AEHR, CYTK, NRXP Stock Spikes Despite Resurgence Fears

NRXP rallies on COVID-related clinical trial news…
Huge purchase order for AEHR sends shares surging…
CYTK pops after releasing results of clinical trial for heart medicine…

Wall Street is taking a beating amid new fears of a COVID resurgence, with the major indexes falling sharply.

But a closer look at the stock market shows there are still bright spots even on a deep red day like today.

Let’s take a look at three of the biggest runners of the day and the news that prompted shares to jump.

Table of Contents

1 NRXP Stock Surges on Positive COVID Treatment News
2 AEHR Stock Jumps on Huge Purchase Order
3 CYTK Stock Hits Highest Level In More Than a Decade
4 One Platform. One System. Every Tool

NRXP Stock Surges on Positive COVID Treatment News

NRx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NRXP) popped as much as 74% in today’s session after releasing evidence that shows its COVID treatment prevents a potentially deadly condition in patients infected with the virus.

NRXP stock ended the day 45.31% higher.

The company presented data that shows its treatment ZYESAMI (aviptadil) helps to prevent a “cytokine storm” in COVID-19 patients.

A sudden rise in cytokines has been associated with death in COVID-19 and this treatment appears to prevent that increase.

NRx Pharma said, “data from randomized Phase 2b/3 trial shows patients treated with ZYESAMI are significantly less likely to experience IL-6 cytokine rise and have improved survival and recovery from respiratory failure compared to patients receiving placebo.”

The company submitted this data to the FDA as part of its application for an Emergency Use Authorization for the treatment.

It is also “submitting a biomarker letter of intent to the FDA as part of its biomarker program.”

NRx Chairman and CEO Jonathan Javitt said, “At a time when hospital admissions for COVID are rising worldwide, these placebo-controlled biomarker data suggest that aviptadil may play a critical role in preventing the sudden elevation of cytokines that is associated with mortality.”

“This linkage between the clinical effect of aviptadil on survival and recovery and a measurable biologic change in cytokine levels provides a basis for seeking a biomarker-based regulatory path as envisioned by the 21st Century Cures Act.

AEHR Stock Jumps on Huge Purchase Order

Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR) surged as much as 95% after announcing “it has received a $10.8 million single purchase order from its lead silicon carbide test and burn-in customer.”

That order is for “multiple FOX-XP systems and full sets of WaferPak Contactors to meet their increased production capacity needs.”

AEHR stock closed up 87.94%.

Aehr is “a worldwide supplier of semiconductor test and reliability qualification equipment.”

The company did not identify the customer who placed the order only saying it is “a leading Fortune 500 supplier of semiconductor devices with a significant customer base in the automotive semiconductor market.”

The items are expected to ship within the next six months.

President and CEO of Aehr Test Systems, Gayn Erickson said, “These follow-on orders for additional FOX-XP systems and WaferPaks are the result of our working closely with this lead customer to achieve their test requirements and validation of our FOX-XP platform and WaferPak full wafer contactors as their production qualified solution.”

He also said they expect more orders from this customer in the future.

“This customer continues to forecast orders for multiple additional FOX systems and WaferPak Contactors this fiscal year and a significant number of systems and WaferPaks over the next several years due to electric vehicle semiconductor test and burn-in demand.”

Aehr says silicone carbide semiconductors have emerged as “the preferred technology for battery electric vehicle power conversion in on-board and off-board electric vehicle battery chargers, and the electric power conversion and control of the electric engines.”

Aehr’s technology allows multiple wafers of those semiconductors to be tested all at once instead of one at a time.

It also tests and monitors all devices during the “burn-in” process.

CYTK Stock Hits Highest Level In More Than a Decade

Cytokinetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CYTK) rose as much as 61% in early trade to its highest price since October 2009 after the pharmaceutical company announced positive results of a recent clinical trial.

CYTK stock ended the session 40.41% higher.

The company said the Phase 2 clinical trial of its CK-274 drug showed promising results for those with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

HCM is defined by the Mayo Clinic as “a disease in which the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick (hypertrophied). The thickened heart muscle can make it harder for the heart to pump blood.”

Cytokinetics said the results “demonstrated that treatment with CK-274 for 10 weeks resulted in statistically significant reductions from baseline compared to placebo.”

The results show 92.9% of patients who received the high dose achieved significant improvements in blood flow after 10-weeks while 78.6% of those in low-dose group achieved the same result.

Cytokinetics said it now plans to conduct a Phase 3 trial before the end of the year.

The company’s Executive Vice President of Research & Development said, “These findings inform the design of our Phase 3 trial, in which we expect to titrate patients with a flexible dosing scheme of 5, 10, 15, and 20 mg to personalize and maximize the potential treatment effect for patients.”