Biocept Inc Shares Skyrocket on Surprise Patent Victory
So what to make of Biocept Inc's (NASDAQ:BIOC) latest success? On Tuesday, the tiny-size drug maker stunned Wall Street with the issuance of key US patent covering the company's proprietary "switch-blocker" technology. Biocept shares are skyrocketing nearly 65% on the news.
The technology enriches patient specimens for oncogene mutations of interest, resulting in ultra-high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of cancer-associated mutations. The switch blocker technology is designed to improve detection rates for these oncogenes, allowing physicians to make informed decisions for the selection of therapy and monitoring of treatment response over time for patients with cancer.
Biocept CSO Lyle Arnold commented, "The issuance of this patent signals what we believe is the first in a series of worldwide patents protecting our proprietary, highly sensitive ctDNA platform technology [...] When combined with our patents and technology related to CTC capture and analysis as well as our blood transport tubes, Biocept has significant coverage protecting all three of its core liquid biopsy technology platforms."
Biocept CEO Michael Nall added, "Biocept remains differentiated in the liquid biopsy field by using both ctDNA and CTC analysis on patient samples to detect and monitor actionable cancer biomarkers that are listed in the NCCN guidelines. Both of our platform technologies offer specialized enrichment methods that can aid physicians in making more informed decisions in the treatment of their patients with cancer. Obtaining this new intellectual property provides additional patent protection for the unique and novel features of our Target Selector™ dual platform approach.
On the ratings front, Biocept stock has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. In a report issued on October 4, Westpark Capital analyst Lauren Chung assigned a Buy rating on BIOC. Similarly, Roth Capital's Chris Lewis maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $1.80.
According to TipRanks.com, which ranks over 7,500 financial analysts and bloggers to gauge the performance of their past recommendations, Lauren Chung and Chris Lewis have a yearly average loss of 43.7% and a return of 13% respectively. Chung has a success rate of 0% and is ranked #4637 out of 4727 analysts, while Lewis has a success rate of 56% and is ranked #337.
Biocept is an oncology laboratory service company, which focuses on the development and marketing of novel laboratory products in the detection of rare cells to include circulating tumor cells. It develops and commercializes proprietary circulating tumor cell and circulating tumor DNA tests utilizing a standard blood sample. The company utilizes cell enrichment and extraction technology for the detection and analysis of circulating tumor DNA tests. It also offers services to other laboratory testing providers, academic institutions, research organizations, biopharmaceutical companies and clinical trial support.
