Speculative Swine Flu Stocks Make Last Stand (NVAX, GNBT, BCRX, PURE, VICL, VIVO, AVII)

It looks like everyone has figured out that swine flu was more of a media pandemic rather than a disease or viral pandemic.  Had this been November as flu season was starting, that might have been a bigger deal.  We have seen substantial pullbacks after the massive gains seen in the speculative swine flu stocks.  Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX), Generex Biotechnology Corp. (NASDAQ: GNBT), BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: BCRX), Pure Bioscience (NASDAQ: PURE), Vical Inc (NASDAQ: VICL), Meridian Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ: VIVO), and AVI BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII) have all begun their overbought roll-over.

Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) gained almost 15% to $1.93 today, but this is down about half from last week’s highs of $3.88; shares were at $0.81 before the swine flu scare came out.  Today’s excitement was on a second Phase II enrollment for flu vaccine studies.

Generex Biotechnology Corp. (NASDAQ: GNBT) was up 18% today at $0.438; shares peaked at $0.70 last week and were at $0.27 before the swine flu scare came out.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: BCRX) rose 14% to $3.24; shares peaked at $4.89 last week and were at $1.75 before the swine flu scare came out.

Pure Bioscience (NASDAQ: PURE) was down 1.2% at $2,40; shares peaked at $3.19 last week and were at $1.75 before the swine flu scare came out.

Vical Inc (NASDAQ: VICL) fell by 7% to $2.09; shares peaked at $3.30 last week and were at $2.40 before the swine flu scare came out.

Meridian Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ: VIVO) were up barely above flat at $17.69; shares peaked at $18.30 last week and were at $16.13 before the swine flu scare came out.

AVI BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII) was flat at $0.76; shares peaked at $1.29 last week and  were at $0.74 before the swine flu scare came out.

Jon C. Ogg