Natera Inc (NASDAQ: NTRA) stock rose 18.23% on June 25th, 2018 and maintained its bullish momentum on June 26th, 2018 raising over 0.5% after Morgan Stanley published a bullish research note to investors that showed a price target increase on Natera’s stock from $16 to $20. The other brokerage house Canaccord Genuity has increased its price target from $19 to $20 in a report to its clients.
On the other hand, NTRA has announced a powerful new kidney transplant rejection biomarker and study results in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, a recognized leader in transplantation care. The data reflects the superior performance of its massively-multiplexed PCR (mmPCR) technology for detecting acute rejection in kidney transplant patients. Further, NTRA’s dd-cfDNA assay showed 92% sensitivity in detecting acute rejection, and has identified 48 out of 52 affected cases based on a cutoff of 1% dd-cfDNA. This sensitivity compares favorably against competition, which reported only 59% sensitivity in a 2017 study. This performance data suggests the potential of Natera’s assay for use in both rule-in and rule-out applications.
Moreover, there is a significant unmet need for more accurate non-invasive tools to monitor for allograft rejection. Natera’s assay could help physicians detect rejection events earlier, avoid unnecessary biopsies, and safely optimize immunosuppression levels, potentially lowering the overall costs associated with transplant care. With over 190,000 people living with a kidney transplant in the United States and approximately 20,000 new kidney transplant surgeries performed each year, the kidney transplant market opportunity has been estimated at over $2 billion. Similar dd-cfDNA tests are reimbursed at approximately $2,800. Natera expects to launch a CLIA-certified laboratory developed clinical test in 2019.
Meanwhile, NTRA has announced a research collaboration with the Institut Jules Bordet, which is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary cancer reference center in Belgium, using the company’s Signatera research-use-only (RUO) circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assay to evaluate molecular response and minimal residual disease (MRD) in women with early stage breast cancer. Natera will analyze approximately 300 plasma specimens prospectively collected and banked from 80 patients diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer, who all received neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery, and who were then monitored for recurrence with serial imaging. The study will correlate results of the Signatera assay with clinical outcomes, including pathological response and event-free survival. This is the third breast cancer collaboration NTRA has announced in the past 18 months. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States. About 250,000 women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer every year in the United States. While the overall survival rate for breast cancer has improved, recurrence remains an important clinical concern, with 5-year recurrence rates estimated to be as high as 33%