Ocean Biomedical, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCEA) is a Rhode Island-based biopharmaceutical company, which is focused on the development and commercialization of promising scientific assets from research and medical centers. Shares of the biopharma comp any are skyrocketing 324% through early trading on Thursday, February 23, 2023. Over the past three months, Ocean Biomedical has seen average daily volume of 320,090 shares. However, volume of 13.99 million shares or dollar volume of around $234.05 million, has already exchanged hands through early trading.
Shares of Ocean Biomedical are surging after the company announced a major discovery of bispecific antibodies that are able to target Chitinase 3-like-1 and immune checkpoint inhibitors. This means the company has found specific antibodies that have shown the ability to kill glioblastoma and melanoma cancer cells, as well as blocking metastasis of malignant melanoma cells in the lungs by over 90%.
Glioblastoma is a deadly brain cancer that maintains a 5-year survival rate of only 8% for patients between 45 and 54. Malignant melanoma is considered the most serious form of skin cancer, which has the ability to spread and metastasize in other organs. Once metastatic melanoma has reached Stage IV, the five-year survival rate is only 22.5%.
Ocean Biomedical came upon the discovery, after recent studies in the scientific community have shown tumor initiation and progression are often suppressed by the ability of the tumors to produce immunosuppressive proteins and active immunosuppressive pathways, which are called immune checkpoint inhibitors.
The company has seen through lab studies that Chitinase 3-like-1 (CHI3L1) has the ability to serve as a critical regulator of numerous cancer-causing pathways. As a result, Ocean Biomedical generated antibodies via a monoclonal antibody against CHI3L1 and bispecific antibodies that can simultaneously attack CHI3L1 and PD-1 or CTLA4 pathways.
“Bispecific antibodies that simultaneously target CHI3L1 and ICPI like PD-1 and or CTLA4 have an impressive and synergic ability to induce tumor cell death and prevent tumor metastasis compared to individual antibody moieties,” commented Dr. Jack A. Elias, Dean Emeritus of Medicine and Biological Sciences and Professor of Translational Science, Medicine and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Warren Alpert Medical School Brown University; Scientific co-founder.
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