Lifeline Biotech (OTCMKTS:LLBO) Heating Up Again
At first glance, Lifeline Biotech (OTCMKTS:LLBO) doesn’t appear to be the most attractive investment opportunity on the OTC Markets. Take the press releases, for example.
There aren’t too many of them and, as we all know, penny stock investors need frequent updates in order to pay attention. Predictably, the stock hasn’t seen prices of over a penny per share in a while. That, it must be said, can also be attributed to LLBO‘s dismal financials.
Here, for example, is what the company had at the end of the first quarter of this year:
- cash: $1,512
- current assets: $7,852
- current liabilities: $413,387
- quarterly revenue: $15,000
- quarterly operating expenses: $12,437
The facts and figures above might be enough for some of you to simply walk away, but if you delve a bit deeper, you might find one or two interesting things.
LLBO has been in the business for a while and it has spent years trying to develop a wearable device called the iTBra that will help with the early detection of breast cancer. In 2008, they established an entity called Cyrcadia Health (formerly known as First Warning Systems) and gave it the license to develop and commercialize the iTBra.
The technology appears to be quite clever. Many serious media outlets have covered it over the years and more recently none other than Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) funded a documentary about it. By the looks of things, investors are finally getting excited about the iTBra as well.
The volumes are far from consistent and the stock is still in the sub-penny range, but there are days like yesterday when the stock gains some attention. In a matter of six and a half hours investors traded about 55 million shares which is more than seven times the thirty-day average. At only 2%, the gains were hardly impressive, but during Wednesday’s session, LLBO logged a 59% jump which means that it’s now sitting at $0.0036 – a healthy 63% above the value recorded a week ago.
The increased interest seems to be caused by the fact that Cycardia is getting closer to putting the iTBra on the market. The actual launch won’t happen until “early 2016”, but right now, the all-important clinical tests are in preparation.
So, investors have every right to be excited. LLBO‘s brainchild is coming closer to being available to the general public and although there aren’t too many details, the company should benefit from the eventual commercialization. People mustn’t forget, however, that if Cyrcadia is to make good on its promise of launching the iTBra in early 2016, the clinical trials must go through without a hitch and everything else has to go according to plan as well.
And over the years, the iTBra has hit several rough patches. An article from 2012, for example, said that the early detection device should be on sale in 2013, but as you can see, this projection turned out to be a bit too optimistic.
Hopefully, things will go smoothly this time, but you mustn’t forget that during the first quarter of 2015, LLBO issued 92,200,000 shares at $0.0005 apiece as a conversion of debt and the people who got these shares might not be willing to wait until 2016. They might be ready to start selling right now.
