Cocrystal Pharma Inc (OTCBB:COCP) Gets Temperamental
It’s been eight days since Cocrystal Pharma Inc (OTCBB:COCP) announced their intentions to use their technology platform in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus. Lots of people got extremely excited by the prospects and jumped in. So, where do they stand at the moment?
One thing is for sure – they have an extremely volatile stock on their hands. The initial surge of interest resulted in some hefty gains for the ticker as it managed to break above the $0.50 per share barrier for the first time since April. Many investors reckoned that this is just the beginning, but unfortunately, the stock has proven somewhat hesitant since then.
On the bright side, so far, it has managed to avoid wiping out a significant portion of its market cap, but its performance can hardly be classified as consistent. On Wednesday, for example, COCP peaked at $0.57 per share, but yesterday, it slipped by around 4% and closed the session at $0.545. About an hour after today’s opening bell, it’s sitting at $0.55 (about 1% in the green).
Despite COCP‘s unpredictable nature, investors don’t seem particularly bothered. Unlike the price movement, volumes are consistently high and the discussions around social networks is relatively active.
COCP themselves feel pretty happy about their new endeavor. If you check out the company’s official Twitter profile, you’ll see that in a matter of eight days, they have retweeted their Ebola press release no less than seven times. Apparently, they want to spread the word around as quickly as possible and, judging by the volumes, the strategy is working.
But will they be as successful in developing the Ebola treatment? We’ll need to wait and see. How long will we need to wait?
That, we reckon is where the biggest problem lies. While many people don’t appeared bothered about the fact that developing a brand new screening system is usually a lengthy process, some are starting to express their doubts. A Twitter user by the name of Thomas Geraci, for example, even asked COCP to provide a deadline or at least a guidance for the start of the production process. So far, there’s been no response from the company.
If the latest 10-Q is anything to go by, people shouldn’t expect to see rivers of money flowing any time soon. In fact, COCP said in the report that they will probably spend the next “several years” in the clinical development stage.
Of course, the more forward-looking investors will argue that the 10-Q was written before COCP decided to try their hands at solving the Ebola crisis and they will also say that the urgency of the situation will accelerate things a little bit.
That might just happen, but as of right now, such claims will be based on nothing more than speculation. And this, in turn, means that investing money you can’t afford to lose might not be your best bet. Another thing you should bear in mind before jumping in is the company’s history of toxic debt financing. We wrote about it in our previous article and we mentioned that ten months ago, some former note holders received 12,946,891 shares of common stock at rates hovering between $0.10 and $0.20 a piece.
