostic scoring results from the study provide the basis for a trajectory-based assessment of heart transplant patients for early risk stratification, coronary angiogram patient monitoring, and therapeutic interventions to improve long-term outcomes.

“CAV is the leading cause of late allograft dysfunction, so the availability of a prognostic scoring tool to assess a heart transplant recipient’s risk for developing CAV represents a significant step forward in being able to risk stratify patients to optimize monitoring and interventions that have the potential to improve long-term outcomes,” said Dr. Jon Kobashigawa, Director, Heart Transplant Program, Cedars-Sinai. “I look forward to working with CareDx to use this new artificial intelligence technology to help achieve the very best outcomes for my heart transplant patients.” 

About CareDx – The Transplant Company
CareDx, Inc., headquartered in South San Francisco, California, is a leading precision medicine solutions company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients and caregivers. CareDx offers testing services, products, and digital healthcare solutions along the pre- and post-transplant patient journey and is the leading provider of genomics-based information for transplant patients. For more information, please visit: www.CareDx.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements related to CareDx, Inc., including statements regarding the potential benefits and results that may be achieved with CareDx’s CAV prognostic scoring tool and CareDx’s ongoing partnership with OrganX. These forward-looking statements are based upon information that is currently available to CareDx and its current expectations, speak only as of the date hereof, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including risks that CareDx does not realize the expected benefits of its CAV prognostic scoring tool or partnership with OrganX, risks that CareDx fails to conduct further necessary clinical studies to demonstrate the clinical utility of the CAV prognostic scoring tool to clinicians; general economic and market factors; and other risks discussed in CareDx’s filings with the SEC, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 filed by CareDx with the SEC on February 24, 2022, and other reports that CareDx has filed with the SEC. Any of these may cause CareDx’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied by CareDx’s forward-looking statements. CareDx expressly disclaims any obligation, except as required by law, or undertaking to update or revise any such forward-looking statements.

CONTACTS:
CareDx, Inc.
Sasha King
Chief Marketing Officer
415-287-2393
sking@caredx.com

Investor Relations
Ian Cooney
(415) 722-4563
investor@CareDx.com

References:

1. Avery RK. Cardiac-Allograft Vasculopathy, N Engl J Med. 2003; 349:829-830. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp038124.
2. Chih S, Chong A Y, Mielniczuk LM, et al. Allograft Vasculopathy: The Achilles’ Heel of Heart Transplantation, Jnl of the American College of Cardiology. 2016;68 (1): 80-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2016.04.033.
3. Loupy A, Coutance G, Bonnet G, et al. Identification and Characterization of Trajectories of Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy After Heart Transplantation, Circulation. 2020; 141 (24): 1954-1967. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.044924