(Bloomberg) — In the twitchy world of meme stocks, Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics Inc. is in and Zomedica Corp. may be out.Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics has more than doubled in the past two trading days and more than 14 million shares changed hands in the first few minutes of trading on Tuesday. If you’ve never heard of the company, it’s because the biotech stock only recently came to the public markets through a reverse merger with NTN Buzztime Inc., a seller of trivia apps.While Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics rose, Zomedica was tumbling, showing the pitfalls of following day traders into risky biotech stocks. More than 46 million shares traded hands in Zomedica in early Tuesday trading as the stock fell as much as 17% before clawing back its losses to an almost 5% gain as StockTwits lit up with commentary. The animal health company found fame among retail traders after a mention from Tiger King’s Carole Baskin. Zomedica has fallen as much as 32% over the past four days though it remains up close to 500% so far in 2021.The stock also has a tie to the cryptocurrency realm in the form a publicly traded activist investor that dabbles in the ecoin markets, Ault Global Holdings Inc. The Las Vegas-located holding company snapped up a stake in Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics ahead of the completion of the reverse merger in January, but has since been selling off shares.For Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics, nothing seems to dampen investor enthusiasm, certainly not a change in management. The company said on Tuesday a professor from the University of California at Irvine, Howard Federoff, would take over as chief executive on April 16. Federoff takes the reins from Ron Guido, who headed Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics for a little over a year, according to his LinkedIn profile.Twitter users took a liking to the stock, including Timothy Sykes, a stock-picking entrepreneur who sells subscriptions to his alerts. Sykes highlighted it as among “hot stocks to watch” before markets opened on Tuesday. The biotech has one drug in development listed on its website. IRX-2 is in testing for head and neck cancers with mid-stage study results expected to report in the current quarter.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
