Shares in Oxford Biodynamics [LSE:OBD] have jumped 300% and are trading at around the 40p level at time of writing. Shares roared upwards on news that the company has received validation of its EpiSwitch Prostate Screening (PSE) test in its US clinical laboratory. This is now complete, and also ahead of schedule.
The current blood screening test, the PSA test, is only 55% accurate, and is considered an unreliable test by many doctors, including the NHS in the UK. If results show an elevated PSA level, then patients face a dilemma – retest with PSA even with its low accuracy, or go for more invasive screening methods such as a prostate biopsy which has the potential for other health risks. Now there is an alternative.
It is big news for Oxford Biodynamics and its shareholders and also testament to the quality of research that is still inherent in the UK biotech sector, making it one of the leading areas in the world for medical research.
With Oxford Biodynamics stock now over 40p, it comes as no surprise to see shareholder Vulpes Life Sciences selling 115,000 shares at around 45p. The fund, along with the Vulpes Testudo Fund, still holds 14% of Oxford Biodynamics’ current issued share capital.
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Proprietary biomarker platform
Oxford Biodynamics’ product portfolio is based on a proprietary 3D genomic biomarker platform, EpiSwitch, which can build molecular diagnostic classifiers for the prediction of response to therapy, patient prognosis, disease diagnosis and subtyping, and residual disease monitoring in a wide range of indications.
“PSE is a diagnostic prostate cancer test with unprecedented accuracy.” said Mathias Winkler, a consultant urologist and surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital and Imperial College London. “Nine of 10 cancers are found compared to 3 of 10 with PSA alone. Likewise, false-positive results are reduced avoiding unnecessary anxiety and expense. This is clearly highly desirable for men who are health-conscious or at risk of prostate cancer. We are delighted to be part of the team evaluating and refining the test for use in particular risk groups and prospectively validating in a larger patient cohort compared to current standard of care.”
The PSE test will be immediately available to men in the UK using the US testing facility to process results initially. Oxford Biodyamics is in the process of obtaining ISO15189 certification for a clinical lab within its Oxford laboratory. Once certified, expected early in 2024, precision medicine tests, like EpiSwitch PSE, will be run there – shortening the overall turnaround time for results.
Oxford Biodynamics’ flagship products
Oxford Biodynamics’ flagship products are the EpiSwitch CiRT (Checkpoint Inhibitor Response Test) and EpiSwitch PSE (EpiSwitch Prostate Screening test) blood tests.CiRT is a predictive immune response profile for immuno-oncology checkpoint inhibitor treatments, launched in February 2022.
PSE is a blood test that boosts the predictive accuracy of a PSA test from 55% to 94% when testing the presence or absence of prostate cancer.
In March 2021, Oxford Biodynamics launched its first commercial prognostic test, EpiSwitch CST (Covid Severity Test) and the first commercially available microarray kit for high-resolution 3D genome profiling and biomarker discovery, the EpiSwitch Explorer Array Kit, which is available for purchase by the life science research community.
Oxford Biodynamics has participated in more than 40 partnerships with big pharma and leading institutions including Pfizer, EMD Serono, Genentech, Roche, Biogen, Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma.
The company has created a now very valuable technology portfolio, including biomarker arrays, molecular diagnostic tests, bioinformatic tools for 3D genomics and an expertly curated 3D genome knowledgebase comprising hundreds of millions of data points from over 15,000 samples in more than 30 human diseases.