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Gains are all well and good, but perhaps just as interesting are the stocks that garnered a lot of interest and discussion, but didn't necessarily move a great deal. To that end, Thursday's noisiest, most-searched, and most-discussed penny stocks were BioCentric Energy Holdings, Inc. (PINK:BEHL), Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc. (OTC:ADLS), and Earthworks Entertainment, Inc. (OTC:EWKS). Let's see what the buzz was all about.
BioCentric Energy Holdings, Inc. (PINK:BEHL)
BioCentric is most likely still riding the wave of Wednesday's announcement that the company "is in serious negotiations to upgrade the company from the Pink Sheets to the Bulletin Board Stock Exchange."
There's no ambiguity about what that could mean for shares of BEHL, but it's not exactly clear what BioCentric's management means by 'serious negotiations' - it's not exactly a quantifiable or verifiable idea. Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt the stature of BEHL shares (they're listed on the pink sheets, and BioCentric is not a fully reporting company yet.)
I actually reviewed BioCentric Energy Holdings a few days ago after BEHL shares had made an explosive upside move from $0.007 to $0.03. The news largely came in front of the initial running of BioCentric's photobioreactor. My worry was (and I was right) that the buying interest for BEHL would slow up after the actual event.
The stock is still an interesting idea, as BioCentric has proven that turning algae into energy can be viable. As far as the BioCentric's stock price is concerned right now though, BEHL is overbought - plain and simple. If support at $0.025 crumbles, that could be trouble.
By the way, turning algae into ethanol may be far more valuable than anybody's giving it credit for. The algae, through photosynthesis, converts the carbon dioxide and water into ethanol (which is a hydrocarbon), oxygen, and more fresh water. Dow and BP have both made major acquisitions to get into the algae/energy biz. Perhaps that's what BioCentric is wishing for current BEHL owners.
Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc. (OTC:ADLS)
There's no official reason that ADLS should have been capturing the hearts and minds of investors yesterday - we haven't heard any news from Advanced Life Sciences Holdings since June. Nevertheless, ADLS was lighting up the message boards, and stimulating actual trades. We've got a theory though.
The latest we officially heard from Advanced Life Sciences Holdings was the announcement that Restanza showed a 100% survival rate when used to treat the inhalation of a lethal dose of anthrax. (Fun stuff, huh?) However, nobody really cared then, so why would they care about that now?
Odds are, this recent buzz is a pre-PDUFA euphoria stemming from cethromycin's NDA as a treatment of severe CAP.
The FDA's bigger advisory committees will be meeting over the next two weeks, and will be making some yes/no decisions on several drug candidates, one of which is ADLS's cethromycin.
Advanced Life Sciences Holdings' management thinks July 31st will be the decision day, and so far has not been requested to provide any additional data or clarification for the FDA.
Just to clarify, the committee that doesn't make the final decision (but rather 'suggests' to the FDA) was favorable on cethromycin's safety, but was pessimistic on cethromycin's efficacy, following their June meeting. Like we said though, that's not the deciding committee.
Advanced Life Sciences Holdings doesn't foresee a denial, but the company wouldn't be shocked if the FDA offered a conditional approval (that's a synopsis of a recent interview). That doesn't really hurt or help ADLS investors, but the speculation in the meantime could.
Earthworks Entertainment, Inc. (OTC:EWKS)
Remember Mia Hamm? She was one of the most (ok, the most) prolific female soccer players the U.S. has ever produced. Yeah, well, Earthworks Entertainment announced on Wednesday that they'd be launching a Mia Hamm "Soccer Secrets' instructional DVD.
And, that's the only buzz we've heard from Earthworks Entertainment in a while that could have lit a fire under EWKS shares. Frankly though, we can't see that as being the reason for Thursday's strong interest in Earthworks Entertainment, nor for today's wild volume from EWKS shares.
Today's 337 million shares (so far) is easily the highest volume session ever for EWKS, yet so far is completely attributable to nothing.
Rumors of manipulation and Earthworks Entertainment insider selling are flying, while the usual pumping/bashing wars are being fought. None of those arguments holds water though. We're seeing huge volume today, and the stock has actually moved a hair higher. That's not selling - that's buying. (That, or these EWKS sellers have stumbled into one of the most liquid bulletin board stocks ever).
Or, maybe.... juuuuust maybe, there's something good here someone else knows about that most everyone else doesn't know yet. It's not the soccer DVD's - that's for sure. Stay tuned, and we'll see if we can get to the bottom of whatever's driving EWKS shares today.
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Comment #1 Posted by Rob Mohr Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:28PM PDT
Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc.'s NDA has been submitted to the FDA (with a scheduled PDUFA date of July 31, 2009) for mild-to-moderate CAP, not severe CAP. I think that it's still very much in question whether or not cethromycin failed its endpoint for efficacy, which is generally being accepted as the case by investors having heard the committee's ruling from the June 2nd meeting. Did the committee, in fact, apply their judgement based on efficacy for severe CAP, instead? When efficacy data for mild-to-moderate was what was supplied in the NDA. New FDA Guidance Regulation for CAP drug development may be what is to blame for this debacle. I think that there's more to this than meets the eye. If the FDA wants CAP drugs for severe CAP, why suggest to ADLS the development of one for mild-to-moderate, then punish them at the very last moment. The public needs to know if ADLS did something wrong, or if the experts, in fact, "moved the goal post after the game was over." If the drug has efficacy for the indication for which the NDA was submitted (that is, mild-to-moderate, and not severe), how can it then not be passed? Is there a problem, here, that has risen from recent changes made to regulation and guidance for CAP-drug development? If so, shouldn't the FDA tell investors about it? We have the right to know.
