Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCMKTS:PVCT) Moves Up

On Wednesday the stock of Provectus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCMKTS:PVCT) jumped by over 13% to arrive to a close of $0.95 per share. The ticker logged its second highest daily share volume in the last six months, with 1.1 million shares changing hands.

The jump in price is somewhat unexpected, as the company did not come forward with any major news yesterday. A Wall Street Transcript interview with PVCT‘s CEO, Mr. Culpepper, was republished, after its original publication a week ago. An additional interview with Mr. Culpepper also hit the wire, explaining a specific use of rose bengal used as diseases tissue stain in cancer treatment.

Proveticus is a company focused on the development of cancer therapies, focusing on skin and liver cancers. PVCT has several products in its pipeline, with the flagship PV-10 drug currently undergoing Phase 2 clinical trials, according to the company’s website.

The latest quarterly financial report from PVCT is a 10-Q covering the quarter ended June 30 and contains the following:

• $4.6 million in cash
• $414 thousand in current liabilities
• zero revenues
• $2.4 million in quarterly net loss

Obviously, a developing biopharma company will need to suffer through a stretch of losses. PVCT is financing its business through stock placements. During the first two quarters of 2013 the company executed several private stock placements to raise cash. The placements had warrants attached to them but the exercise price of the warrants was not discounted from the market price so there is no serious cause for alarm stemming from those placements, which are a necessary evil for most developing biotech enterprises.

The sudden and unexpected price surge may be used by some shareholders looking to cash out their stock, which in turn may press PVCT back down but this is also not a certainty. Still, traders should keep in mind that it’s never wise to chase stocks and remember that the usual risks associated with development stage companies still apply.

PVCT was not the only biotech stock that traded heavily on the OTC yesterday. Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCBB:ELTP) surged 19% to a close of $0.15 per share. Affymax, Inc. (OTCMKTS:AFFY) was less fortunate and closed 2% down.