NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Shares of Vermillion fell roughly 34 percent during June, pulling back from sharp gains over the previous month, and leading decliners in the GenomeWeb Daily News Index for the month.
The firm was one of three firms in the Index to see their shares fall more than 25 percent, as GenMark Diagnostics declined nearly 31 percent and Nanosphere was down 27 percent month over month.
Vermillion's stock dropped after climbing around 200 percent in the month of May and around 13 percent the previous month. Likewise, Nanosphere's shares pulled back after a 51 percent rise in May.
GenMark's decline was driven by a partnership signed between Luminex, a competitor to the firm, and Natural Molecular Testing, one of GenMark's largest customers. The deal spooked investors who were concerned that NMT was replacing its existing GenMark instruments with Luminex's platform. GenMark subsequently said that it appears that the deal is independent of its own contract with NMT, and NMT is not looking to switch platforms. However, the firm lowered its annual revenues guidance a few days later to $30 million from a previous expectation of $35 million.
Among the winners for June were Exact Sciences, up 24 percent, and Affyemtrix, which jumped 19 percent.
Exact's shares climbed early in the month after Mizuho Securities upped its target price for the colorectal cancer molecular diagnostic firm to $18 from $13. A few days later, the firm announced that it had submitted the third and final module of its premarket approval application to the US Food and Drug Administration for its Cologuard colorectal cancer screening test. Exact also completed a $73.4 million stock offering late in the month.
Overall, the GWDN Index was down 1.4 percent for the month, matching a decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Nasdaq was down 1.5 percent for June, while the Nasdaq Biotech Index slumped 3.1 percent for the month.
Ed. note: NanoString Technologies will join the GWDN Index this month following its initial public offering last week.
