The share price of Rosetta Genomics Ltd. (Nasdaq:ROSG), a developer of microRNA-based molecular diagnostic tests, has almost quadrupled, after the company announced that its Medicare Administrative Contractor, Novitas, had notified it that it will cover all Medicare beneficiaries for the company's miRview mets2 assay, which accurately identifies the primary tumor of origin in primary and metastatic cancer, including cancer of unknown or uncertain primary.
Rosetta Genomics president and CEO Kenneth Berlin said, "This is a major commercial achievement for Rosetta Genomics as Medicare coverage is a critical step toward widespread commercial adoption and payment for our lead diagnostic assay, miRview mets2, and enables access to this clinically valuable test to Medicare patients. This decision is important not only because Medicare is the largest US payor, covering a large percentage of the patients for whom test has been ordered historically and would be expected to be ordered in the future, but also because private payors often look to Medicare's decisions when setting their own reimbursement policies." He added, "We are particularly pleased with how rapidly we obtained Medicare coverage, as we launched our direct selling effort in the US just one year ago".
The share price of Rosetta Genomics, which was considered a failure among Israeli life sciences companies on Wall Street, has been especially volatile. The share price fell to $0.18 in early January, after being at $0.27 for three weeks. Ten days later, the share price jumped to $0.55 in one session.
Rosetta Genomics' share price jumped 282% in early trading today to $6.20, giving a market cap of $12 million. Trading volume was over 3 million shares, more than 8,000% of its average daily trading volume in the past three months.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 16, 2012
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