Is Wednesday’s Opexa Jump Justified?

Opexa (OPXA) shares jumped on Wednesday after the first half an existing Novartis (NVS) obligation was received.

A month and a half ago, Opexa Therapeutics, then a $6 million company, saw its value quadruple in a day, after pharmaceutical giant Novartis bought its stem cell research technology. The deal cost Novartis $3 million up front, plus $1 million over six months as a technology transfer fee. Then, upon the successful development and marketing of the newly acquired technology, additional commercial milestone payments were expected to earn Opexa as much as $50 million.

The first half of the six-month $1 million obligation was announced today. Opexa received $500,000 from the Swiss drugmaker and also announced $850,000 in revenue from the exercise of outstanding warrants, according to Reuters. Investors are cheering the news, sending shares higher by 20%.

As a whole, the Stem Cell Stocks Index is ahead by 5% today. It is currently outperforming the S&P 500 by 16% over the last month.

Opexa’s news is taking attention away from the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit, where a number of the Index’s components are presenting.

Representatives from StemCells (NADSAQ: STEM), Osiris Therapeutics (OSIR), Celgene (CELG), and Geron (GERN) were all scheduled to speak at the conference. Baxter International (BAX), a component of the Swine and Bird Flu Stocks Index, and General Electric’s (GE) GE Healthcare unit will also be in attendance.

Tags: BAX, CELG, GE, GERN, NVS, OPXA, OSIR, STEM