As far back as January, stock traders were latching onto Aethlon Medical Inc. and its experimental Hemopurifier device as a potential treatment for the novel coronavirus. After shares quadrupled that month from less than US$1 each, market speculation got so heated that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading in the stock for two weeks.

In early March, the company put out a cautious statement, saying it wasn’t sure if the Hemopurifier would help with COVID-19, and even then potentially only in the sickest patients.

Flash forward to June 18: Aethlon reported that U.S. regulators cleared the company to run a feasibility study of its investigational device in as many as 40 patients under intensive care for severe COVID-19. Shares climbed as much as 165 per cent to US$3.73 a share Thursday to the highest intraday since Feb. 3, a few days prior to the SEC halt.

Before the pandemic hit, the San Diego-based company had been focusing on Hemopurifier’s potential use in head and neck cancer, following years of testing it in infectious diseases without gaining U.S. approval to market the device.

Even with Thursday’s surge, Aethlon’s stock remains well off its 52-week high of US$9 reached last July. Its market value was below US$30 million mid-Thursday.