A shower of meteoric biotech stocks on the NYSE-MKT were bumped off their usual trajectory Friday as concern over emerging markets saw a general slump hit speculation assets, and long-surging biotech in particular, with drops of between 5% and 8% almost across the board as investors took cash out of the market.
Neuralstem Inc (
MKT:CUR,
Stock Forum), a developer of central nervous system treatments, saw one of its bigger drops since it began its 189% rise since April 2013, peeling away 8.1% on 2 million trading volume. There was no news released to explain the drop.
Cel-Sci Corporation (
MKT:CVM,
Stock Forum), a cancer treatment biotecher, had been righting its ship since early December, clawing back from $0.60 to $1.16 Thursday, but Friday saw 7.7% leave the stock with 4.8 million shares traded, closing it at $1.07. It had posted news of
government approval of a head and neck cancer medication in Serbia the day before.
Liberator Medical (
OTO:LBMH,
Stock Forum), a direct-to-consumer medical supplier, interrupted its 761% rise over the past year to shed $0.41, dropping to $4.93, just three days after releasing a statement confirming management ‘
knows of no events that could have caused unusual market activity’ that had seen it run the board upwards.
Organovo Holdings (
OTCQX:ONVO,
Stock Forum), a three-dimensional bioprinting company that ‘prints tissue’ for medical uses, was another surprising loser Friday, having lifted from $3.27 to $11.50 over the last nine months. It lost 7.5% to sit at $9.12.
Electromed (
NASDAQ:ELMD,
Stock Forum), which supplies airway clearance products and jumped 340% over Christmas when they received FDA clearance for their
Smartvest product, also climbed down 7.2% today with no news.
ImmunoCellular Therapeutics (
OBB:IMUC,
Stock Forum), Mast Therapeutics (
MKT:MSTX,
Stock Forum), Navidea Biopharmaceuticals (
MKT:NAVB,
Stock Forum) and BioTime Inc. (
MKT:BTX,
Stock Forum) also dropped between 4% and 6%.
One of the lone stars in the MKT biotech space today was Inovio Pharmaceuticals (
MKT:INO,
Stock Forum), which was the second most traded on the exchange, yet crept up by a single cent, perhaps steeled by news a day ago of the unveiling of its new
Immune Activator.
Biotech firms on both sides of the US/Canada border have been on a run over the last twelve months, with many making triple digit gains.