Cepheid: Commercial Launch Of Xpert Bladder Cancer Monitor

Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD) , a leading player in the molecular diagnostics space, recently announced the commercial launch of its new test Xpert Bladder Cancer Monitor in Germany along with countries accepting the CE mark. The test – which rules out bladder cancer recurrence – will be launched in Europe in the coming months.

Bladder cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in Europe, affecting over 150,000 people annually. The treatment is highly expensive due to high recurrence possibilities and invasive surveillance strategies, including cystoscopy, that have traditionally been required to manage the condition.

Xpert Bladder Cancer Monitor offers advanced information on recurrence possibilities for bladder cancer patients, using a urine specimen. The assay has an overall 93.9% negative predictive value, potentially reducing the need for frequent invasive tests. The monitor features an overall sensitivity of 75%, sensitivity for high grade tumors, specifically, of 84%, and in general specificity of 80.6%.

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According to the Department of Urology, University of Regensburg, bladder cancer demands the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient out of all cancer types. Xpert Bladder Cancer Monitor gives accurate results noninvasively in just 90 minutes. Management at Cepheid believes that the test will benefit urologists and their bladder cancer patients because it provides same-day clinically actionable results and reduces invasive procedures for recurrence monitoring of the disease.

As per a MarketsandMarkets report, the molecular diagnostics market is estimated to reach a worth of $9,333.8 million by 2020, at a CAGR of 9.3% from 2015 to 2020. We feel that to tap into the potential of this growing market, Cepheid is emphasizing on its molecular diagnostics' system GeneXpert Systems which run proprietary Xpert tests for different diseases. The introduction of Xpert Bladder Cancer Monitor is going to boost the company’s capabilities to develop easier and more accurate molecular systems and tests.

Key Picks

A few notable stocks in the medical product sector are Quidel Corp. (NASDAQ:QDEL) , NuVasive, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUVA) and GW Pharmaceuticals plc (NASDAQ:GWPH) .

Quidel is estimated to record earnings growth of 20%, higher than the industry average of 14.8% over the next five years. It has a four-quarter average earning surprise of 59.39%.

NuVasive has a trailing four-quarter average earning surprise of 18.98%. For the past five years, the stock saw a 16.6% earnings growth compared to the industry average of 5%.

GW Pharmaceuticals has a four-quarter average earning surprise of 41.67%.

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