Labopharm (DDSS) supplies yet another demonstration of investing in small biotechs. Information given to the FDA on painkiller tramadol was viewed as insufficient. As The Associated Press said: "The FDA stated that the company has not demonstrated the drug is effective because the statistical methods used to analyze data from the clinical trials didn’t address missing data related to patients who had dropped out of the studies."

And, that brought on hammer time. The stock has dropped 52% to $2.90 on volume of almost 1.5 million shares. On a typical day trading only amounts to about 121,000.

The stock’s 52-week high was $9.07.

Last year the company had $13 million in revenue and an operating loss of $20 million.

A real winner.

Douglas A. McIntyre