The Lumos Diagnostics Holdings Ltd (ASX: LDX) share price is jumping 9% into the green today, tipping 95 cents a share before settling back to around 91 cents apiece.
Lumos shares are on the move after the company announced positive readouts from a study concerning its FebriDx diagnostic test.
Here's what we know.
What did Lumos Diagnostics announce today?
The Australian producer of point-of-care diagnostic technologies revealed that its FebriDx diagnostic test was advocated in a prestigious health journal.
The FebriDx is a revolutionary blood test that helps distinguish between viral and bacterial sources of infection. This ultimately helps improve decision making when prescribing antibiotics.
The Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research (JHEOR) published a study that concluded using FebriDx "to guide antibiotic treatment for patients presenting with acute respiratory infections (ARIs)" could potentially lead to an annual saving of up to $2.5 billion for the US healthcare system.
Considering the US spent more than US$11,500 per person on healthcare in 2019, according to the US Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), this comes in at a saving of $7.60 per person, or 0.07%.
The authors of the article, Avalon Health Economics, compared 2 scenarios that looked at antibiotic prescription and adverse reactions.
One scenario involved the inclusion of FebriDx compared to a "control" scenario without FebriDx's diagnostic tool.
This is what led researchers to believe an annual $2.5 billion in costs savings could be achieved.
Curiously, estimates suggest "around half of the antibiotics prescribed for ARI's in outpatient settings are medically unnecessary", according to the company's announcement.
Plus, costs associated with these reactions are estimated to be between US$1,156/visit and US$14,678/event for ED visits and hospitalisations respectively.
Lumos intends to make a dent in these numbers with its FebriDx test and, now with additional literature supporting its case, it is one step closer to making it happen.
Lumos Diagnostics share price snapshot
The Lumos Diagnostics share price is swimming in a sea of red and has been since listing back in July. It's given shareholders a loss of 24% since this time, extending its slide in the past week 1.5%
These results have lagged the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) over this time.
