Vascular Biogenics Ltd (VBLT)

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Vascular Biogenics Surges for Third Day on Cancer Drug Prospect
Gabrielle Coppola
September 23, 2015 — 12:39 AM IDT

Vascular Biogenics Ltd., the Israeli biotechnology company that is developing cancer treatments, rallied for a third day on bets it will show promising results from clinical drug trials at a medical conference in Europe this weekend.
The shares climbed 22 percent on Tuesday to $9.88, the highest since Feb. 13. Trading volume of seven million shares was almost 44 times the daily average of the past three months. The stock has soared 84 percent since Sept. 17, when the Or-Yehuda, Israel-based company said it would present data on its cancer drug VB-111 at a conference in Vienna on Sept. 27.
The drug is promising because it has shown signs of having an effect on ovarian, thyroid, and brain cancer. The science behind it could be “transformative” because it uses gene therapy to starve cancer cells of the blood they need to survive, said Gbola Amusa, an analyst at Chardan Capital Markets in New York. The drug’s approval process has been fast-tracked by U.S. regulators because it has shown signs that it can help cancer patients live longer.
“It’s rare that a company with a drug that seemingly works in three separate types of cancer has a market cap below $500 million,” said Amusa, who initiated coverage of the stock with a buy rating and $25 price target in a Sept. 21 note. “Somehow this company went under the radar for that long.”
The three-day surge in the stock has pushed the market value to $196 million from $106 million. Vascular Biogenics, which went public last fall, fell to a record low in March after a separate drug, VB-201, missed targets.