Obviously during a global health pandemic, Biotech companies have been under a microscope – pun intended. With such an important sector racing to find vaccines, cures and better ways to assist those in need, it is essential from an investing standpoint to stay on top of current events in this space.
As a quick summary, the Biotech sector has been outperforming the overall S&P 500 YTD returning roughly 13.6% compared to the S&P 500’s 6.98%. This week alone, the sector is making headlines with positive news for potential human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine.
In the News Today:
Innovation Pharmaceuticals (OTCQB:IPIX) made headlines today after discussing data from a U.S. Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) that potentially shows Brilacidin as a potential treatment for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 when combined with the well-known Remdesivir. The findings showed that Brilacidin and Remdisivir, when working together, increased the inhibition against the novel coronavirus to 99.85% in a human lung cell line.
As recent action has showed, positive news regarding anything COVID-19 related has at times created bullish price action for the company involved. Innovation Pharmaceuticals was no outlier, as shares traded up to $.29/share, or 31.9% from yesterday’s close. This jump paired with a strong support trendline on the yearly chart providing a potential entry point into a company with some momentum in a sector that is currently making headlines daily!
Switching gears a bit away from COVID-19, ProtoKinetix Inc (OTCQB:PKTX) made the news today after they announced their findings of a 4-year long testing period in an attempt to restore vision in blind test subjects. The company stated that the tests “demonstrated that transplantation of PPCs pre-treated with AAGP® (PKX-001) results in statistically significant improvements in both the visual behavioral (optokinetic tracking test) and functional analysis (electroretinogram test) responses as compared with PPCs without pre-treatment.”
Aside from the story having a positive outcome for those who could potentially benefit from this trial in the future, investors are seeing a decent move of $.0025 (or +2.56%) as the stock is currently trading at $.10/share. Though it is not as frequently talked about due to COVID-19 hogging the medical media spotlight, investors appear to be reinforcing the potential for an upward breakout for Protokinetix as it has been making higher highs and lows over the last two months.
