Shares of Cytosorbents Corporation (CTSO) were on the move to open the new trading week after an announcement that the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded the small company nearly four millions dollars from the Dialysis-Like Therapeutics (DLT) program to treat sepsis. The award is pending satisfactory achievement of key milestones, according to information contained within the press release.
Cytosorbents' flagship product, CytoSorb, was approved last year in Europe for the treatment of severe sepsis and other indications where high cytokines are present in a patient's blood. Since the approval, the company has worked meticulously to launch the product - in Germany first - while keeping costs minimal in order to preserve company and shareholder value along the way.
Some investors wonder why such a potentially breakthrough product has not yet gained much more investor attention after the approval, however, and some of those concerns revolve around the small European trial size and lack of overwhelming support for the technology. The DARPA award addresses those concerns somewhat, as it comes as a nice sign of validation and confidence in the technology. DARPA has provided funding for much of this generation's "next-generation" technology - including the advent of the Internet - and any company welcomes the validation that DARPA money brings with it. To address the small European trial size, there may be some legitimacy to those concerns, but it's also telling that the European authorities approved CytoSorb before the final results for the trial were even compiled. That's huge, especially since there is no effective treatment for severe sepsis currently on the market. The days that CytoSorb treatment can cut off a stay in the Intensive Care unit can do wonders for the national health care plans that are eating away at national budgets in Europe and the medical regulators may have seen that.
These concerns, however, have not kept the CTSO share price from doubling and tripling at times as developments move the company forward. Just recently the CTSO share price was under a dime, making this latest run very significant in terms of percentages. As key developments continue to unfold, another visit to the highs achieved post-approval could materialize - those highs were well over forty cents, roughly a triple from this point.
Cytosorbents shares jumped roughly ten percent on the news and the company still look to be one at the early stages of growth.
Keep watching, and it's a nice one to consider accumulating on the dips.
Disclosure: Long CTSO.
Contact VFC's Stock House: vfc@vfcsstockhouse.com
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