A 2fer

Two fairly significant (in my eyes) pieces of information came about today. The first is that BioCryst got a free pass from the US Government to finish testing of a new anti-viral medication, Peramivir. Not only does BioCryst get to go debt free to wrap up testing of this very promising product, but also they get access to a new market of influenza treatments: currently there are absolutely zero approved treatments for those patients who are seriously ill with the flu. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, this medication really does seem to work as evidenced by Emergency Use Authorization. This medication looks like a winner to me, even if it is somewhat of a niche drug. With all the publicity surrounding influenza these days, how can you not like BioCryst's situation.

Check out the press release here: Peramivir gets $77 mil


Nugget number two:

Stem cell focused Neuralstem, Inc announced that the FDA approved its IND to start clinical trials of a stem cell treatment for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). I really hope this works out because ALS is a really terrible disease and even with all the advances in medicine over the past 100 years, ALS is still essentially untreatable. Furthermore, there has been very few stem cell success stories in human testing, so the industry could use a pick-me-up. Have a gander at the Neuralstem release here.

By the way, Neuralstem was trading at 2.08 today...not a penny stock, but could be worth keeping an eye on in the periphery.