Biotech Alert: Searches spiking for these stocks today

These names in the biotech sector are seeing a substantial increase in search activity today, as determined by InvestingChannel. They include: 

• CEL-SCI Corp (CVM), 1,432% surge in interest
• NovaBay Pharmaceuticals (NBY), 1,050% surge in interest
• Arca Biopharma (ABIO), 106% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

CEL-SCI said it “believes that boosting a patient’s immune system while it is still intact should provide the greatest possible impact on survival. Therefore, in the Phase 3 study, CEL-SCI studied patients who were newly diagnosed with locally advanced primary squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with the investigational product Multikine first, before they received surgery and radiotherapy or surgery plus concurrent radiotherapy and chemotherapy.” This approach is called neo-adjuvant. Most other cancer immunotherapies are administered only after conventional therapies have been tried and/or failed. Multikine received Orphan Drug designation from the FDA for neoadjuvant therapy in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (cancer) of the head and neck. Multikine is designed to help the immune system “target” the tumor at a time when the immune system is still relatively intact and thereby thought to be better able to mount an attack on the tumor. CEL-SCI has completed a 928 patient Phase 3 clinical trial in locally advanced primary head and neck cancer patients.

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals develops and sells eyecare and skincare products. NovaBay’s leading product, Avenova Antimicrobial Lid & Lash Solution, is often prescribed by eyecare professionals for blepharitis and dry-eye disease and is also available directly to eyecare consumers through online distribution channels such as Amazon.

Arca Biopharma is dedicated to developing genetically and other targeted therapies for cardiovascular diseases through a precision medicine approach to drug development.

Recent news on these stocks:

July 26

CEL-SCI reported results from a bias analysis conducted for its concluded Phase 3 study of Multikine in the treatment of head and neck cancer. Conducting a bias analysis is a standard process used to identify, assess, and address potential sources of bias that could influence the outcomes and interpretations of study results. CEL-SCI’s bias analysis concluded that the treatment group demographics and baseline characteristics were comparable for the Multikine treated and control arms of the Phase 3 study. There were no confounding baseline parameters in the Multikine-treated versus control population. No bias was present in the study and none was detected in favor of the investigational product, Multikine. As such, the study data are interpretable, statistically significant and have been shown to support the clinical effect of neoadjuvant Multikine immunotherapy in extending the life of these patients in the Phase 3 study. This is critically important information because CEL-SCI, with the FDA’s agreement, will be conducting a 212-patient confirmatory registration study for Multikine. The target population for the confirmatory study shows a five-year survival in advanced primary head and neck cancer of 73% in Multikine treated patients vs. 45% survival in the control.

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals announced the pricing of its underwritten public offering of 3.2M shares of common stock, 3.2M Series F-1 warrants to purchase up to 3.2M shares of common stock, 3.2M Series F-2 warrants to purchase up to 3.2M shares of common stock and 3.2M Series F-3 warrants to purchase up to 3.2M shares of common stock. The combined public offering price for each share of common stock and accompanying Series F-1 warrant, Series F-2 warrant and Series F-3 warrant is $1.10. Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. is acting as sole bookrunning manager for the offering.

Hear more from InvestingChannel by signing up for The Spill.

About “Biotech Alert”

The Fly will report on a selection of biotech stocks seeing a surge in interest from retail and financial professional investors, based on data from InvestingChannel.

This Fly exclusive recap reveals the biotech stocks that are seeing a spike in searches among the 20-plus million retail and financial professional investors through InvestingChannel’s online financial news media ecosystem.

This increased attention from the investors may be in response to, or advance of, outsized moves for stocks in the biotech sector, which tend to be volatile and prone to sharp swings in share price around binary events such as clinical study results and FDA approvals.