Genetic benefit management. The concept behind Lofberg's new company, Generation Health, is simple. He wants to do for genetic testing what pharmacy benefit managers did for prescription drugs: make genetic testing more accessible to employers and employees, by negotiating deals with vendors on their behalf. The "GBM" will be doing its part to wring costs from the employer's healthcare burden, by making the targeted therapy that avoids waste and improves outcomes --and is only possible through genetic testing! -- available to covered-workers. Of course the "GBM" makes money on the transactions in the process. We think the idea of applying the PBM business model to the innovation of genetic testing is a good one. If the success of Medco is the guide, then Lofberg has the best chances possible of succeeding with it. (He ran Merck-Medco through the 1990s, growing revenues from $3 billion annually, to $23 billion by 2002.) And this strategy for "democratizing genetic testing" is the better path for consumers, when the alternative is waiting for "retail testers" to slash prices. Generation Health launched last fall with money from Highland Capital Partners, and others. Lofberg cofounded Medco and ran it as Merck-Medco from 1988 to 2002. (It is now known as Medco Health Solutions.)

To Dave Williams on:

"[Success] hinges on our ability to demonstrate with both clinical and economic modeling that the benefits of the tests actually far outweigh the actual cost of the testing."