GW Index Rises 3 Percent in December

NEW YORK – Stock prices for firms in the genomic research tools and molecular diagnostics markets were mixed in December with the GW Index managing a modest 3 percent gain to close out 2021.

Of the 35 companies in the GW Index, 22 saw increases in their share price month over month while 13 saw declines. Waters led the gainers with a roughly 14 percent jump while PerkinElmer and Bio-Techne rose around 10 percent each. Burning Rock Biotech and Genetron Health led the decliners with drops of 38 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Twist Bioscience's share price fell 19 percent to round out the bottom three performers in the index.

In comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average grew 5 percent month over month from November while the Nasdaq was up 1 percent. The Nasdaq Biotech Index fell 1 percent.

Waters rebounded after an 11 percent decline in share price in November, but it had no news to explain its stock movement. Bio-Techne likewise had no news to act as a catalyst for its stock, but it did rebound from a 10 percent drop in November.

PerkinElmer had little news during December, though it did announce the launch of its research-use-only NextFlex Variant Seq SARS-CoV-2 Kit v2 to detect variants of the coronavirus. It also was noted among promising gene sequencing stocks to look out for by investment research company Zacks.

Meanwhile, Burning Rock Biotech's stock price has experienced wild swings in recent months — up 10 percent in November, but it was among October's top three decliners with a 21 percent drop in share price. Its key news last month was the announcement that it has finished the second part of its technology transfer from Oncocyte. Burning Rock has licensed Oncocyte's proprietary risk stratification test, DetermaRx, to launch commercially in China.

The company also reaffirmed its 2021 revenue guidance of RMB 500 million (US$78.7 million) at the end of December.

Genetron's shares continued their poor run after falling 34 percent in November. The firm's only news in December was the launch of its "Lung Loves New Life" genetic testing campaign in collaboration with the China Primary Health Care Foundation. The company will provide free genetic testing services with its eight-gene lung cancer test for 10,000 Chinese lung cancer patients to better personalize their treatment.

*BD paid a dividend of $.87 on Dec. 9

**Danaher paid a dividend of $.21 on Dec. 29

***Thermo Fisher Scientific paid a $.26 dividend on Dec. 14