Biotech Mailbag: Cel-Sci, BioElectronics

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- The Biotech Stock Mailbag is open for business.

Before I get to the email, I hope everyone got a chance to download and print out a copy of my biotech catalyst calendar for October. I know that many of you find stuff like this very useful, so enjoy.

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To the email! First up, Milan R. asks, "Do you have any comments on Cel-Sci(CVM Quote)?"

I do and they're not nice.

Cel-Sci is an over-and-done drug company that's using the crush of media attention around the H1N1 flu to hook a new gaggle of gullible retail investors. And the company is getting a lot of help from penny-stock pump artists, too.

The company's CEO Geert Kersten -- he's the type who likes to communicate with investors through folksy shareholder letters -- doesn't even bring up flu in his April 14 epistle in which the company's sole focus is still the long-delayed cancer immunotherapy Multikine.

Two weeks later, however, Cel-Sci is all about H1N1, with scads of press releases discussing how Cel-Sci scientists are working overtime and in close collaboration with the government, including the Food and Drug Administration, on a new vaccine/drug technology to combat the viral scourge.

Cel-Sci scientists might be working, but I'm pretty sure the government isn't waiting anxiously for the results of that labor. But heck, it's doesn't really matter since the goal of the Cel-Sci flu hullabaloo is simply to raise money and push the stock price higher. On both counts, Cel-Sci got the job done. A 20-cent stock in April now trades close to $2.