Bard1 caps off 600pc+ in 6 weeks proving it can detect another type of cancer

Bard1 Life Sciences (ASX:BD1) has surged again with news its technology can detect another cancer.

In the past few weeks shares have grown with news its cancer detection tech is effective in diagnosing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Both of those tests utilised Bard1’s blood probe, SubB2M.

But this test was against pancreatic cancer and using a different technology in EXO-NET which utilises a patient’s exosomes – capturing and isolating them from liquid biopsy samples.

Exosomes are cellular vesicles in the human body which essentially shuttle proteins and genetic information between cells.

A study with private Australian biotech Minomic found that EXO-NET could isolate exosomes from both pancreatic cancer and healthy control samples and tell the difference between the two.

The relevant biomarker (another word for an indicator) utilised is a protein called glypican-1 (GPC-1) which is typically present on exosomes from pancreatic cancer patients.

CEO Leearne Hinch said the result was very encouraging and demonstrated future commercial potential.

“BARD1 and Minomic are extremely pleased by this outcome and will discuss how to advance the project towards development of an exosome-based GPC-1 test for early detection of pancreatic cancer to improve patient outcomes and survival for this important unmet need,” Dr Hinch said.

Exosomes a developing field

Bard1 is not the only stock to have had success with exosomes.

Another is Exopharm (ASX:EX1) which is working on a technology called LEAP (Ligand-based Exosome Affinity Purification). It’s a process that purifies exosomes – something that must be done before introduction into the human body.

It has grown 300 per cent in the last year both from individual company promise but also broad developments in the exosome field.

Most intriguingly, Israeli biotech Ichilov saw success last month in using exosomes to cure some COVID-19 patients – an outcome Exopharm claimed saw a rise in its share price in February when queried by the ASX.

Bard1 shares grew by as much as 15 per cent this morning – a figure which pales in comparison to its 600 per cent rise since the start of February.