When newsletter writer Bob Moriarty wrote a report on
Theralase Technology Inc. (
TSX: V.TLT,
Stock Forum) in March, the stock was trading 34 cents, and Moriarty said he was not a shareholder.
However, in his 321gold newsletter, he said he wanted to help the company succeed by doing a good job of telling the story.
Moriarty published an update Friday, May 30, 2014, to remind his readers about how valuable a vaccine to cure cancer would be, but said they should do their own due diligence.
Ironically, the stock was trading Friday at 34 cents when Stockhouse was alerted to the reports, leaving a market cap of $22.6 million, based on 66.6 million shares outstanding. The 52-week range is 56 cents and 16.5 cents.
In his first report, Moriarty explains how Theralase President Roger Dumoulin-White read a short piece in an industry publication named Laser Focus World, talking about a chemistry professor at the Virginia University who was working on molecules called Photo Dynamic Compounds (PDC) that were attracted to cancer cells.
When activated by light, these compounds kill the cancer cells with no damage to healthy tissue, surrounding the cancer.
White got in touch with the professor and bought the rights to the technology.
Moriarty reports that the treatment works on a variety of cancer cells, including breast, colon, bladder and brain cancer.
But he said the company had to pick one specific cancer to work on to get approval of the FDA and Health Canada for use in treatment.
Earlier this week, the stock jumped 64% when the company announced results from pre-clinical trials for its flagship Photo Dynamic Compound (PDC). The trials were conducted at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto.
The company said it has discovered that PDC, has demonstrated an ability to render animals immune to repeated exposures of the same cancer.
“This initial data has been accepted for presentation at the 37
th Annual American Society for Photobiology taking place in San Diego, California in June, 2014,’’
the company said in a press release.
“If our PDC technology is proven effective in cancer patients, the implications of this discovery are nothing short of game-changing for both Theralase and for cancer patients,’’ said Dumoulin-White.
Getting back to Moriarty, the respected scribe told his readers in March to “shut up and buy the stock if you can afford some.’’
“If they somehow manage to fail, you have contributed more to the health of your fellow man and perhaps even yourself than any other stock I can think of,’’ he wrote. “When they succeed, you have not only done good, you have done well.’’
FULL DISCLOSURE: Theralase Technology is a Stockhouse client.