Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[Amrsto1000]

Remember this. I bought it 32 cents so much too early.

Stock Surge Rescues Tiny Techniclone From Brink

BY  EDMUND SANDERS

MARCH 11, 2000 12 AM PT


Four months ago, the prognosis for tiny Techniclone Corp. was bleak. The developer of experimental cancer treatments had run out of cash and laid off half the staff. The stock price languished at 27 cents a share. Even the company’s clinical trials--its only hope for survival--were about to fold for lack of funds.

What a difference Wall Street can make.

Thanks largely to investors’ latest obsession with the biotechnology sector, Techniclone shares have zoomed nearly 4,000% in three months, magically wiping away the company’s cash crunch.

ADVERTISEMENT

The stock surge is an increasingly common story in today’s fast-moving market, but Techniclone’s abrupt reversal of fortune--from the verge of bankruptcy to a Wall Street high-flier--is a dramatic example of just how influential such market mood-swings can be for a struggling company.

At Christmas, Techniclone was worth less than $25 million. Today its market value is nearly $1 billion.

“We’re amazed,” said John Bonfiglio, a onetime organic chemist who now is Techniclone’s interim president.