Great Basin Scientific Inc (GBSN)’s Shares Surge After Commercial Launch of Group B Strep Test; Will Hedge Funds Finally Buy In?

The shares of Great Basin Scientific Inc (NASDAQ:GBSN) are trading 14.81% higher from their closing price yesterday as the company announced the commercial launch of its Group B Strep Test. The molecular diagnostic testing company has reported an excellent response from the market and this is the second successful test launch from the company after its clostridium difficile (C. diff) test. The Group B Streptococcus (GBS) test received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April and it will be available for use in U.S. hospitals and laboratories after the launch.

Vista Labs is among one of the earliest adopters of the GBS test and the stand-alone reference lab said, “The ease of use with no prep steps to run this assay—compared to our prior non-molecular method—provided a huge incentive for us to adopt this test.” While discussing the response from the market, the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Great Basin Scientific Inc (NASDAQ:GBSN), Ryan Ashton, said, “Initial response to our GBS test has exceeded our expectations. We believe this speaks to an unmet need in the market that Great Basin addresses by delivering simplified workflow, at appropriate cost, and the sensitivity, specificity and speed of molecular testing that our lab customers demand…”

Earlier in June, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) gave a $5 million grant to Great Basin Scientific Inc (NASDAQ:GBSN) and Brigham Young University for the purposes of developing a test to detect bacteria responsible for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). The grant is a part of President Obama’s National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria mission and it will help the company in developing a diagnostic test that could detect the bacteria within an hour. Under the terms of the grant, the test is being developed to detect the presence of bacteria in a whole blood specimen within an hour of initialization. Robert Jenison, Chief Technology Officer and VP of Research and Development, said, “By avoiding time-consuming sample purification and multiplex limitations of traditional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, we are working towards offering better clinical outcomes for those infected with CRE and other deadly superbugs – especially critical given the rising incidence of CRE outbreaks like those we saw recently in California.”