Biological Detection Firms Show Stock Gains

Shares of companies involved in detecting infectious biological agents rose further Monday amid growing U.S. fears of bioterrorism.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Cepheid Inc., a company that develops genetic profiling and detection systems for contaminants and biological agents, saw its stock rise 28 cents to $8.06, although the shares traded as high as $9.15 earlier in the day.

The shares have gained 83% in the last week.

Shares of Nanogen Inc. rose 51 cents on Monday to $9.12 in Nasdaq trading.

Nanogen, which develops miniaturized devices for isolating and detecting biological warfare and infectious disease agents from human blood samples, announced last week that it received a $1.5-million grant from the Army to continue development of its biological warfare detection system.

Analysts have said Cepheid, although still unprofitable, has a competitive advantage because of the relatively low cost of its systems.

Cepheid expects to release a prototype of its newest technology, the Gene Expert system, to the U.S. government in the fourth quarter. The system extracts and examines DNA samples from several sources, including blood, spores and bacteria.