OVAS Delivers As Promised...

(RTTNews) - Shares of OvaScience Inc. (OVAS) have had a strong run in 2014, rising over 370 percent year-to-date. And that's indeed a very impressive return delivered by the fertility treatment company, which suffered a setback last year when it had to suspend a U.S. trial of its flagship fertility treatment due to regulatory concerns raised by the FDA.

OvaScience is focused on developing new treatments that would help boost egg quality to improve the success rate of IVF (In vitro fertilization) when women undergo the treatment. IVF, which is a more advanced fertility treatment, belongs to a category known as assisted reproductive technology, or ART.

It was in 1978, in Bristol, England, that the first baby was born through IVF. Since then, more than five million babies have now been born worldwide with the help of this fertility treatment, according to reports. In the U.S., the first IVF baby was born in 1981.

OvaScience's fertility treatments are based on the breakthrough discovery of egg precursor cells, "EggPCs", found in the outer layer of a woman's own ovaries. The EggPCs, which have the potential to mature into eggs, are a source of fresh cellular components, such as mitochondria, that could potentially be used to enhance the quality of existing eggs.

There are three fertility treatments being developed by the company - AUGMENT, OvaPrime and OvaTure.

- AUGMENT treatment, which is designed to improve egg health by using mitochondria from a patient's own egg precursor (EggPC) cells during IVF.

The AUGMENT treatment has been available in certain IVF clinics only in three international regions. The company announced Wednesday that it has achieved its 2014 goal of launching the treatment in a fourth international region.

Accordingly, the AUGMENT fertility treatment is now available in select IVF clinics in Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey. OvaScience also revealed that it has a further commitment from one of the largest IVF clinic networks in Japan, which plans to offer the treatment in 2015. However, the treatment is not available in the United States.

- OvaPrime treatment, which enables a woman to expand her egg reserve for IVF. Additional preclinical proof-of-concept work for the OvaPrime treatment performed by the company supports previously published research, which demonstrated that EggPC cells can mature into eggs in the ovary (in vivo).

The company plans to introduce the OvaPrime treatment in certain IVF clinics in select international regions outside of the United States by the end of 2015.

- OvaTure treatment, which is designed to help a woman produce healthy, young, fertilizable eggs without the need for hormone injections. In human preclinical proof-of-concept studies, the OvaTure treatment has demonstrated that human EggPC cells can be matured into eggs outside of the body.

OvaScience believes that OvaTure treatment is a major step toward being able to offer women with compromised eggs, who are unable to make eggs, or who may be unwilling or unable to undergo hormone hyperstimulation, a new treatment option.

2014 has been a transformational year for OvaScience, which has achieved all its corporate goals it set for itself this year. And given the fact that the company is planning further international expansion in 2015, it looks like a fertile opportunity awaits for OvaScience.

We alerted our premium subscribers to OVAS on December 5, 2014 when it was trading around $28. The stock touched a new high of $49.94 yesterday, before closing the day's trading at $43.22.

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