The Calandra Report: More biotech, Bitterroot, CTIX, BCRX, CUR and more

More Biotech: CUR | BCRX | CTIX; Stockr.com; Bitterroot; NuLgacy Invite

This week the three annual San Francisco health care conferences are in motion. Our main interest is in Biotech Showcase, the smaller companies in the biotech hot tub.

Monday morning, shares of BioCryst Pharma (NASDAQ:BCRX, Stock Forum) continued an ascent that began in early 2013. Investor interest comes not just from its influenza treatment, peramivir. Large investors, led by the Wall Street banks’ research, are following developments with BCRX’s BCX4161, an oral treatment for hereditary angioedema. The company after many years of false starts and influenza scares is now seen as a provider of a range of possible drugs for leukemia, gout, flu, possibly yellow fever, and angioedema.

See:https://www.biocryst.com/bcx_4161 for possible timing on more clinical data for the angioedema drug.

The only fresh one I am looking at with the view of testing the waters (hot tub) is Neuralstem (AMX:CUR, Stock Forum). This company just raised $20 million at a cheaper stock price, with warrants, for its work on ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. I have not taken the plunge.

J.P.M's Healthcare Conference, its 32nd in SF, will have webcasts. This is where mid-sized to big companies present to investors. It is at https://jpmorgan.metameetings.com/confbook/healthcare14/search.php. This is where BioCryst Pharma will be, and the buzzing (and suffering today) Intercept Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ICPT, Stock Forum).

The Biotech Showcase is:
https://www.ebdgroup.com/bts/presenters/prs_comps.php.

That’s where Neuralstem will be, and Inovio Pharma (AMX:INO, Stock Forum), and sister company OncoMed (NASDAQ-GS:OMED, Stock Forum).

The third one is OneMedPlace.com. This is its seventh year in town. Those companies are at https://www.onemedconferences.com/.

I am asked to keep an eye on Galectin (OBB:GALT, Stock Forum), which is developing a treatment for liver disease, as is Intercept. I do not see Galectin presenting in SF this week; this is probably a good thing for the stock price. I do not own it.

As investors, we are asked to monitor what some say is a $30 billion market for liver disease. Galectin’s rising market worth of about $300 million is 1/30th that of Intercept, whose rising shares, until today, make it a $9 billion biotech.

I also am asked to keep an eye on Celiceutix (OBB:CTIX, Stock Forum), which is developing a treatment for severe skin infections and, I am told by a member of our TCR family, might have relevant information in its presentation later this week.

I likely will monitor some of these via webcasts. My primary interest remains metals.

P.S.: After this report was published, I purchased $3,000 worth of shares of Organovo Holdings (OTCQX:ONVO, Stock Forum), the bio-printing tissue maker. The shares on NASDAQ are rocky, to say the least.

New technology: I joined, for free, Stockr.com, Vinny Jindal’s service down in Los Angeles. It is marrying social media with market intelligence and investor relations.

See: www.stockr.com and let me know what you think. My stream is here: https://stockr.com/thom.calandra/stream/.

I know, it looks like a merger of Facebook and Twitter. Check out the experts (pas moi) using it already. If Vinny, whom I have known for about 6 years, is correct, he might have an actionable social media service that makes money for himself, for his investors, and for the folks who use it. We’ll see. I can send the corporate summary for those interested. [Disclosure: I received a pair of Stockr sunglasses when last I was in Santa Monica, California]

Review:

-- Bitterroot Resources (TSX:V.BTT, Stock Forum) likely will see fresh news next week. For our TCR audience, we anticipate a double or triple of market worth of the Michigan platinum metals prospector as soon as this month. I own it.
TCR Notes: I expect Colombian Mines (TSX:V.CMJ, Stock Forum) to tell investors it has consummated two financings, one with World Bank’s IFC unit. Colombian mining stocks showed life last week. I own some. [This happened Monday morning, the company confirms.] …

I see increasing evidence of what could be a sharp and lasting rebound in metals prices and their corresponding metals equities. Many of the equities appear to gap up, as if all the paper they sold from 2006 through 2012 somehow has finally been blotted out, or evaporated, or inhaled at penny-dreadful prices. Perhaps. I believe, as does my main technician, and a handful of my mining industry advisers, that everything in the metals dumpster is set to shed some of its pungent aroma. Even Barkerville Gold Mines (TSX:V.BGM, Stock Forum), which has much to prove in its quest to pour profitable gold up north, is smelling better this month, or is it: less worse?

I wish I had been wise enough to have seen the 3-year sell-off in the making that nasty March of 2011. I did not. Still, those who follow the charts and understand the falling expenses of gold exploration are growing more confident of a sustained metals rally than they were, say, this past autumn – when the rally probably began.

I am, for example, even on the total of my NUGT (NYSE:NUGT, Stock Forum) holdings after the Osisko flash news today. NUGT represents triple action on metals juniors via NASDAQ. I have been buying, and selling, but mostly buying, the pro-metals NUGT since March 2013.

We have seen recoveries for a few of the TCR 8, recently Solvista Gold. Pilot Gold, a Nevada and Turkey prospector, is seeing its shares reach $1 again Canadian price.

Others discussed here that have risen on thickening trade in recent weeks include Elgin Mining and African Gold Group. … If you believe as I do that the metals equities will continue to gain into the spring, you likely will be asking what is cheap, is on sound financial footing and deserves a second chance.

In my world: Platinum Group Metals, Ivanhoe Mines, Asanko Gold, Colombian Mines, to name a few. I do not own Asanko, a west Africa mine developer, but try to follow it. As stated, Barkerville Gold (BGM), is off limits until its next gold pour at the B.C. property.

Those looking for a high-octane burst from a tiny prospector will look at Bitterroot, referenced above, this week. [All of my holdings are listed at Stockhouse under tcalandra for portfolios.]

One of our TCR 8, NuLegacy Gold, invites our audience to drinks next week in Vancouver. NuLegacy and other companies will be in British Columbia for the annual mining and prospector’s show for individual investors: Cambridge House. [Not attending this year; preparing for Cambodia property and community tour in late January.]

NuLegacy Gold Mixer Sunday, January 19, 2014 05:00 PM - 08:00 PM WHERE: Lions Pub 888 West Cordova Street Vancouver BC

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Thom Calandra
@thomcalandra