Shares of Australian medical diagnostics company Genetics Technologies Limited (NASDAQ:GENE) are starting the week strong following news that the company has a battery of new tests coming down the pipeline, including new risk assessment tests for breast and colorectal cancer.
Genetics Tech said Monday morning that it expects to have both of these new diagnostic test available this October.
As with many other diseases and conditions, successfully treating these diseases is underpinned by early detection. According to breastcancer.org, an estimated 266,120 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S. this year, along with 63,960 new cases of in situ breast cancer.
Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer in America. The National Cancer Institute estimates that 140,250 new cases will be diagnosed in 2018 and 50,630 people will die from the disease.
Today, testing for the tumor suppressor genes BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 is common to determine a person's chances of developing breast cancer.
However, this testing accounts for only 5-10% of breast cancers. GENE chief executive Dr. Paul Kasian says that adding his company's new breast cancer test will greatly expand diagnostics capacity to account for nearly 100% of breast cancers.
Elsewhere, Genetics Technologies' management foresees completion of development and commercial launch of several other tests over the next year, including those for prostate cancer, melanoma, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Cumulatively, these diseases claim the lives of 27.5 million lives annually.
Investors are cheering the upcoming release of the tests, sending shares of GENE near a 52-week high in Monday morning trading.
The stock closed Friday at $1.09 and skyrocketed as high as $2.04 today, coming up a penny short of the current one-year high, before falling back some to $1.77 for a gain of 62% so far as the noon hour approaches in New York.
