Shares of SIGA Technologies (SIGA), Inc. traded down by over three percent on Thursday in what I consider to be more of a 'tree shake' than any kind of sell-off.

Investors are still expecting an announcement any day regarding a possible BARDA small pox contract, and impatient investors are sure to get antsy with every day that goes by without a contract announcement. It's those investors that are targeted with a 'tree shake', when the share price of a stock is dropped on relatively low volume in order to 'shake shares' from those with weak stomachs who sell at the slightest sign of trouble.

Shares of SIGA Technologies (SIGA) enjoyed a nice run of late, reaching a high of ten dollars on Monday morning before profit takers and possible short sellers took the share price back down to below the nine dollar level.

December call options have also performed brilliantly lately and speculation is definitely rampant regarding the possibility of an imminent announcement granting the approval of the BARDA small pox vaccine contract.

Titan Pharmaceuticals (TTNP.PK) announced on Monday that the company had received confirmation from the United States Patent and Trademark Office [USPTO] that a Notice of Allowance had been issued for Probuphine for the treatment of Opiate addiction.

This news has been long awaited and heavily anticipated by both the company and its investors, although the share price of the TTNP stock remained flat after an initial post-announcement spike.

Shares of Cel Sci Corp. (CVM) continued to hover right around the $1.30 mark even after TheStreet.com's infamous biotech blogger thrust his most recent blogging salvo at Cel Sci in an attempt to keep his ongoing vendetta against the company alive - for reasons that are still yet to be known.

We can only speculate as to why Feuerstein spends so much time attempting to attack Cel Sci, but in my opinion, the reasons range from hooking up his friends who are either short the stock and looking to cover and/or hooking up his boys that may want in on a good thing. Additionally, any article regarding Cel Sci will undoubtedly draw many 'hits' to his blog - and those hits are very important for advertising revenue when your living is blogging; hence the need to both stretch out one article over multiple pages (one reader then accounts for multiple hits) and the need to make sure that a Cel Sci article is somehow attached to another published article that has nothing to do with Cel Sci. Pretty slick, I guess the past few days will make up for the lost 'clicks' due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Shares of Siga Technologies, Inc. (SIGA) broke the eight dollar mark Tuesday afternoon on anticipation of the possibility that some big government orders could be imminent.

BioMedReports issued a mid-day trade alert on Tuesday, alerting readers that the recent price action of the SIGA stock could indicate that news is pending.

With Antigenics (AGEN) back in the news after the EMEA officially recommended against approving the company's kidney cancer vaccine (Oncophage) in Europe - followed by the subsequent withdrawal of the approval application by Antigenics - a few readers of VFC's Stock House have requested comment.

An email From J.B.:

It was a quick rise to the $2.40 level for shares of Titan Pharmaceuticals (TTNP.PK), as it finally looks like the stock is starting to trade towards its potential.

With the heavyweight Novartis (NVS) set to commercially launch Fanapt early next year, the schizophrenia drug could quickly gain a foothold in a huge market ($14 billion) that has the lowest selling product raking in over $1 billion in annual sales.

In "Readers Respond" I do my best to answer readers' questions, but keep in mind that my responses to these questions are my opinions and personal speculation that I have based on my own research and due diligence.

Also, I will try to respond to a number of requests that I've received via email or comments to the board asking for 'VFC's Take' on stocks that readers have found. While I'll do my best to address as many as I can, please take a few things into consideration while reading:

A comment from Scott regarding Celsius Holdings (CSUH.OB):

You tell a nice warm story about Carl being the big dog and you waiting under the table at dinner time, but the numbers and profitablity win in the end. And you're brushing off the basic financial landscape.

Hi Vinny,

I am a loyal follower and respect your opinion. I too am a long-term shareholder of CVM and see the potential of the company. That said, I wanted your opinion on two companies, of which I am already a shareholder, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (LXRX) and Rexahn Pharmaceuticals (RNN). They have a strong and diverse pipeline, along with good management and partnerships. The companies are low-key, meaning that no bloggers have put them in the spotlight (although sometimes the spotlight isn't necessarily a good thing) and wanted your opinion.

A comment from Noah regarding Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd (CHTP).:

Hi VFC,

I was wondering if your thoughts have changed on CHTP since they were @ $7+.

Shares of Titan Pharmaceuticals (TTNP.PK) dropped to the $1.81 level during early trading on Tuesday in what could be considered an attempt to 'shake' a few more shares loose - considering the fact that volume was nearing a stand still at the $1.90 level.

With Fanapt royalties imminent and the advancement of Probuphine now paid for by an NIH grant, Titan continues to be in a primed position to spike, whether it be on the company's own merit and potential for the future or as the result of a buyout offer.

As shares of Cel-Sci Corp. (CVM) have traded to the upside of late, the company is set to gain more exposure when it presents at the "7th Annual Vaccines: All Things Considered Conference" in Washington, DC on Tuesday afternoon.

While I don't expect the Cel-Sci stock to lose any of the recent trading volatility - mostly due to what I consider to be obvious manipulation and a fair number of short shares that need to be covered (as of October) - I do believe that recent developments, including the Cel Sci-Johns Hopkins LEAPS H1N1 study, have re-enforced the long term positive outlook of the company.

Shortly after the market open on Friday, Cel-Sci Corp. (CVM) issued a press release declaring that the company will commence a Clinical Study measuring the effectiveness of the company's LEAPS technology in the treatment of H1N1-hospitalized patients. According to the press release, blood will be drawn from the hospitalized patients and then the cells will be "activated" with the LEAPS-H1N1 treatment "in order to assess the cells' response as the basis for the planned future treatment of this patient population under a next-stage clinical trial protocol." [Quotes were taken directly from Friday's PR]

This study was expected, as the company informed investors in September that the FDA had given Cel Sci the 'go-ahead', but what is significant in my opinion, is the fact that Johns Hopkins has jumped on board. Johns Hopkins University is one of the nation's most prestigious - especially in terms of the School of Medicine. The fact that an "Institutional Review Board" of Johns Hopkins University gave the clearance for the this clinical study to proceed - with the Johns Hopkins name attached to it -should give sceptical investors a 'warm & fuzzy' that there is some significant potential for LEAPS to become an effective treatment for H1N1 patients.

It was announced by Celsius Holdings (CSUH.OB) in a Thursday morning press release that the Celsius calorie burning beverage will soon be available in Ralph's Supermarkets in Southern California.

The product is already entrenched in the NorthEastern portion of the country and a significant push into the heavily populated SouthWest is a logical next step. With fitness and 'looking good' a huge part of the SoCal lifestyle, Celsius has a chance to catch on a big way, in my opinion. Those beach bunnies roller blading down the coastline in skin tight shorts and half tops will only look that much better with a can of everyone's favorite calorie burning beverage in their hand; but of course, that's just my opinion.

Shares of Sirius XM (SIRI) satellite radio responded positively to news that losses narrowed and revenues increased during the third quarter of 2009. Aside from one time charges, the company reported cash flow break even.

While I am confident in the ability of Sirius XM to continue demonstrating growth, we can't ignore the fact that the cash for clunkers program, which gave a boost to the auto industry in the third quarter, also gave a boost to Sirius XM. Satellite radio is not entirely dependent on the auto industry for survival, but it's safe to say that it is significantly dependent on the industry. Let's face it, Americans are lazy and they're more apt to buy SatRad if it's already installed in a new car rather than purchasing a radio on line that they have to install and activate themselves.

Shares of Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. (HEB) rebounded slightly on Wednesday morning after sliding down to near the one dollar mark on Tuesday after it was announced that the company would spend the next two months responding to FDA queries regarding the company's New Drug Application for Ampligen. Ampligen is up for approval as a treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

While Ampligen draws the news for Hemispherx at this time, the company also has already received FDA approval for Alferon, an injection that treats a category of sexually transmitted diseases.

When an entire sector - or the broad market as a whole - decides to take a dip, that's when I like to go on a buying spree and as investors of the biotech/small pharma sector well know, it's been a rough few weeks. The shorts have jumped on board and taken control after the previous run-up gave many biotech stocks a liftoff earlier this year.

There's no doubt that it's tough to sit there and look at your portfolio during the pullbacks, as the stocks that you've been accumulating for the long term will lose much of the unrealized profit value - or dip into overall negative territory; sometimes pretty significantly into negative territory.

Titan Pharmaceuticals (TTNP.PK) was mentioned in a weekend article by the Washington Post that highlighted the CEO of Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Mihael Polymeropoulos, and Fanapt - Vanda's recently approved drug to treat schizophrenia of which Titan will reap up to 10% in royalties.

While Novartis (NVS) emerged as Vanda's partner to commercialize the product, it's long been my speculation that Titan will eventually be gobbled up by a larger company, and the following comment by Titan CEO Sunil Bhonsle in the Post article does nothing to stave off my speculation: "There tends to be a pattern where smaller companies do a lot of the innovation, then the larger companies acquire them at a certain point," he said.

Shares of Dendreon (DNDN) traded as much as five percent higher on Monday morning after the company announced that it has re-submitted its application for the regulatory approval of Provenge, a therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine that was called 'approvable' by the FDA in 2007. According to the press release, the company expects to hear an answer from the FDA at some point in mid-2010.

In 2007 the FDA - after deciding to wait until the ongoing IMPACT trial was completed before reconsidering the approval decision - indicated that they would approve Provenge if certain survivability points were realized; and those points were met in the Phase III trial, so things look good for the chances of a Provenge approval.