Clinical-stage biotechnology company Cocrystal Pharma (NASDAQ:COCP) focuses on developing drugs to fight viruses. So obviously, the onset of the novel coronavirus brought traders’ attention to COCP stock.
As InvestorPlace contributor William While explains, Cocrystal’s proposed Covid-19 treatment targets replication enzymes and protease, and may have the potential to treat all versions of the coronavirus.
Don’t get the wrong impression, as Cocrystal also has treatments in the pipeline targeting the influenza virus, hepatitis C virus and norovirus.
Those programs undoubtedly enhance the company’s value proposition. Nevertheless, most traders will probably want to know about Cocrystal’s Covid-19 treatment program, so that will be our primary focus today.
A Closer Look at COCP Stock
But first, let’s give some time and attention to our friends, the technical traders out there.
You’ll be glad to know that there could be a major opportunity with COCP stock as it appears to have entered the buy zone.
Whenever this stock gets close to $1, it doesn’t want to stay there for too long. On multiple occasions, the share price has literally doubled from that level.
I’ll give you three examples right now of COCP surging from the $1 area to at least $2:
- 92 cents on June 3, 2020 to $2.22 on July 20, 2020
- 87 cents on Nov. 3, 2020 to $2.16 on Nov. 30, 2020
- $1.13 on April 20, 2021 to $3.17 on May 4, 2021
And in late May, the stock might be reloading for another run-up. COCP stock is trading at this writing at $1.14. Could the next huge rally be just around the corner?
Anything’s possible in the wild, exciting world of biotech stocks.
Therapeutic and Prophylactic
As I alluded to earlier, what’s special about Cocrystal’s proposed Covid-19 treatment is that it might be able to address many strains of the virus – perhaps even all of the current ones.
In a recent update, Cocrystal President Sam Lee offered hope for a successful battle against Covid-19 on a global scale.
“We believe that, due to their novel mechanism of action, our protease inhibitors are likely to be effective against new variants of SARS-CoV-2. This may include the recent variants first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil and India,” Lee explained.
That’s exciting, no doubt about it. Yet, there’s even more to Cocrystal’s SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor, known as CDI-45205.
According to the company’s investor presentation, CDI-45205 is a potential “first-in-class therapeutic and prophylactic treatment.”
“Prophylactic” basically means preventative, so let’s stop and consider the ramifications of this.
As Cocrystal points out, there’s no currently approved Covid-19 antiviral prophylactic treatment.
Even in a time when many people are getting vaccinated against Covid-19, there’s still room for an antiviral prophylactic treatment to be developed and marketed worldwide.
Developing a Second Program
On top of all that, Cocrystal has plans to launch a second Covid-19 program “with additional antiviral compounds developed.”
Along with this, the company is developing a new class of SARS-CoV replication and transcription inhibitors.
And I’m glad to report that Cocrystal is well-capitalized to advance these and other clinical programs.
In a recently released fiscal and business update, Chairman and CEO Gary Wilcox asserted that Cocrystal has enough capital to fund its currently planned operations and product development programs through 2024.
In that press release, Lee provided encouraging updates on Cocrystal’s clinical programs to treat norovirus gastroenteritis as well as seasonal and pandemic influenza.
That’s great, but the investing community will surely be watching the company’s next updates on Cocrystal’s Covid-19 treatment programs extra carefully.
The Bottom Line
With COCP stock down in the buy zone, it’s hard to resist this biotech-sector opportunity.
And as Cocrystal Pharma advances novel antiviral treatments, stock traders should prepare in advance for the next positive catalyst.
On the date of publication, David Moadel did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
