Dallas, Texas 10/07/2013 (Financialstrend) – Market value of drug development company stock Venaxis Inc (NASDAQ:APPY) has swung like pendulum over the past 30 days. During 15 days period of September 5 to September 15 the shares appreciated by close to 27%. Since then the stock has seen an appreciable drop of 9.7% in value. On October 4 the share price had settled at $1.95 per share which was up 2.63% from its previous day close. This sudden drop in investor confidence happened paradoxically on the back of a fairly positive announcement from Venaxis. The drug developer announced that its “appendicitis screening test” procedure code named CE Marked APPY 1 test has received an in principal go ahead from company appointed “independent board made of external professionals”. APPY had put in place a Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) to review findings from its first clinical trials of the “CE Marked APPY 1 test”. The continuation of this test is predicated by positive results coming out of its second and final “futility analysis” which is part of the pre decided clinic trail process.
The results were based on independently reviewed tests conducted on 1,061 patients. These tests were a follow up on previous futility analysis conducted on 579 patients. The second and last futility testing would involve testing close to 2,000 patients. As of date, close to 1,300 have been registered for these tests and Venaxis hopes to commence the final round of testing by end of the year.
Steve Lundy, President and CEO of Venaxis is quoted to have said “Further encouraged by the DSMB’s final recommendation to complete the trial as designed, we continue to anticipate enrolment completion by the end of 2013”. The company has given guidance that if results from the test continue to be positive, then it will file for “FDA clearance in the first quarter 2014.”