$EXAS,...Exact Sciences set for gap up at the open
Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) is up 35% premarket on increased volume. Yesterday after the close the company announced the establishment of Medicare coverage for Cologuard.
The specific coverage is testing once every three years in asymptomatic patients of age 50 - 85 years who are at average risk of developing colorectal cancer.
Cologuard is 92% sensitive and 87% specific. This means that the test will miss 8 true positives out of 100 true positives (false negatives) and will incorrectly flag 13 of 100 true negatives as positives (false positives).
The latter will lead to an increase in unnecessary follow-on costs for physician consultations and procedures (e.g. colonoscopies). A long-term cost/benefit study will be very interesting here.
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