Ocean Biomedical Shares Are Riding A Wave Of Excitement Higher: What's Going On?

Shares of low-float biopharma company Ocean Biomedical Inc OCEA are skyrocketing Thursday after the company issued a press release touting the discovery of bispecific antibodies and immune checkpoint inhibitors that kill glioblastoma and melanoma cells and block the metastasis of malignant melanoma cells to the lung by over 90%.

What To Know: Ocean Biomedical said recent studies from its laboratory have demonstrated that Chitinase 3-like-1 (CHI3L1) is a critical regulator of a number of key cancer-causing pathways. CHI3L1 has the ability to inhibit tumor cell death and the expression of the tumor suppressors P53 and PTEN. It also stimulates the B-RAF protooncogene.

"Most recently we have discovered that CHI3L1 is a 'master regulator' of ICPI including key elements of the PD-1 and CTLA4 pathways," the company said.

Ocean Biomedical noted that it generated bispecific antibodies that simultaneously target CHI3L1 and PD-1 or CTLA4.

"With our discovery that CHI3L1 is a critical regulator of a number of key cancer-causing pathways by highlighting its ability to inhibit tumor cell death (apoptosis) this therapy has the potential to save thousands of lives of people effected from NSCLC and GBM," said Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Ocean Biomedical.

Ocean Biomedical is a biopharma company that aims to accelerate the development and commercialization of scientifically compelling assets from research universities and medical centers. 

See Also: Moderna's Q4 Earnings Fall 68% On Sliding COVID-19 Vaccine Revenues, Miss Earnings Expectations

OCEA Price Action: Ocean Biomedical shares made new 52-week highs on Thursday, touching $26 before pulling back.

The stock was up 244.3% at $16.56 at time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Konstantin Kolosov from Pixabay.