Small Cap Network Blog

No real surprises here…we mentioned this micro cap biotech stock was probably moving for a reason, and today our guess was confirmed. MIV Therapeutics (MIVT) presented some impressive news at Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference being held this week in Washington, D.C. The VESTASYNC heart stent - the one they’ve been working on forever - seems to be safe as well as effective, at least at the four-month mark.

In 13 of the 15 patients implanted with the hydroxyapatite-coated stent, the results and physical impact of the stent are well within acceptable tolerances. Most importantly, there’s no evidence of thrombosis whatsoever. That was the key goal behind the stent’s coating, as other coated stents have recently been implicated in major problems with post-stent-implant complications…most thrombosis.

Though I’m no biotechnician, this sounds very encouraging. I know four months isn’t a long time, but considering they bothered to present anything at all this soon tells me it’s worthy data. The efficacy to-date has been good enough to merit the planning of a wider-scale test of the same stent. 

The stock was actually off a little today in the wake of the news. However, I also think the blast-off from a month ago was ultimately driven by this news - even before it was official.

At this point I believe the next milestone for MIVT is at 70 cents and 74 cents. We saw a handful of peaks there earlier in the year. If we can get past that zone with this recent push, maybe MIVT will be one of our Cinderella stories for 2007.

Click here for the news release

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Regular readers of the Small Cap Network site - and the Small Cap Network blog in particular - will know we’ve been watching micro cap biotech company MIV Therapeutics (MIVT) very closely of late. Why? Mostly because of our technical analysis of the chart. Shares started hinting at a breakout move a couple of weeks ago. Though the bears had a couple of opportunities to put out the fire, the buyers have remained persistent. Based on the chart, as well as other factors, I have to start liking this micro cap stock pick again.

I mentioned more than a few times in recent blog posts that the key to it all was getting back above the key Fibonacci retracement lines following a pretty poor summer/fall. MIVT fell from 60 cents in July to almost 30 cents last month. Just to be on the safe side, I went all the way back to January’s and February’s peak of 74 cents to draw my Fib lines. You know what? MIVT has still topped the 38.2% and 61.8% retracement lines, at 48 cents and 58 cents respectively. Currently at 68 cents, this micro cap stock is actually back above the level it was trading at when we picked it in April.

The distinguishing factor this time around? Volume…there’s lots of it (a lot more than with prior rallies).

The next milestone is 74 cents…only 6 cents away. Why is that significant? That’s where we topped out early in the year. (I could have used December’s peak of $1.07 as the next hurdle, but that surge was emotion/volatility-based, and doesn’t mean as much to me. I want to use a stock’s organic highs and lows as my guideposts.) A move past 74 cents, I believe, could really light the fires…perhaps even more so than the breaks past 48 and 58 cents did.

Needless to say, the past two weeks have been huge for this micro cap biotech company, and very rewarding for those investors who stayed in (or got back in when we first started talking about it again a few days ago). I think it may be just the beginning though. Keep your eye on the 74 cent mark.

Side Note: There’s a lesson to be learned here, and that is, be ready. When MIVT broke the ceilings of its Fibonacci lines, it blasted well past them in a matter of minutes. Sometimes waiting makes sense, but sometimes you gotta’ take a chance before the rest of the crowd does. I doubt many people were able to capture the majority of the move past the key Fibonacci retracement levels once the rally started. 

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I just knew there had to be more to the story behind micro cap company MIV Therapeutics’ (MIVT) recent rally. The deal with Smith & Nephew is likely to be important, but not the kind of thing that pushes a stock (in dire straits, no less) up from 37 cents to 57 cents. Earlier today they announced they’d be presenting information about their coated heart stent trials at the upcoming Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference. (I’ll bet that’s a wild weekend, huh?) The conference is a great opportunity for a micro cap company to gain visibility in the field.

Just to get everyone up to speed, MIV has been working on a heart stent that is coated with hydroxyapatite, or HAP. Heart stents have been the topic of a much heated debate lately. The older bare-metal ones are now known to eventually fall apart near a patient’s heart, as well as negatively interact with artery walls. To solve the problem, manufacturers started coating heart stents. The problem is, the coating caused other problems that were just as bad. HAP is expected to be completely non-reactive, as well as durable.

But first, the company had to run a series or real-life trials…in humans. We discussed the first implantation back in June.

As it turns out, they’ve apparently implanted 14 more HAP-coated stents since then. The study they’ll be reviewing at the conference is a 15-patient study.

I caution anyone against reading too much into anything here. Just because MIVT is talking about their research doesn’t mean it’s ready. All the same, it’s an encouraging step. I believe this news leaked out a few days ago, and is the primary cause for the recent strength. Maybe it’s all deserved, but I don’t think it’s a game-changer.

As for the stock, things were great until today, then they just dwindled after reaching a high of 63 cents. Buy the rumor, sell the news? Looks like it to me. Let’s leave it alone for now and see how things take shape over the next few days. The Fibonacci lines are my primary guideposts here. I want to see a good pullback and recovery before getting excited again….there’s a little too much froth for my comfort.

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Micro cap stock trading is fun, isn’t it? It’s even more fun when it’s a biotech stock. One minute things finally look ready to improve. The next minute, a stock has stopped and turned on a dime. In this case, the micro cap stock I’m talking about is MIV Therapeutics (MIVT). This biotech name appeared to be working on a major recovery last week, when it surged above some key resistance lines on high volume. However, the rally stalled at 46 cents. 

In the interest of fair play, the pullback from 46 cents to the current level of 40 cents isn’t a disaster. If you look closely, there was practically no volume behind the selling. So, maybe the buyers are just taking a break.

As far as what to do about it, my take is still the same as you read in the October 2nd blog entry. Basically, I’m waiting for MIVT to cross back above the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level. Yeah, I’m a technical analysis junkie, but in this case it saved me from jumping in too soon. That line is at 48 cents.

It merits repeating…there’s been little to no volume behind this pullback.

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This micro cap biotech stock had basically been put on a shelf a few weeks ago, with the chart’s technical trend being lethargically bearish, and no help coming from the company’s publicity department. However - and as we said in a blog entry at the time - somebody has started stirring MIV Therapeutics’ (MIVT) pot again. The stock jumped up its chart after finding support at 32 cents a couple of days in a row, and now seem to be setting up shop around 45 cents. That’s not a bad 40% move (28% from the lowest closing price), especially considering it took less than a week to make.

Though the move was compelling, there were a couple of things revealed by some technical analysis we wanted to see cleaned up before we got too excited about the renewed buying interest (even though there’s still no public reason why things are different now).

The first checkpoint was a move above the 50 day moving average line (purple), and the 20 day line (red)…both of which had been resistance areas on the recent chart. Well, you can cross them off the list - both have been surpassed.

The second feat we wanted to see was a move above the first Fibonacci retracement line - the 38.2% retracement (all the Fib lines are blue). At the time we first discussed it, it was plotted it at 46 cents. But, after taking some more time to study the chart, we’ve actually raised the bar to 48 cents. Why? We’ve decided to use February’s peak as the high level of our Fibonacci numbers. This will add an element of certainty to any breakout move, if and when it’s topped.

Anyway, we still think it’s worth watching, and maybe even trading - if some of these last barriers can be tackled. I’m not sure I’d make an investment of it just yet (though you ever really know).

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It’s about time. Just a few weeks after announcing the first human implant of their next-generation coated heart stent, small cap biotech company MIV Therapeutics (MIVT) seemed to fall of the face of the earth - partially bringing their stock with them. Then today out of nowhere, the stock has turned into a rocket thanks to some only mediocre news…the company is now collaborating with orthopedic device-maker Smith & Nephew. The two companies intend to co-develop drug-delivering orthopedic devices. The stock jumped more than 15% on the news, on the most volume we’ve seen since July.

Don’t get me wrong - I think MIVT is an undervalued stock. I just don’t know if the Smith & Nephew news is a real reason for the stock to finally perk up. It could be months or even years before the two organizations can start co-manufacturing a thing.

What I really think is that MIVT was ready and waiting to rebound; all the market needed was an excuse. That’s fine - if that’s what it takes, so be it.

Though I’m interested in owning an undervalued stock, based on the recent struggle for this stock, I’d personally rather see the 50 day line crossed again at 44 cents before taking the plunge. It’s only a couple of pennies above where we are now, so it’s not like you’d have to leave a lot on the table to get a little extra certainty under your belt (if there’s even such a thing as ‘certainty’ anymore).

If you wanted to add to the certainty, you could even wait to see MIVT cross the 46 cent mark. That’s where the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement line is.

….and I for one am more than a little excited. After learning in early June that an MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT) biocompatible heart stent had been implanted in a human for the first time, I really felt like the company had passed a milestone. It looks like some other (big) investors agreed, as MIV raised $11.7 million a few days ago with a private placement deal. Other than those two tidbits though, we haven’t heard a lot from the company lately.

So why am I excited? Because the company had a bunch of things going in before that….things I’d like to hear more about. Specifically, in April, we learned MIV’s acquisition of Biosync Scientific (and its heart stent technology) was finally reaping rewards, as the company began selling those Biosync stents and related devices in India, parts of Asia, and parts of Europe. It was MIV’s first-ever revenue, and though those stents being sold weren’t the highly-promising biocompatible stents MIV has been developing for a while now, revenue is still revenue.

Plus, I’d also like to hear the company’s initial thoughts on getting their first hydroxyapatite-coated stent into a patient.

Fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer for an update - MIV Therapeutics will be hosting a conference call to get all of us up to speed.

The call is scheduled for Friday, July 13th, at 11 a.m. EST. Callers within the United States can access the conference call by calling (800) 398-9402. International callers can dial (612) 234-9960. When prompted, just tell the operator you would like to connect to the MIV Therapeutics conference call.

You can also listen to the online audio web simulcast of the call, accessible by clicking here. 

Still hearing the echoes of their next-generation biocompatible stent finally being implanted into a human, late last week we heard of yet another big victory for MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT)….and probably its shareholders.

What do you think it means when a company can attract $11.7 million worth of capital investment from institutional-level owners? Considering the current market cap is $51.5 million, I’d say it’s a big statement about what these people see in store for these new heart stents.

The deal was a private placement deal, garnering 50 cents worth of funding for each of the 25.1 million shares sold. For each share purchased, the buyer also received a half-share warrant to buy the stock at 55 cents, exercisable over the next five years. The gross size of the transaction was $12.5 million, while MIV netted $11.7 million.

The company spent $6 million in 2005, and a little over $9 million in 2006. Though the onset of the next stage of testing for their next-generation hydroxyapatite-coated stents may up their expenses somewhat, also keep in mind they recently purchased a handful of revenue-producing properties. So, it seems some of that added cash outflow is going to be offset by something besides this fund-raising.

While it’s still not clear at what point in time the new stents will win widespread approval, perhaps this cash infusion will go far in seeing them through to that point (maybe all the way?). Whatever the case, this is a big win for MIV Therapeutics….a lot of smart money just jumped on the opportunity with big bucks. That goes a long way with me.

For more, click here.

You can always tell the quality of a company by the kind of people they attract - good quality companies attract good quality people. In terms of spotting solid investment opportunities, maybe you could consider it reverse-association….look for stocks of companies that the industry’s top people think highly of.

With that premise in mind, I think MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT) was paid a nice complement yesterday. Dr. Daljeet Singh Gambhir, Director of Cardiology and Chief Executive Officer of the Kailash Heart Institute is now a clinical advisor to MIVT-India.

This is a pretty big deal for a couple of reasons. MIV’s stents are already approved and being sold on some international markets. But, this sends a loud message to the medial community….MIV is going full throttle with continued development of these biocompatible stents in an effort to get them approved in other regions.

Second, to bring in someone of Gambhir’s caliber speaks very highly of the technology. Why is he such a meaningful addition? He’s done 10,000 angioplasties over the past 25 years. He also established the facility for Radiation Therapy for the treatment of coronary restenosis at the G.B. Pant Hospital in New Delhi. In other words, the guy knows his way around a human heart. When he wants to get involved with MIV’s stent technology at a time when many other doctors are looking for stent alternatives is significant. What is it that he sees exactly? I have to think it’s an encouraging sign.

I’m still stunned you can own shares at 61 cents. And yes, I still think they’re a big bargain. People, this is a billion dollar business MIV is getting into, and with JNJ pulling one of their biocompatible stent attempts off the drawing board, I just see MIV’s competitive advantage building and building.

In fact, revenues are already being generated on some fronts. I feel it’s only a matter of time before the payoff comes. However, I also think it could be big when it hits.

For more, click here.

Did anybody else catch this morning’s news about Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)? One of the company’s drug-coated heart stents - currently in the experimental stage - was determined to not be worth further development. Not only is the company dropping the trials of the drug-coated stent, but they’re also discontinuing sales of this CoStar stent, even in countries where it’s been approved.

The company has another drug-coated stent already on the market, and says they intend to use that coating to develop a new version of the stent being dropped from R&D. However, it seems as if that’s a ‘back to square one’ move.

So what? This may be a boon for MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT) and its drug-coated stent. MIV’s stents have already tested to be durable as well as safe…as is the primary intent of this second-generation stent technology. Now, there seems to be one less competitor in the lucrative stent market (about a $6 billion market annually).

Even if MIV only gets a fraction of the business J&J had (or was going to get), we’re still talking multi-millions here. Click here for the full background on MIV’s opportunity, which may have just gotten a whole lot bigger.

And yes, I think this is yet one more reason to own MIVT shares. I like the way the stock has remained scrappy, finding support at the 20 day average line and continuing to push higher. The next milestone I see is the 74 cent mark, where we topped in January and February. A move past that level would be a new multi-month high, and could finally spark the buying interest I feel is due here.

As if on cue immediately following the news of the Biosync acquisition, yesterday we learned MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT) has enlisted the help of a major consulting firm in Europe. The goal? To maximize sales and marketing results in that market.

The consultant is QUILT Solutions. They’re business development gurus specializing in the biopharmaceutical arena, with projects going on across the globe. As far as MIV is concerned though, the focus will be limited to Europe for the time being….where recently-acquired Biosync’s eight CE-marked stents and/or related products are already approved for use.

Our take? While getting QUILT on board may not pay dividends tomorrow, in terms of the ‘bigger picture’ this could be a bigger deal than anyone really understands right now. It can be tough to break into any market anywhere. Though I wasn’t familiar with QUILT prior to this news, it didn’t take me long to decide they know their stuff. I suspect they’ll do well in getting MIV’s marketing/sales effort up and running in Europe.

Of course, I think the real benefit here is the establishment of marketing channels for MIV’s proprietary coated heart stents. I’m not going to belabor the value of them…..we’ve done that plenty already (click here to get up to speed if you’re not). The point I feel worth making is, once the R&D work is done on that generation of stents - and they’re ready to mass market - I think that product line should be able to hit the ground running in Europe, so to speak. 

For more on the QUILT Solutions news, click here.

Well, that didn’t take too long. It was less than two weeks ago we re-introduced MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT) to you, as it looked like their proprietary heart stent coating was starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. As it turns at, MIV was actually already at the end of the tunnel.

If I had to sum up today’s news with one word, ‘viability‘ would have to be the one I chose. Why? Because, MIV Therapeutics has already sold some of their state-of-the-art heart stents. As a quick reminder, the stent coating MIV developed appears to be a superior choice, as previous coatings (or even uncoated stents) solve one medical problem - but create another. MIV’s stents avoid thrombosis (scarring), and, they recently passed a fatigue test where FDA standards were applied.

More than that, they were already planning put these stent systems on the market (where they were approved) next quarter. So, we could look forward to some revenues in the second half of this year, right?

Wrong! Try THIS quarter. They’ve already delivered and gotten paid for these next-generation heart stents. (Kudos to them for even being able to keep it a secret as long as they did.) No word on where they were sold, or how many, but that’s not the point…..I think the important piece of today’s announcement is that they’re selling them at all. It all starts with the first one.

If you were skeptical of being an MIVT owner, we feel this should ease your worries quite a bit…..looks like this stent technology is for real.

For more on the news, click here.

In the meantime, we’re a little shocked to be able to say you can jump into an MIVT position at basically where the stock was when we featured it a week and a half ago. We got a good jump right after our alert, but MIVT has eased back from 67 cents to about 60 cents….for now. I can’t imagine it staying in this area for too long though, once today’s news starts to trickle down.

I see a support line at 51 cents, though our suggested stop is 34 cents. The target is still just north of $1.60. In the meantime, we may be dealing with a short-term ceiling around 74 cents. If it breaks though, then look out - this thing could end up launching like a rocket. First things first though.

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With all the specific news items we’ve needed to cover for MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT), we really haven’t had much of a chance to offer a bird’s eye view of what MIV is, and why an investor would be interested.

Fortunately, with a little help, we can do that today.

To get a very recent investor fact sheet, click here. We just reviewed it for ourselves, and it was thorough, yet easy to read (not to mention perfectly brief). For more in-depth data and multi-media presentations, go here. Your name and address may be required.

Last weekend when we said MIV Therapeutics (OTCBB: MIVT) looked very close to bringing a cutting-edge heart stent to the market, we had no idea how close we really were. Yesterday afternoon, MIV announced that not one, but EIGHT new medical devices are now ready to drive revenue in several global markets.

Among the newly-launched products are two stents, and all the necessary equipment to implant them. All the devices are already approved for use in Europe, India, and Asia. The roll-out will take place over the next few months.

And on a side note, that’s the value of a company that’s thinking globally. In our experience the United States is relatively slow in getting new medicines and biotech advancements introduced; the FDA’s pains-taking approval process doesn’t speed things up either. However, the rest of the world usually seems to be considerably more progressive in getting good products on the market.

As we read between the lines - and even in taking the news at face value - it’s clear to us MIV has a substantial overseas opportunity. Like the press release said, we’re talking about billions worth of medical product dollars up for grabs.

And, we don’t think we have to pound the table too hard on the benefit of MIV’s technology - they seem to have solved one of the gigantic problems with heart stents, which is thrombosis (scarring of the artery wall). It’s true - a heart stent coated with MIV’s hydroxyapatite recently passed the FDA’s fatigue test.

Given that this test was passed, and the rest of the world has already deemed the company’s stents fit for use (per yesterday’s news), we feel there’s a very strong likelihood MIV’s new technology will eventually be approved in the U.S. as well.

But in the meantime, we feel investors (and heart patients for that matter) would be justified in a little celebration.

We’ll just leave it at this…MIVT looks to be one of the strongest biotech opportunities we’ve seen in a long time. Better yet, eight of their products just now entered the revenue-bearing stage in multiple geopolitical markets. No waiting for approval is necessary - the possibility is now a reality.

Click here for the press release, and if you missed our original profile on MIVT this past weekend, be sure to take a look by clicking here - good stuff.

Don’t forget, SmallCap Digest offers free stock ideas and market commentary through our e-newsletter. Be sure to sign up today using the link in the top left corner…and don’t forget to respond to the confirmation e-mail.

Back in our July 6th edition, we took a look at MIV Therapeutics’ (OTCBB: MIVT) medical breakthrough in the field of biocompatible coatings. In a nutshell, the company was on the verge of solving a growing problem with heart stents - the current coating (or lack thereof) was a danger to patients. MIV’s Hydroxyapatite (or ‘HAp’, for short) was the solution, as it had been shown to not cause the same problems created by traditional heart stents. The technology, for lack of a better word, is miraculous.

Another step in the evolutionary process of Hydroxyapatite was taken today, when the company named Joseph P. Carrozza, Jr., M.D as the newest member of the company’s scientific advisory board. Dr. Carrozza certainly has the chops to help MIV…he’s the Chief of Interventional Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a widely recognized expert in the field of interventional cardiology. While nobody here at the SmallCap Digest can tell you the difference between Hydroxyapatite and hepatitis, we have no doubt Carrozza’s credentials make him an excellent addition to the MIV team.

To see the whole press release, click here.

Also, MIV Therapeutics announced today it has entered into a formal agreement to acquire (subject to the prior satisfaction of certain conditions) Vascore Medical (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. Vascore is a Chinese manufacturer of advanced cardiovascular stents and other medical devices.

As for the stock, it’s hard to believe these announcements are the sole reason behind today’s 16% rally. However, it’s also easy to miss the boat while trying to rationalize. The move from 55 cents to 64 cents is big, and it’s happening on big volume. And now (in retrospect) we can see the support line at the 50 cent level extending all the way back to June of 2005. A 38% retracement from that low puts the stock right at $1…a move that isn’t out of the question if today’s rally can get some traction tomorrow and beyond. As for value, you don’t need is to tell you shares are beaten up - just look at the chart. MIVT could make for a high-powered value play.

Well, it happened. The news about MIV Therapeutics’ (OTCBB: MIVT) coated heart stent apparently started getting some traction, as shares are through the roof today - up by more than 25% as of the last look.

Yes, this is the same MIV Therapeutics we highlighted in last Thursday’s edition…the same one that’s up on big volume today…and the same one breaking above some key resistance levels. As we discussed then,  investors just needed to hear the story. Now that they’ve heard it, it’s clear the market wants to jump on board. All that was needed was a gentle push in the right direction.

Although we’d like to take credit, we really didn’t do anything except report the news. MIV Therapeutics employees deserve any credit, since they’re the ones who developed Hydroxyapatite (or ‘HAp’, for short). That’s the coating for MIV’s third-generation heart stent, and it’s particularly important to all of us simply because it may be the only safe heart stent coating available for medical use. As you may recall from Thursday’s review, the coatings currently used for heart stents are now known to cause other medical problems. HAp, however, doesn’t appear to cause any of those typical complications.

The stock’s gains today reflect the good news, but the gain isn’t even the big deal (ok it’s not the biggest deal). What we’re impressed by is the move past May’s peak of 78 cents, as well as the move past the 50-day and 100-day moving average lines. Nothing gathers more future  investors than present gains, and with the size of the gain today - paired with all that resistance being broken - you can bet more and more interested buyers will be taking a look at MIVT.

By the way, MIV Therapeutics will be hosting conference call for shareholders at 12:00 PM Eastern on Tuesday, July 11th. During the call, President Mark Landy will be discussing the same news, but perhaps in greater detail. To participate in the conference call, investors within the United States may dial (888) 428-4478 in advance of the call. When prompted, please tell the operator that you would like to connect to the MIV Therapeutics conference call. International callers can dial (612) 332-0228.