Charles Clark, Cygenex Co-Founder and CEO/CTO: “Our commitment to flexibility ensures we don’t just meet expectations but exceed them, fostering long-term partnerships built on trust and results.”

Founded in 2021, Cygenex is a leader in integrating AI with healthcare claims data and genomics to create predictive risk analytics and deliver personalized healthcare. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the company was established following a deeply personal experience—one of its founders faced a life-threatening health challenge tied to a family history of heart disease. Traditional treatments proved ineffective, but a PGx test revealed an inability to metabolize statins properly. This critical insight led to an alternative medication treatment plan, resulting in significant health improvement. The experience highlighted the need for broader adoption of PGx testing and inspired the creation of Cygenex. Despite its potential, PGx testing remains underutilized in healthcare. To address this gap, Cygenex developed “Precision Insights,” an advanced AI-driven platform that leverages proprietary algorithms to identify individuals who could benefit from personalized medication strategies. This innovation empowers healthcare professionals and self-insured employer groups with data-driven personalized recommendations to enhance patient care.

Cygenex’s solutions support key stakeholders, including stop-loss providers, benefit brokers, TPAs, physician practices, genetic counselors, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), enabling them to make informed prescribing decisions that improves patient outcomes while reducing healthcare costs. By partnering with Cygenex, healthcare providers can harness the power of precision medicine, ensuring that treatments are not only prescribed but optimized for each patient’s genetic profile. With a strong commitment to AI and analytics, Cygenex is redefining industry standards in healthcare. The company’s mission is clear: to make PGx and other clinical genetic tests an integral part of medicine, improving patient well-being through smarter, data-driven solutions.

In conversation with Charles Clark, Co-Founder and CEO/CTO of Cygenex

Q. In a competitive healthcare technology market, what specific elements set Cygenex apart?

Cygenex’s AI Health and Genomics platform provides predictive analytics that enables employer groups to make targeted interventions and deliver personalized care to those employees identified as high risk, which are typically employees with chronic disease. Cygenex’s population health cost containment solution enables employer groups to ID, treat and monitor those high-risk employees. In any typical population group, we’ve found that 20% of the high-risk employees typically consume about 80-85% of healthcare spend. As a result, if you want to impact the cost curve for an employer group you need to prioritize and focus on those high-risk employees with clinical solutions to manage their health risks. Our solution directly benefits employer groups, TPAs, and stop-loss insurers, resulting in premium discounts, lower medical costs for the employer group and better clinical outcomes for employees receiving the PGx test. We’ve achieved the quadruple aim, which is considered the gold standard for population health: the employee is happier and receives the right drug at the right time which lowers costs and improves clinical outcomes, the employer sees lower medical spend, the healthcare professional improves their prescribing ability based on the employee’s genetics and the health of the overall population is improved because the highest risk-employees have received a targeted intervention that reduces costs. A key differentiator is our lab-agnostic approach: our advanced back-end technology integrates with any laboratory, ensuring flexibility and scalability for clients’ unique needs. This flexibility allows Cygenex to expand its genetic testing offerings to help physicians make informed decisions. By combining data-driven insights with strategic partnerships, we help insurers and employers reduce unnecessary spend without compromising outcomes. This end-to-end efficiency is why partners like stop-loss providers recognize us as a trusted solution for sustainable cost management.

Q. How does Cygenex balance the integration of AI with human expertise in diagnostics?

Human expertise and AI form the perfect marriage. There is so much knowledge in the universe that it is virtually impossible for anyone physician to harness this knowledge without some AI assistance. At the end of the day, it’s the physician who makes the ultimate decision of care; all Cygenex does is provide them the clinical support and insights to make the right decision without months of trial and error. Hence, “step therapy” could do harm to the patient, as recognized by the thousands who die each year from taking the wrong medications that they don’t metabolize well.

Q. With medical technology evolving rapidly, how does Cygenex stay agile and adaptive?

We use clinical data from the FDA, CDC, NIH, CPIC, PharmGKB, insurance industry data and data from peer reviewed clinical studies to build our AI Predictive Risk platform. Our network of partners is growing monthly; our team research constantly, and more importantly, we listen to those on the front lines of healthcare, feeding knowledge to us. We learn from those who are fighting the good fight of helping improve healthcare outcomes. We welcome all to provide their insights. We hope this article reaches others who are fighting for the future of healthcare, which is why we choose to participate with Silicon Review—to reach those we could not normally reach. There is power in numbers!

Q. How do you ensure your solutions align with healthcare providers’ needs and improve patient outcomes?

At Cygenex, we prioritize active listening and customization. During onboarding, we engage deeply with clients to understand their specific challenges and goals. This collaborative approach allows us to design tailored strategies—whether in cost containment, PGx testing, or PBM integration—that align precisely with their needs. By combining our expertise with their insights, we deliver solutions that are both effective and adaptable. Our commitment to flexibility ensures we don’t just meet expectations but exceed them, fostering long-term partnerships built on trust and results.

Q. Looking ahead to 2025, what emerging trends in medical diagnostics and AI do you see as most transformative?

At Cygenex, we recognize that AI in medicine isn’t one-size-fits-all. While the technology is advancing rapidly, we’ve deliberately designed a flexible AI architecture that embraces this diversity. Our system adapts to varying clinical scenarios, patient populations, and treatment protocols—because what works for a large hospital system may not suit a specialty pharmacy or employer group, and vice versa. This modular approach allows us to customize our AI predictive risk platform based on the specific pain points of the specific employer group. Every employer group has to build a healthcare strategy around those pain points. Some of our customers have asked us to focus our risk-stratification on high-cost drugs, others have had Humira or GLP-1 issues, some have mentioned that they have a large percentage of their employees with cardiovascular or mental health issues. We can build and adjust the AI predictive risk stratification to the needs of any specific employer groups that enables them to target their healthcare risks more effectively. By avoiding rigid algorithms in favor of adaptable intelligence, we ensure our solutions remain clinically relevant and operationally effective for each unique client. After all, in healthcare, the best technology should conform to customers’ needs not the other way around.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

We’re at an extraordinary inflection point. Our team is pioneering next generation AI systems designed to unlock the transformative potential of whole genome sequencing partnered with wearables—we’re not just analyzing data; we’re decoding biological secrets that could redefine healthcare paradigms. This goes far beyond current applications like PGx testing; we’re building frameworks to discover novel biomarkers, predict disease trajectories, and personalize interventions at unprecedented scales. Of course, revolution doesn’t happen overnight. Realizing this vision requires sustained investment, multidisciplinary collaboration, and partners who share our conviction that genomics and AI can bend the healthcare cost curve while improving outcomes. We’re actively engaging with forward-thinking insurers, researchers, and employers who understand that the future belongs to those willing to build it today. The roadmap is clear, the technology is advancing—now we need the collective will to make it happen.

Meet the leader behind the success of Cygenex

Charles Clark is the Co-founder and CEO/CTO of Cygenex, leading the charge in revolutionizing healthcare technology through Pharmacogenomics and AI. With over 20 years of experience at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Motorola, Tyco International, Johnson Controls, and SPH Analytics, Charles has played a pivotal role in help shaping modern technology. He has contributed to breakthroughs in PCB Software Simulation, wireless communication, Public-Safety Answering points (911), mobile phone location tracking, RFID Inventory Management for retail, and healthcare analytics. His expertise in computer science, technical project management, and innovation has fueled his passion for transforming industries. Now, at Cygenex, Charles is leveraging his extensive background to drive cutting-edge advancements in personalized medicine. Committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, he believes that failure is never an option—only an opportunity to innovate. His leadership continues to bridge the gap between technology and healthcare, ensuring that the next wave of medical advancements is powered by precision and intelligence.

“At Cygenex, we recognize that AI in medicine isn’t one-size-fits-all. While the technology is advancing rapidly, we’ve deliberately designed a flexible AI architecture that embraces this diversity.”