Volume Spike Investor

Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACHN) is one of the biggest percentage gainers if not the biggest this morning as investors and traders keep looking for those exponential gainers in low-priced small-cap biotech shares.  The stock late yesterday reported “proof of concept data” from the preliminary results of its phase 1b clinical trial of ACH-1625.  This showed that treatment with ACH-1625 achieved a mean 3.94 log10 reduction in HCV RNA after five-day monotherapy, with continued good safety and tolerability in patients with hepatitis C. ACH-1625 is an inhibitor of HCV NS3 protease that was discovered and is being developed by Achillion.  Keep in mind that Phae I data is very preliminary.  Shares are up 65% at $3.55 after closing at $2.15 yesterday and versus a prior 52-week range of $0.65 to $2.42.  At 8:36 AM EST we have also seen close to 450,000 shares trade hands, which is already 10-times a whole day’s average trading volume.

JON OGG