Shares of Sequenom surge amid news of early blood test for DS
June 4th, 2008
Company says new test detects Down syndrome correctly without mistakes, using sample of mother’s blood; Rollout seen for next year.
Bloomberg News (updated), Associated Press report in Forbes, CNN, Business Week, Sequenom press release:
Shares of Sequenom Inc. surged Wednesday after the company said its method for detecting Down syndrome before birth worked without giving false-positive results. The company will continue to develop the test and plans to sell it in the U.S. in the first half of next year.
The result “blows expectations away,” Elemer Piros, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw Inc. in New York, wrote in a note today. “Sequenom’s platform could usher in an entirely new paradigm in which a single test could replace the current range of surrogate marker methods that must be employed to obtain reliable results.
Sequenom rose $1.67, or 22 percent, to $9.33 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
Oppenheimer and Co. analyst Kevin DeGeeter said that if the results are repeated in a larger study planned for later this year, the Sequenom test could become the front-line test in a market valued at between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.
Tests on the market today have Down-syndrome detection rates of 70 percent to 90 percent with about a 5 percent false-positive rate, Sequenom said.
The company estimates that about 2.8 million women undergo screening for Down syndrome in the U.S. each year. The test is designed to be used as early as the first trimester of pregnancy.
A webcast of the company’s investor briefing is available on its website here.
Earlier posts:
- Sequenom pledges early test for Down syndrome; shares up
- Firms vie for first-trimester blood test for Down syndrome
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on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 10:48 am and is filed under Down syndrome, NOT2BEMISSED, abortion, business, genetics, prenatal diagnosis.
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June 5th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I see the headlines about 60 years from now: “The Last Known Person with Down Syndrome Died Today.”
The doctors are not equipped to deliver the diagnosis. Recently one of the other screening tests revealed a baby girl with Down syndrome at 16 weeks gestation. When a friend introduced me to her (the mother) I told her that she had 6 weeks to do her research, learn as much as she could about Down syndrome and to take her time.
Her trusted doctor told her, “Don’t take more than 2 weeks to make a decision because the abortion will be easier on your body and you will choose abortion. Over 90% of the mothers who have the same outcome don’t deliver their babies.” And she choose to abort her baby.
The information has to get to the parents. Now!
The socially responsible thing for Sequenom to do would be to disseminate the prenatal packets of the NDSS/NDSC and local organizations.
Sandra McElwee
June 4th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Let us not forget the important thing. Sequenom rose $1.67. Imperfection, and I use the term with leaden sarcasm, is obviously a big motivator for business. But we must remember the important thing. Sequenom rose $1.67.
I share your revulsion, Nancy, and I see a hideous vista for a higher percentage of ’successful’ outcomes. But what about the important thing? Sequenom rose $1.67. Soon the Brave New World be complete. Sequenom rose $1.67.
A small and hurting part of me sees an afterlife where the unthinking developers of this ‘miraculous’ test will be judged by the wonderful, wonderful people who were never given a chance to hug their executioners. Forgive my bitterness tonight.
June 4th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I feel a little sick to my stomach. Of course it’s not the testing itself — I had a very valuable prenatal diagnosis. It’s the fallout, of course. Especially knowing first-hand the way in which a diagnosis is delivered, I believe a non-invasive definitive blood test will result in greater numbers diagnosed prenatally, increasing the number of those terminated. And having it earlier I believe will increase the rate (currently 90%) of terminations, meaning more numbers as well. SIGH.
And then there’s the profit to be made — it’s kind of disturbing to see a capitalistic feeding frenzy thinking of the context above. It just breaks my heart.