This Explosive Biotech Is Taking On a Huge New Market
Natera (NASDAQ: NTRA) has quietly grown its market cap by more than 875% in the past five years, trouncing the 103% gains of the S&P 500 over that time frame. The $10.25 billion med-tech company, which honed its diagnostics craft on non-invasive blood testing to screen for fetal genetic abnormalities such as Down syndrome, is now starting to gain traction in oncology diagnostics -- the turf of Guardant Health (NASDAQ: GH) and ARK Genomic Revolution ETF holding Adaptive Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: ADPT).
Natera's testing volume in its non-invasive reproductive health segment has grown every year since 2013 -- from approximately 88,000 tests that year to over 1 million in 2020. Volume has even grown through the pandemic, exceeding pre-COVID-19 growth targets. And the company still enjoys significant tailwinds, with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reaffirmed its recommendation for chromosomal defect screening as an option for all women regardless of age or risk factors in August 2020.
This has led to a majority of insurers reimbursing for the test, dubbed Prospera. The market-beating biotech estimates that over 90% of all commercially covered (i.e., non-governmentally-insured) patients are eligible to have Prospera testing covered regardless of age or risk. In the most recent conference call, CEO Steve Chapman estimated Natera is getting close to 30% penetration in the approximately 3.4 million "average-risk" births in the U.S., leaving plenty of room for growth.
Source Fool.com
