ImpediMed Limited (ASX: IPD) (OTCPK: IPDQF) has just seen its stock price double, up 100% on the day. The cause is that the recommended treatment guidelines now include the use of the ImpediMed technology. Not that that's quite how the guidelines put it, there's no “Use ImpediMed” in it, but ImpediMed has the only Food and Drug Administration approved method of doing this check which is now recommended.
This is rather different from the normal way around this works of course. Normally there's a specific disease or test that everyone wants to be able to have done and FDA regulation then enables a company to start marketing this now approved treatment or test. Here it's all rather in reverse. The FDA approval exists, the test exists, but now the guidance is that the test should be done. But ImpediMed seems to be the only company with such a test ready, approved and good to go. Thus the 100% or so (it has varied over the day) jump in the ImpediMed stock price.
ImpediMed share price from ASX
It's a fairly certain bet that the OTC price in the US will react in much the same way later in the day. No sign of it yet but it'll be there and maybe we'll be able to be more awake than the market makers at the open (4 am NY time).
In more detail, the company announcement says that the NCCN guidelines now include bioimpedance spectroscopy as a routine diagnostic test of oncology patients at risk of lymphoedema. The NCCN guidelines are an internationally (despite the “national” there) observed set of rules about how to test for and treat varied medical problems. Inclusion is likely to significantly increase uses of the ImpediMed tests. For, as above, ImpediMed are the only people with an FDA test fully ready to go.
The unknown here is of course how far this is going to go. The announcement came around noon Australian time. The American market hasn't had any chance to react as yet. So, will this news drive ImpediMed up further? Or might the consideration be that the reaction is already overdone? At this point it does all depend upon speculative opinions, at least until the market has digested the news properly.
