New Index of Cancer Diagnostic and Therapeutic Stocks

BioMedReports.com, a full news portal offering unbiased bio stock reporting and analysis about emerging biotech companies, today is unveiling their new Index of Cancer Diagnostic and Therapeutic Stocks.

The site includes statistics for the 40 companies in the ETF Innovators Emerging Cancer Diagnostic and Therapeutic Stock Index, which is featured at BioMedReports.com in the health indexes section of the site. The index will track the performance of stocks with market caps below $200M at the inception date of 4/12/09 from a starting value of 2,632.

A World Health Organization report released last year estimates that cancer will overtake heart disease as the top cause of death in the world by 2010, which is part of an overall trend that predicts global cancer cases and deaths will more than double by 2030. In addition to the urgent need for safer and more effective cancer treatments; advances in genetic testing and screening have the potential to diagnosis the disease at much earlier stages and can also be used to monitor and guide the treatment process.

The index constituents reflect a cross-section of emerging cancer companies, including (1) diagnostics (molecular diagnostics and device-based diagnostics), (2) lab services (personalized medicine applications to guide and track the effectiveness of cancer treatments), (3) drug discovery (screening and modifying compounds to achieve anti-cancer effects during the early stages of preclinical and Phase 1 clinical studies), (4) immunotherapy (a.k.a. cancer vaccines which are designed to stimulate the immune system to eradicate cancer), and (5) commercial or late-stage (Phase 2-3) clinical development.

While none of these companies may become the next Celgene (Nasdaq:CELG) (which looks like a buy trading well off its highs around 40 bucks for less speculative investors in the cancer biotech space); if a company discovers a more effective and/or safer treatment or a better diagnostic screening test the commercial potential is enormous due to the growing, global market and medical need for better treatments and diagnostic tests for cancer.


Below are some of the companies in the Diagnosics category which are profiled at BioMedReports.com:



CombiMatrix (Nasdaq:CBMX) develops DNA MicroArrays for lab-based personalized medicine applications. CBMX already has 12 products on the market (including a test to categorize and guide the treatment for prostate cancer, a breast cancer test, and three blood-based cancer tests). However, the biggest potential for CBMX lies in the development of a comprehensive cancer array, which is designed to be a broad-based, blood screening test for the early detection of a wide variety of commonly occurring cancers.

Electro-Optical Sciences (Nasdaq:MELA) reported pivotal Phase 3 results for MelaFind earlier this year which achieved statistically significant results for the pre-specified clinical outcomes agreed upon with the FDA as part of the largest prospective study ever conducted for melanoma screening. MELA expects to file for FDA approval of MelaFind as a new medical device once the final statistical report is prepared and integrated into a PMA filing. The PMA filing will be given a priority, expedited 180-day review and a FDA Advisory Panel meeting is expected to occur around the mid-point of the review cycle.

While EXACT Sciences (Nasdaq:EXAS) has proceeded in a backwards fashion in the development of its stool DNA (sDNA) based non-invasive colorectal cancer (CRC) screening technology; a major cash infusion and deal with Genzyme (GENZ) along with a new management team with a proven track record in clinical diagnostics from Third Wave promise better times ahead for the company.

Third Wave was acquired by Hologic (Nasdaq:HOLX) last year for $582M, and the management team now at EXAS led the development through FDA approval for two human papillomavirus (HPV) molecular diagnostic tests in addition to a test for cystic fibrosis. The new team should bring back investor confidence and perhaps analyst coverage of EXAS once their strategic plan is communicated to correct the backwards development of the Company\'s promising sDNA technology for the average risk population in the detection of CRC.

EXAS managed to gain inclusion in the American Cancer Society guidelines for CRC screening test options before developing a FDA-approved, automated test to fully capitalize on this major commercial opportunity. Thus, LabCorp (LH) currently markets ColoSure on a homebrew basis with little in the way of sales and this is unlikely to change until FDA approval is secured for the Company\'s V3 technology.


A full report and links to the complete index can be found here: http://biomedreports.com/articles/most-popular/803-new-index-of-cancer-diagnostic-and-therapeutic-stocks.html

About BiomedReports.Com

BioMedReports.com is a news portal covering the biomedical news and financial sector. It features its own blog, discussion forum, stock research reports, news feeds, videos, press release capability, stock commentaries, and other unique content - including FDA and Clinical Trial Calendars plus a database that includes about 1,000 stocks and exchange-traded funds from the healthcare sector which are organized into various new healthcare stock indexes.

For more biomedical sector and investment news, go to BiomedReports.Com (www.BiomedReports.com )

Disclosure: No positions.

Certain sections of this report contain forward-looking statements that are based on our reporters\' expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "scheduled," "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which include but are not limited to projections of revenues, earnings, segment performance, cash flows, contract awards, FDA announcements, trial and drug approvals, and company stability. Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors including but not limited to the status or outcome of legal and/or regulatory proceedings.

All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this report or, in the case of any document incorporated by reference, the date of that document. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the company or any person acting on the company\'s behalf are qualified by the cautionary statements in this section. BiomedReports.Com does not undertake any obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or changes in expectations after the date of this report.