Helix Expands Focus to Population Health Solutions and Appoints Illumina Veteran Marc Stapley as CEO

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Apr 25, 2019, 16:12 ET

SAN CARLOS, Calif., April 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Helix today announced it is broadening its market focus to include health systems, payers and researchers who are interested in sequencing large population cohorts. Helix will be offering those partners its population health solutions, a suite of sequencing products and services built around the Helix proprietary Exome+™ assay, packaged with its workflow, CLIA/CAP lab, return of results platform and data capabilities. To lead this expansion, the company has named Marc Stapley as Chairman and CEO.

"While we are announcing a new strategic business focus today, Helix's mission remains unchanged: to empower every person to improve their life through DNA," said Marc Stapley, Helix CEO. "Our turnkey population health solutions enable institutions to quickly scale projects that engage communities and accelerate translational research and discovery, ultimately allowing every person to benefit from the power of their genome."

Stapley has been a member of Helix's Board of Directors since the company was founded four years ago, and is a seven-year veteran of Illumina, where he served as Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Financial Officer and from 2017–2018 oversaw the company's population genomics team. Prior to Illumina, he held executive finance positions at Pfizer and other large multinational companies.

"The Helix team, led by Robin Thurston, has succeeded in creating engaging genomics offerings, supported by a world-class CLIA/CAP laboratory and assay," said Jay Flatley, Executive Chairman of Illumina. "I'd like to thank Robin for his leadership of Helix over the last three years, and welcome Marc as the incoming CEO. It is gratifying to see the business enter a new phase where Helix's technology and market knowledge will be leveraged to drive a new era where genomics is part of everyone's personal health record."

Helix's population health solutions have already seen success in partnership with Renown IHI as part of the Healthy Nevada program. "Helix sequenced 40,000 Nevadans for us in record time, and the company's consumer-facing engagement tools are key to helping us expand to 250,000 Nevadans in the fastest-growing population health project in the world," said Anthony Slonim, M.D., DrPH, FACHE, president and CEO of Renown Health and president of Renown Institute for Health Innovation. "The consistency and quality of the Helix data has enabled us to make an immediate health impact in our community through broad-scale clinical screening. We're excited to see Helix expand its population health solutions to other institutions to change lives throughout the nation."

Helix and AdventHealth today announced they will be collaborating to launch an Orlando, Florida population health program initially aiming to sequence 10,000 participants. The "WholeMe" study will provide researchers invaluable information about how Floridians respond to learning more about their genomes, while also showing how genomics can be integrated into healthcare to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases. Every participant will receive results for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) screening, as well as genetic ancestry and wellness traits provided by Helix.

To enable this expansion, Helix and Illumina have entered into an agreement to restructure their relationship. Illumina no longer has an equity stake in Helix or any representatives on Helix's Board of Directors. Helix will continue to utilize Illumina's industry-leading sequencing products under an arms-length commercialization agreement.

About Helix
Helix is a genomics company with a simple but powerful mission: to empower every person to improve their life through DNA. Our affordable, turnkey population health solutions enable institutions to quickly scale projects that engage communities and accelerate research and discovery, ultimately allowing every person to benefit from the power of genomics. We've also created the first marketplace for DNA-powered products where people can explore diverse and uniquely personalized products developed by high-quality partners, providing powerful tools to increase engagement and speed the pace of population-scale genomics. Helix is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, has an office in Denver, Colorado and operates a CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited next-generation sequencing lab in San Diego powered by Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) NGS technology. Learn more at www.helix.com.

Helix, the Helix logo and Exome+ are trademarks of Helix Opco, LLC. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Helix