I wouldn't necessarily call this great press. Read the part I pasted below. It shows what I was trying to point out: this company has produced nothing and they don't even have their accelerator operational. I also was told that one of their vice presidents met recently for two hours with an industry expert in radiopharmaceutical production trying to get him to come on board to help them. He gave them a flat no.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I'll admit to a small short position in this company. It is also the first time I have ever shorted a stock. The only reason I did it is because I am in disbelief that anyone would pay in excess of $30/share for a company that has never shown a profit let alone produced a product. Flame me if you wish but I believe that both sides of an argument are necessary for truly informed investing.
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
No published earnings estimates are available and the company hasn't even tested its accelerator. Getting any kind of
handle on such a very high-tech company at this development stage is certainly a challenge.
On the positive side, International Isotopes has put together an impressive advisory board. It includes Norman
Hackerman, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Edward A. Knapp, founder and president of the Santa
Fe Institute and a former director of the Accelerator Technology Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory, and
several past presidents of the Society of Nuclear Medicine.
The company also believes that when its LINAC is operational, it will be able to produce radioisotopes at one-fifth
the unit cost and five times the volume of any other currently operating cyclotron.
On the other hand, the company's prospectus indicates that a competitive 30 MeV cyclotron radioisotope production
facility would cost $10 to $12 million and take 2-3 years to become operational. That's a barrier to entry, but not a
huge one.
Currently, Dupont Merck Pharmaceutical, Mallinckrodt Medical, Amersham Medi-Physics, and Theragenics produce
some of the more commonly used radioisotopes that International Isotopes plans to produce. Investors interested in
researching this area of the biotech world would probably do well to talk to these companies before chasing
International Isotopes' afterglow. |
