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What: Shares of NantHealth, Inc. (NH -1.52%) a healthcare information company bent on improving patient outcomes, fell 21.5% in July, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The buzzwords are all in place, but investors are increasingly worried the hype won't materialize into profits.
So what: NantHealth is a central cog in the complex healthcare machine founded and led by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong. In a nutshell, its goal is to tap into vast amounts of data created every day and improve patient outcomes with a more personalized approach to treating a variety of diseases.
NantHealth raised about $91 million in its June IPO, offering just 6.5 million of 120.7 million shares outstanding after the offering. The stock immediately popped to $18 per share, putting its market cap at around $2.17 billion. That's an awfully big price tag for a company that lost about $95.95 million last year despite reporting revenue of $112.92 million.
There wasn't any significant news to drive the stock down last month, but there wasn't anything to suggest it's heading toward profitability either.
Now what: The GPS cancer test is probably the company's most important asset. The comprehensive test offers complete sequencing of patient, and tumor, DNA and RNA. In theory, this gives oncologists everything they need to choose therapies best suited to individual patients' disease.
One of the less reported studies at the American Society of Clinical Oncologists annual meeting this past June was a revelation that 29 of 129 patients responded to therapies approved for use on cancers different from their own. Another meta-analysis of hundreds of early stage trials showed studies enrolling patients with tumors displaying genetic profiles matched to the drug tested resulted in significantly improved tumor shrinkage, compared to studies that didn't take tumor genomes into account.
Clearly, the GPS cancer test has a chance of becoming an oncology game-changer. NantHealth's still outrageous valuation, however, suggests standing on the sidelines until its products, and services begin to gain traction is the best course of action for now.