[b]$OPK Wow this is Huge!!![/b]
[b][color=blue]Opko's next-generation prostate cancer test should reduce unnecessary biopsies by 50%[/color][/b]
Opko just launched its new prostate cancer diagnostic test (called the 4KScore) in Europe and should begin selling in the United States later this year. This test is being launched in the U.S. as a Laboratory Developed Test ("LDT") under FDA guidelines, and no additional FDA approvals are necessary. Once investors realize that Opko will be generating a new revenue stream in a multibillion-dollar market, we could see major share price appreciation.
Urologists are in a tough position right now because if a patient has a slightly high PSA score (a test for prostate cancer), the urologist is more or less obliged to recommend a biopsy. Prostate biopsies are painful, expensive, and have recently become associated with a fourfold increase in serious infections. The biopsies themselves are costing insurance companies about $2000 per procedure, and if complications develop, and the patient is hospitalized, the costs become staggering.
But the story gets even worse. Approximately 75% of these biopsies are negative, therefore unnecessary. The PSA test alone is just not accurate enough to consistently predict prostate cancer. Urologists need a better diagnostic tool which Opko is now providing.
Opko's new diagnostic test gives urologists what they have been looking for, a more accurate tool for predicting prostate cancer. Here's how it works: if a patient has a high PSA score, the doctor will recommend Opko's new test rather than automatically ordering a biopsy. This test consists of four blood-based biomarkers that give the doctor what Opko calls a 4KScore.
If a patient then has a high 4KScore, the doctor will go ahead and order the biopsy. But if the patient has a low 4KScore, no biopsy will be necessary because there is a 99.4% chance that the patient does not have a dangerous form of prostate cancer. The patient will simply be put on an active surveillance program with regular checkups. In this way, doctors should be able to eliminate at least 50% of the unnecessary biopsies, thus saving insurance companies and patients billions of dollars.
