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- Aethlon Medical (AEMD) jumped as much as 465% Wednesday and trading volume exploded.
- The company said last week that its Hemopurifier treatment produced positive results in two critically ill COVID-19 patients.
- The surge in trading activity appears tied to a Zacks Research published a note Tuesday, and resulting discussion on social-networking platforms like StockTwits and Reddit.
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Shares of Aethlon Medical exploded as much as 465% to a two-year high on Wednesday despite not releasing any news since last week, when one of its devices showed positive results in two COVID-19 patients.
A June 8 report from Zacks Investment Research appeared to spark conversation on Reddit, the social-networking platform largely responsible for many of the recent price swings in so-called meme stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment.
AEMD also saw spiking interest on social media trading platform StockTwits, where message volume was more than 1,500% above average. In the market, traders had transacted 178 million units of AEMD as of 1 p.m. in New York, dwarfing the stock's average of 2.1 million per day over the past year.
The Zacks report released Tuesday noted that the company has expanded the commercial opportunity for its Hemopurifier device and possibility shortened the path to approval.
The prior week, on June 3, AEMD announced a publication of a "pre-print manuscript" highlighting two cases studies of critically ill COVID-19 patients treated with the Hemopurifier. The results showed it was able to successfully clear the virus and associated exosomes from the blood stream, CEO Charles Fisher said. One of the patients treated was successfully discharged from the hospital, though the other patient ultimately died because of "the advanced stage of the disease," Aethlon said in a press release.
"In summary, the two case studies indicate that the Hemopurifier successfully cleared SARS-CoV-2 virus and associated exosomes from the blood stream," said Zacks Research. "This resulted in a potential benefit for one of the critical COVID-19 patients treated. The two patients tolerated a total of nine Hemopurier treatments without side effects."