Decipher Biosciences Announces Addition of Dr. Robert S. Epstein as Chairman and Kathy Hibbs, Esq. to its Board of Directors

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Decipher Biosciences, a commercial-stage precision oncology company committed to improving patient care, initially focused on urologic cancers, today announced the appointments of Robert S. Epstein, M.D., and Kathy Hibbs, Esq. to its Board of Directors. Dr. Epstein was also elected Chairman of the Board.

Dr. Epstein is an epidemiologist with extensive expertise in pharmacoeconomics and health outcomes research, having served in academia and public health prior to joining the private sector. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder of Epstein Health LLC and has provided strategic consultancy services to life sciences companies since June 2013. From 2010 to 2012, Dr. Epstein was President of Medco-UBC, a 2,400 person global organization conducting personalized medicine, health economics, drug safety, outcomes, and comparative effectiveness research for diagnostic, medical device and biopharmaceutical firms. From 1997 to 2010, he served as Medco's Chief Medical Officer where he led formulary and clinical guideline development, drug information services, personalized medicine program development, and client analytics and reporting. Dr. Epstein is the former President of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), and served on the boards of directors of the Drug Information Association (DIA) and the International Society of Quality of Life. He has also served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice & Prevention Stakeholder Committee and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics Committee. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed medical papers and book chapters, and serves as a reviewer for multiple medical journals.  Dr. Epstein serves on the Board of Directors of Illumina, Inc., Fate Therapeutics, Inc., and Veracyte, Inc. as well as Proteus Digital Health, Inc., a privately held digital healthcare technology company. Dr. Epstein received his B.S. in Biomedical Science and his M.D. from the University of Michigan.  In addition, he received his M.S. and specialty training and certification in Preventive Medicine from the University of Maryland.

Kathy Hibbs, Esq. is a legal and regulatory executive with more than 20 years of industry expertise in the fields of genomics and oncology.  Since April 2014, she has served as Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer for 23andMe, Inc., where she leads the company's FDA strategy and has pioneered clearances for its consumer health test. Prior to joining 23andMe, Ms. Hibbs served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Genomic Health, Inc., where she was responsible for the legal, regulatory and business development functions for the company. Ms. Hibbs previously held related positions at Monogram Biosciences Inc. and Varian Medical Systems, Inc. Ms. Hibbs has also served as a member of the Fast Company Impact Council since April 2019 and as a member of the board of directors of Cadex Genomics, Corp., a company focused on molecular diagnostics tests to guide cancer treatment, since October 2019. She is active in multiple industry groups including the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), the Coalition for Genetic Data Protection and the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC). Ms. Hibbs received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside and her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

"We are delighted to welcome Dr. Epstein and Ms. Hibbs to the Decipher Biosciences Board," said Tina S. Nova, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. "Dr. Epstein's extensive experience in developing new economic models to assess health outcomes and clinical utility for novel technologies such as ours will be instrumental in advancing the Decipher genomic platform to help guide treatment decisions in urologic cancers. And as we approach new horizons in the application of genomics to medical practice, Ms. Hibbs' expertise and experience will be crucial in navigating the continuously evolving regulatory and compliance landscape."

About Decipher Biosciences

Decipher Biosciences is a commercial-stage precision oncology company committed to improving patient care, initially focused on urologic cancers. Our novel prostate cancer genomic testing products, Decipher Prostate Biopsy and Decipher Prostate RP, provide valuable information about the underlying biology of a patient's tumor, assisting physicians in their selection of an optimal therapy. Our differentiated approach measures the biological activity of a patient's entire tumor genome, known as whole transcriptome analysis, and applies proprietary machine learning algorithms to help physicians improve therapy selection and accelerate adoption of new therapies into the standard of care. Decipher Biosciences is headquartered in San Diego, California. 

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SOURCE Decipher Biosciences