Biocept Inc (NASDAQ:BIOC)
Biocept is having an incredible day in the market today, and for good reason. Early this morning, the company announced that it has entered into a key agreement surrounding liquid biopsy tests.
Today, we'll talk about the details of the agreement, how the market reacted to the news, and what we can expect to see from BIOC moving forward. So, let's get right to it...
BIOC Enters Master Services Agreement
Early this morning, it was announced that Biocept has entered into a key agreement with another biopharmaceutical company. While the name of the other company has not been announced quite yet, investors are excited about the news.
Essentially, the agreement is surrounding the idea of targeting liquid biopsy tests for multiple tumor types as well as molecular targets. Under the agreement, BIOC will allow the use of their proprietary Target Selector platforms in an attempt to develop assays with regards to both circulating tumor cells as well as circulating tumor DNA.
However, that's not the only good news. According to the agreement, if the companies are successful with this first run, BIOC has qualified for an expanded pipeline of projects that come with milestone payments which could get to be more than $500,000.
In a statement, Michael W. Nail, President and CEO at Biocept had the following to offer...
“We are executing on a stated objective for 2016 of increasing the utilization of our tests in clinical trials and this agreement is our second with a major pharmaceutical company this year... We see a significant opportunity for pharma companies to employ our liquid biopsy tests to profile specific biomarkers in their oncology drug development activities. Pharmaceutical master services agreements can take months or years to develop and labs must perform the testing on time, within high-quality control standards. We have already shown our ability to perform and are pleased to enter into this multi-project contract as we further expand into this important aspect of our business.”
How The Market Reacted To The News
As investors, one of the first things we learn when we start working in the market is that the news causes movement.
Any time positive news is released with regard to a publicly traded company, we can expect to see gains in the value of the stock associated with that company as a result. Adversely, when negative news is released, we can expect to see declines.
In this particular case, the news that was released surrounding BIOC was overwhelmingly positive. As a result, we're seeing strong movement in the market today.
Currently (9:32), the stock is trading at $0.84 per share after a gain of $0.14 per share or 20.64% thus far today.
What We Can Expect To See From BIOC Moving Forward
When it comes to Biocept, I've maintained a bullish opinion on the stock for quite some time. After all, I find it to be absolutely amazing that the company has found a way to use simple blood samples to detect cancer tumors in the body. This allows the patient to forego the current standard of care, which is a tissue biopsy. This can be an invasive measure.
However, BIOC creating the liquid biopsy is slowly changing the game. Now, as the company starts working with oncology companies on clinical studies, the sky really is the limit.
All in all, I'm expecting to see gains out of BIOC moving forward.