Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

EXAS—Low sensitivity can be conquered by repeating the test frequently, which is not a major imposition given that the test is non-invasive. I.e., the cumulative sensitivity of a series of tests over a multi-year period can be made to be acceptably high.

However, as a practical matter, you cannot market a screening test that produces dozens of false positives for each true positive, which is what happens when the specificity of the test is low and the rate of disease in the underlying population is also low.

I’m on my way out, but I’ll provide some arithmetic later.