Why is iSpecimen Inc. (ISPC) stock making headlines today?

Highlights

• iSpecimen Inc. (ISPC) said that it secured a contract to support new research on covid.
  
  
• The stocks were up more than 130% on Monday morning.
  
  
• The company's revenue was up 21% YoY in Q3, FY21.

The stocks of the online marketplace for human biospecimens, iSpecimen Inc. (Nasdaq: ISPC), were trending on Wall Street Monday after the firm said it has been contracted to support new advanced research on Covid-19.

The study is aimed at providing more transmissibility, variants, outcomes, and testing validity among various sections of the population, the company said.

The fans of the stock were upbeat after the firm announced the contract. The stocks traded at US$11.47 at 10:36 am ET, up 133.13% from their previous closing price.

The company has partnered with various research and healthcare firms over the last ten months for projects that required a variety of Covid-19 samples like nasal swabs, blood products, and saliva.

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iSpecimen has started working on Covid-19 after the outbreak in March 2020, when it started to send serum samples to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This input from the firm helped researchers to develop antibodies against the virus or strengthen the immunity of the population.

The company has provided 600 SARS-CoV-2-positive serum samples to CDC, along with 100 negative serum samples, the majority of which were remnants from lab tests. iSpecimen has been contracted by various federal agencies and private firms for Covid-19 sample collection, which is a complex process, which helped ensure the availability of banked samples.

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Founder and CEO Christopher Ianelli said that more than five million lives were already lost due to covid; hence controlling the pandemic will require additional research. He added that the company would help develop solutions to tackle the spread of infectious diseases in the future.

"We embrace the challenge and are gratified that researchers are coming to us for the specific biospecimens they need from the types of patients they're focusing on," said Ianelli.

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Stock performance and financials:

iSpecimen is a technology-driven company based in Lexington, Massachusetts. It has a market cap of US$77.80 million. The ISPC stock saw the highest price of US$10.00 and the lowest price of US$4.75 in the last 52 weeks. Its share volume on November 19 was 5,605.

In the third quarter of fiscal 2021, the company's revenue increased by 21% YoY to US$2.7 million. For the first nine months of 2021, its revenue surged 57% YoY to US$8.6 million. In addition, it reported a net loss of US$1.55 million, or a loss of US$0.22 per share, against a loss of US$1.24 million, or a loss of US$1.33 per share in Q3, FY20.

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Bottomline

Although the ISPC stock fell over 31% YTD, iSpecimen has recorded significant revenue growth in its latest quarter. Nevertheless, the healthcare sector has seen robust investment over the past year, mainly due to the urgency to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The prompt FDA response to new drug authorization or test requests has been a boon for the industry.