Increased Interest in Cel-Sci After Latest SEC Filing

Shares of CEL-SCI (CVM) continue to tick upward as signs point to a resurrection of sorts for this biotech play that many had on the ropes and ready for a knock-out punch. This was a company struggling to keep their doors open before a recent influx of millions in bullish investment capital and recent debt pay-offs.

One can see trading volume increasing as speculators have begun to move in now that the most recent filings with the SEC have confirmed that CEL-SCI has also been quietly positioning itself as a player in the H1N1 space with solutions that will get the attention of parties at the CDC, FDA and beyond (if they haven't already).

This possibility is now ringing more true than ever given the warning bells sounded by the Obama administration's advisory group on Science and Technology, who said in a report released yesterday afternoon that the H1N1 flu virus could cause as many as 30,000 and 90,000 deaths in the United States and that it "poses a serious health threat" to young people and children- unlike past strains of the virus.

The widely published report predicts that at least 1.8 million people will be hospitalized during the epidemic, with up to 300,000 patients requiring intensive care units. These patients could occupy 50-100 percent of all ICU beds in affected regions at the peak of the epidemic and would place "enormous stress" on ICU units.

Keep in mind that these are U.S. numbers alone and that this is one of the few countries with the financial resources to begin "hoarding" vaccine suuplies. Imagine what the impact might be in coutries with far, far fewer resources.

From a trading standpoint, one need only look at the recent run ups by "small" companies like Novavax, Inc. (NasdaqGM:NVAX), BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq:BCRX), and Generex Biotechnology (Nasdaq:GNBT) to realize that speculative buyers have not only been turning the increasingly bad news into a swine flu bonanza. Look at what those stocks were trading at back in March and realize that it only gets more interesting from here.

And so, day after day, we see press releases from companies attempting to position themselves as players in this space. Still, few have offered solutions that prove substantive after a close look under the microscope, both figuratively and literally.

By contrast, CEL-SCI has become tantalizingly alluring because they have kept their head down, busily preparing both in the lab and via back channels in Washington- at least according to some sources at our nations capital, interestingly, not far from where CEL-SCI is headquartered.

When I first approached them for comments after stumbling across them while doing research for my investigative article about H1N1 they said only enough as was required. Now, more details have emerged about the rumored flu vaccine and treatment I first told our subscribers about over the weekend. Although the details were very sketchy when we interviewed the company CEO, Geert Kersten on Friday, we have now pieced together more information about their innovative, dare I say revolutionary, approach to dealing with the growing flu problem.

The latest filing with the SEC confirms, that CEL-SCI has created one (and perhaps even several) potential peptide vaccine/treatments against H1N1 swine flu using their L.E.A.P.S.™ technology- a patented, T-cell modulation, peptide epitope delivery technology.

The platform has enabled CEL-SCI to begin pre-clinical formulation, evaluation and testing of a new application of its H1N1 vaccine, which will allow the targeting of "mutated" versions of H1N1 swine and other influenza viruses. World health officials believe that the influenza virus may mutate and evolve between now and the winter flu season.

According to the filing:

In conjunction with the testing, CEL-SCI has produced several L.E.A.P.S. flu vaccines that focus on the conserved, non changing epitopes of the different strains of Type A Influenza viruses (H1N1,H5N1, H3N1, etc.), including "swine", "avian or bird", and "Spanish Influenza", in order to minimize the change of viral "escape by mutations" from immune recognition. CEL-SCI's L.E.A.P.S. flu vaccine contains epitopes known to be associated with immune protection against influenza in animal models.

This is a developing story. As we mentioned earlier we have scheduled an interview with the company CEO, who was not available for immediate comment.

It is known, however that administered like vaccines, LEAPS combines T-cell binding ligands with small, disease associated, peptide antigens and may provide a new method to treat and prevent certain diseases (the company has disclosed that they are also working on a potential rheumatoid arthritis vaccine).

The ability to generate a specific immune response is important because many diseases are often not combated effectively due to the body's selection of the 'inappropriate' immune response. The capability to specifically reprogram an immune response may offer a more effective approach than existing vaccines and drugs in attacking an underlying disease.

Also according to the filing, CEL-SCI also discovered a second peptide named CEL-2000.

The data from animal studies of rheumatoid arthritis using the CEL-2000 treatment vaccine demonstrated that CEL-2000 is an effective treatment against arthritis with fewer administrations than those required by other anti-rheumatoid arthritis treatments, including Enbrel(R). CEL-2000 is also potentially a more disease type specific therapy, is calculated to be significantly less expensive and may be useful in patients unable to tolerate or who may not be responsive to existing anti-arthritis therapies."

Disclosure: No Positions

Comments

[Cherry Inve...:]

For more info on CVM Cel-Sci visit cherryinvesting.blogsp...

Aug 26 10:53 AM

[lhaus:]

Pharma comment testing

Aug 26 12:12 PM

[User 404:]

why reporting to the sec, what about fda , clinical trials, approval?

Aug 27 04:14 AM

[jimmy Turano:]

MR.GARZA, JUST NEED YOUR EXPERT INPUT TO CONFIM IF I AM RIGHT IN MY ANALOGY ON 'MRNA'.
MDRNA INC(MRNA) HAS NO SERIOUS PRODUCTS OR SERIOUS REVENUE, TWO THINGS BIG PHARMA'S LOOK AT WHEN CONSIDERING A TAKEOVER. SINCE IT IS ALL ABOUT THEIR LICENSING, WOULDN'T IT BE IN ANY SHAREHOLDERS BEST INTEREST TO AVOID THIS STOCK RIGHT NOW, WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER BETTER SUITED CANDIDATES FOR THE REST OF 2009?

Aug 27 08:29 AM

[jfdas:]

maybe the analyst does not know


On Aug 27 04:14 AM User 404 wrote:

> why reporting to the sec, what about fda , clinical trials, approval?

Aug 28 12:22 PM

[jfdas:]

maybe the analyst does not know

Aug 28 12:23 PM

[BooBoo:]

The future Private Placements and R/S have me worried too.

CVM already said they needed 10 million before they could go into Phase III.

Do the math, CVM needs 10 million to go into Phase III and they have raised half that?

So are we looking at dilution for a long time? Into 2010 ??

Aug 28 12:39 PM

[BooBoo:]

BTW, CVM is dropping from todays high of .76

.70 now and looking weak on volume IMO.

Buy at .50 to .60 although last week I bought 15k+ shares at .425

CVM could drop a lot without news for a couple weeks. CVM is a news ghost.

Aug 28 12:41 PM

[BooBoo:]

PPHM is .73

Interesting because the pipelines are very different in number of products.

CVM has one drug that's even entered Phase I, MK has past Phase II.

That's it for CVM and human tested products.

Aug 28 12:44 PM

[BooBoo:]

A lot of PUMPER article writers here at Seeking Alpha.

I think it's time for me to get certified as a writer here.

THE REAL questions:

Is a R/S vote coming(?) and another one or three Private Placements coming to fund Multikine. Also, what about all the shares coming onto the market due to past money raising moves by CVM.

Sep 03 12:05 AM

[BooBoo:]

Disclosure: I own CVM. But not enough yet. I'll ALWAYS try to own shares of CVM. But I'll never have enough.

Right now I'm angry at myself that I moved my buy down below .60 and missed the drop today I could have loaded up on.

But I might just see Private Placement news tomorrow or next week and get in under.50/share. That would be what I'm waiting for to load up.

I glad I bought a small core holdings, these I hold until we pass a dollar.

If the market in general drops CVM will too, at least for a day or three. So many entry points, the world is good.

I've made many thousands on CVM this year already. Pharma is my Forte.

Sep 03 12:13 AM

[looney187:]

So do you buy at .70 per share?

Sep 03 07:36 AM