360Dx Top 30 Inches up 1 Percent in September

Note: DermTech has been removed from the Top 30 after selling substantially all of its assets and becoming a private company. Quanterix has been added in its place.

NEW YORK – The 360Dx Top 30 inched up another 1 percent in September after a month-over-month 2 percent jump in August.

The Top 30 matched or bettered the broader market as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2 percent and the Nasdaq increased 3 percent. In contrast, the Nasdaq Biotech Index declined 2 percent month over month.

The Top 30's largest gainers were GeneDx (+33 percent), Exact Sciences (+10 percent), and Adaptive Biotechnologies (+9 percent). The main decliners were MDxHealth (-29 percent), Opko Health (-11 percent), and NeoGenomics (-11 percent).

GeneDx did not have any key pieces of news to explain its rising stock price last month.

In contrast, Exact Sciences last month saw its share price rise after the announcement of promising data for its blood-based colorectal cancer screening test at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress. The test had sensitivity of 88 percent for colorectal cancer and 31 percent for advanced adenomas with a specificity of 90 percent. The study included more than 3,000 blood samples and was an optimization of its final test algorithm, the company said. However, the firm noted that the final data readout will likely have lower sensitivity.

Adaptive Biotechnologies' stock price was likely boosted last month after its ClonoSeq test received an increase to its reimbursement rate from the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule. The preliminary price per test expected in May was about $1,800, which was raised to $2,007, according to TD Cowen analyst Dan Brennan, who noted that Adaptive will likely see a "strong incremental pricing tailwind in 2025." The current price per test on the CLFS is $1,717.

Among the decliners, MDxHealth's only news in September was the pricing of a registered public offering of $40.0 million of the firm's ordinary shares. The Belgian company is selling 20 million ordinary shares at a price of $2 per share and a strategic partner is purchasing 1,500,000 ordinary shares in the offering directly from the company rather than through the underwriters.

Opko Health also had little news last month but said in late September that its sale of select assets from its BioReference Health business had been completed. The sale to Laboratory Corporation of American included BioReference’s laboratory testing businesses focused on clinical diagnostics and reproductive and women's health in the United States outside of New York and New Jersey.

NeoGenomics, meantime, was impacted last month by its patent infringement lawsuit with Natera. Late last month, the District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina issued a permanent injunction against NeoGenomics Labs' RaDaR assay in the US, enjoining the company from making, using, selling, or offering the RaDaR test for sale. Exceptions to the injunction include research and development projects, clinical trials begun before Jan. 10 of this year, and instances where patients were using the test before that date.

The companies also settled the lawsuit and NeoGenomics said it is developing an updated version of its minimal residual disease assay. The firm's CEO noted that the injunction only covers the first version of the RaDaR assay, which the company has since updated.

BTIG analyst Mark Massaro wrote in a note to investors that it is "too early to know" if NeoGenomics will be "'in the clear' on future versions of its MRD test."

*Becton Dickinson paid a dividend of $.95 per share on Sept. 9.

**Danaher paid a dividend of $.27 per share on Sept. 27.

***Thermo Fisher Scientific paid a dividend of $.39 per share on Sept. 13.