Roche Launches Antibody Test To Diagnose Prostate Cancer

Roche Holding (SIX:ROG) AG (OTC:RHHBY) announced that it has launched the anti-p504s (SP116) Rabbit Monoclonal Primary Antibody for prostate cancer diagnosis on a world wise basis.

Roche’s share price shows that the company has outperformed the Zacks classified industry year to date. The stock rallied 12.9% compared with the Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry’s gain of 5.9%.

The antibody is designed in a way that it can be used in a dual stain with the VENTANA Basal Cell Cocktail (34ßE12+p63). This enables it to differentiate morphologically difficult cases as benign, a typical or cancerous on a single slide. In fact, elevated expression of p504s has become a useful biomarker in the diagnosis of prostate adenocarcinoma. It helps in reducing the need for multiple slides to make a diagnosis. Also, it aids the clinicians in making a more accurate diagnosis with a smaller tissue sample.

Roche is expanding its presence in the diagnostics market. The division added nine key instruments and tests to its portfolio in 2016. In 2016, revenues at the Diagnostics division climbed 7% on the back of solid performance of the Centralised and Point of Care Solutions (9%) unit.

In addition, the company also launched four new medicines: Cotellic (advanced melanoma), Alecensa (lung cancer), Venclexta (chronic lymphocytic leukemia; jointly commercialised with AbbVie) and Tecentriq (bladder and lung cancer). In addition, five FDA breakthrough therapy designations were granted for Roche medicines in 2016.

We note that the company has a strong presence in the oncology market. It dominates in the breast cancer space with strong demand for HER2 franchise drugs like Herceptin, Perjeta and Kadcyla. We are also impressed by the company's efforts to develop its portfolio immunology. Evidently, new drug launches such as Tecentriq, Cotellic and Alecensa boosted sales and are expected to continue to do so in the upcoming quarters as well.

Recently, Roche presented encouraging results from the phase III study, ALUR, evaluating its lung cancer drug Alecensa. The study met its primary endpoint as Alecensa significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) in patients.In fact, patients suffering from anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive advanced (metastatic) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and had progressed following treatment with one prior line of both platinum-based chemotherapy and Pfizer’s (NYSE:PFE) Xalkori, compared with chemotherapy are likely to benefit from the same.

Notably, Alecensa received conditional marketing authorization from the European Commission for patients suffering from ALK-positive NSCLC, who were treated with Xalkori in Feb 2017. Also, it is approved as a monotherapy for patients suffering from ALK-positive NSCLC, who have shown progress or are intolerant to Xalkori.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Roche currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Other top-raked stocks in the health care sector include Heska Corporation (NASDAQ:HSKA) and Galena Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:GALE) . You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Heska’s earnings estimates moved up from $1.53 to $1.65 for 2017 and from $1.90 to $2.01 for 2018, over the last 60 days. The company posted a positive earnings surprise in all of the last four quarters, with an average beat of 291.54%. Its share price increased 40.7% year to date.

Galena Biopharma‘s loss estimates narrowed from $2.27 to 58 cents for 2017 and from 92 cents to 73 cents for 2018, over the last 60 days. The company posted a positive earnings surprise in two of the four trailing quarters with an average beat of 53.83%.

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