Soft is the best way to describe insider buying last week. Corporate executives have tightened the grip on their Apple pay accounts in the last few weeks. Perhaps, C-suite types are concerned about valuations as the S&P 500 is trading way above its five and 10-year averages. It could be input costs are rising via inflation and companies that make stuff are extremely sensitive to higher prices. It could be all the stimuli are pulling demand forward and decision makers are worried about the backside of the wall of money.
Maybe it’s the sum of all of the above and more. Whatever it is, insiders buying has slowed considerably in the last month or so. As a result, we don’t have the strongest roster of candidates to choose from this week.
A few insiders purchasing a small amount of Qualigen Therapeutics, Inc. (QLGN) is the only action that catches our attention and the minimum level of interest. Qualigen is a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutic products for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases, as well as expansion of its flagship FastPack® diagnostic platform. The FastPack® line of FDA-cleared and CE-Marked products has been used successfully in diagnostics since 2002.
Since April 16, 2021, three of the top executives bought stock in the emerging biotech. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Poirier invested $19,809, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Christopher Lotz $5,022, and Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer (EVP-CSO) Amy Broidrick $9,135. (1)
Admittedly, they are very small buys. However, we still consider it a cluster buy, especially with three top execs taking the same action in a small window. The trio jumps into Qualigen when the stock is trading at a multi-year low. In the past 52 weeks, QLGN has traded as high as $19.75 and as low as $1.71. Based on its one-year price range, the stock potentially has some significant upside.
There is not a fundamental case to be made for the tiny biotech as their sales dropped dramatically in the last nine months, maybe as a result of COVID and people staying away from hospitals and doctors’ offices for routine medical care.
Qualigen Therapeutics is going to be news dependent. Their product pipeline consists of three main treatments: (2)
- QN-165 for COVID-19
- QN-247 is an aptamer-based anti-cancer drug with potential to treat heterogeneous cancer types. Initial indication targets acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
- RAS-F: RAS is the most common cancer oncogene, present in one quarter of all cancers.
The company expects to have news regarding QN-165 and RAS-F in the first half of 2021, which is almost over and without announcements. News could be on the immediate horizon. All three should see additional news releases in the second half of 2021.
Emerging biotechs tend to pop or drop a lot based on the tone of news releases. Positive news can lead to substantial gains and bad news can evaporate market cap in a hurry.
Overall: Qualigen Therapeutics, Inc. (QLGN) is a hugely speculative play that will be positive news dependent. The company appears to be headed for an action-packed second half of 2021 with multiple announcements for their roster of potential treatments.
Cluster insider buying near a multi-year low is encouraging but was light in terms of dollars invested. We’ll be more confident if the trio, and others, continue to buy or step up their commitments by considerably increasing their outlays.
Qualigen Therapeutics, Inc. (QLGN) is a complete flyer and only appropriate for dollars you can afford to lose in total.
1 – https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1460702.htm#S2
2 – https://d1io3yog0oux5.cloudfront.net/_0203884364f5c1f61a4830e5baa712c4/qualigeninc/db/865/7399/pdf/Corporate+Deck_April+2021.pdf
