Health Discovery Corp (HDVY)

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From what I remember, the first shot at our lab-developed-test for prostate cancer was with Clarient/GE. We went through a successful clinical trials process, but Clarient did not have the money to hire a separate sales force to call on urologists. Clarient was an anatomical pathology lab (tissue testing), and their current team was trained to sell to pathologists. Our collective disappointment was short-lived because we (at least) had some good clinical trial data.

Next up was Quest Diagnostics and Abbott. HDC & Quest Dx completed the clinical trial as laid out in their licensing agreement. HDC’s 4-gene urine PSA showed a significant improvement on the current (not very sensitive/accurate) PSA. Shareholders started doing the math; 25 mil PSAs ordered in the US = 2.5-5 billion in yearly revenue. In tandem, Abbott was developing the test kits - Quest the actual testing. I remember Quest Dx wanted more phase 3 data, which meant enrolling more patients.

For some reason, HDC did not want to do that and took their ball and went home to NeoGenomics – whom we had a licensing agreement and ended up suing them. This was not for the PSA though, but cancer diagnostics for tissue (which HDC developed years prior).

So again, we had some great “at-bats,” and companies benefited from these licensing agreements. Just not the shareholders. Which is why our present situation seems like the undertow of cosmic justice, kismet or karma.