4 Biotech Penny Stocks To Watch Heading Into March 2021
Like any good investor, the key to picking penny stocks to buy is a proper balance between speculation and research. While this applies heavily to biotech penny stocks, there are some additional factors to take into consideration. For one, what is the company doing in terms of new treatments, and where is it in the various stages of the approval process?
Second, does the company have a commercially available treatment, or does it have revenue from a licensing deal related to its compounds? With biotech companies, funding comes from selling or licensing a drug or compound or through fundraising methods. The latter has become extremely important in the past few months.
Because of the bullish interest in biotech penny stocks, many companies have seen share prices jump substantially in 2021. But, how do they access this newfound capital? Often, a biotech company will engage in fundraising via things like bought-deal offerings or selling debt.
We have to take into consideration the long-term effects of share dilution. But depending on the size of the offering and the company, this could be a non-issue. With all of this in mind, let’s take a look at four biotech penny stocks to watch for March 2021. With the market dragging down most stocks today, will these be on the “BTFD” list soon?
Biotech Penny Stocks to Watch
- Atossa Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ATOS)
- IsoRay Inc. (NYSE: ISR)
- Celsion Corp. (NASDAQ: CLSN)
- Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: TTNP)
Atossa Therapeutics Inc.
One of the more interesting biotech companies of the past year or so is Atossa Therapeutics. The company primarily works in the field of breast cancer treatment. However, in the past year, the company has transitioned many resources into fighting Covid-19. Specifically, the company is developing a compound known as AT-301, a nasal spray used for those recently diagnosed with the coronavirus.
In an announcement made on February 25th, the company stated that it received the final results from a Phase I clinical study regarding AT-301. The drug was very well tolerated by the patients and showed a high safety level. Steven Quay, CEO of Atossa, stated that “the results from this study are very encouraging, and we look forward to quickly commencing the next study of AT-301.”
Quay went on to state that “we recently received input from the FDA on this program and based in part on that input, we are now preparing to conduct an additional preclinical study which we expect to start this quarter.”
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This is a big deal for Atossa and one that investors have monitored. At the current time, AT-301 is one of the only drugs to treat Covid that can be taken intra-nasally. AT-301 works by blocking virus entry into the body. This means that it could be effective at both blocking and treating the coronavirus in the early stages of the disease. Of course, it will take more time for this treatment to be researched to the full extent. But in the meantime, ATOS could be a penny stock to watch.
IsoRay Inc.
ISR is a penny stock that we have covered a handful of times in the past few months. Through its subsidiaries, IsoRay is the only producer in the world of Cesium Blu brachytherapy seeds. If you aren’t familiar with this, don’t worry; you’re not alone. In short, this substance could have the potential to treat various types of cancer in patients. Because of this novel and breakthrough method, IsoRay has continued seeing heightened attention from all types of investors.
A few weeks ago, the company announced its second-quarter financials for 2021. In the results, revenue shot up by a solid 7% to $2.36 million. While the company did see a decline in the usage of some of its products, this is due solely to the impact of Covid on medical visits. For the quarter, gross profit came in at 49.4%, which is only a slight drop from the 50.4% it brought in during the previous years same quarter.
Lori Woods, CEO of IsoRay, stated that “we are very pleased that we have been able to continue to make progress this quarter despite the ongoing challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic has presented. Amongst the highlights has been our continued success in expanding adoption of Cesium-131 in our core prostate market.”
At the end of the quarter, the company reported around $9.5 million in cash on hand with zero debt. This is quite important for investors to consider, as most biotech companies have sizable debt amounts on the books. Lastly, IsoRay recently completed a public offering for roughly $51.75 million.
Though shares of ISR pulled back from their highs, the overall trend for the year remains bullish. Since the start of 2021, ISR stock is up over 80% so far.
Celsion Corp.
Another one of the biotech companies working on cancer treatments is Celsion Corp. Similar to Atossa, Celsion has transitioned many resources into producing treatments for Covid-19. This includes immunotherapies such as the nucleic acid vaccine it is producing to combat the coronavirus. Aside from its covid treatment, the company produces Gen-1, ThermoDox, and others to treat various types of cancer, including ovarian. About a week ago, the company announced that it had received FDA fast track designation for its GEN-1 compound. The goal of this is to treat various types of advanced-stage ovarian cancer. GEN-1 was produced using the company’s proprietary nanoparticle drug delivery platform known as TheraPlas.
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Michael Tardugno, CEO of Celsion stated that “fast track designation is an important step in developing GEN-1 for advanced ovarian cancer. Presuming the encouraging data we are generating in early clinical studies continues, this designation supports an expedited path to market.”
Additionally, the company has also announced the formation of a Vaccine Advisory Board to use its TheraPlas platform to create a vaccine for the coronavirus. Both of these pieces of news present investors with an exciting roadmap for the future of Celsion. One thing to keep in mind is that CLSN is both highly volatile and speculative. The penny stock jumped big during pre-market hours but pulled back during Thursday’s session. Even with this as the case, CLSN stock maintains trading levels much higher than where it began the year.
Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Another penny stock on our radar is TTNP. Titan Pharmaceuticals operates similarly to the aforementioned biotech penny stocks on this list. But, Titan works in a large range of files, including chronic condition treatment and medicine delivery. This includes drugs produced using its proprietary and clinically proven platform known as ProNeura. This technology allows for continuous and long-term drug delivery that could improve patients’ lives dramatically. At the beginning of the month, the company published early studies for its JT-09 ProNeura based substance. In the data, the compound is showing positive results. This substance is in development to treat moderate to severe pruritus in individuals.
In combination with the ProNeura platform, this drug could deliver a consistent stream of medicine to the body for up to six months or longer. Dr. Beebe DeVarney, COO of Titan, states that “these additional early positive data provides strong support for us to move forward with our planned non-clinical proof-of-concept study of JT-09 ProNeura implants in this animal itch model. This is an important next step for Titan towards developing a new treatment modality for moderate to severe chronic pruritus that is effective, patient-friendly, and convenient.”
