Moleculin Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: MBRX) watched its shares climb on Thursday after the company announced a new breakthrough for cancer treatment. While this is broad and could hold multiple applications, the potential for this discovery is incredible and a major step forward.

Essentially, the company announced that in conjunction with its continued collaboration with MD Anderson it has developed and licensed what it believes, based on preclinical testing, could be a major breakthrough in the development of a new cancer treatment that selectively kills highly resistant tumors.

The firm believes this discovery may not only dramatically improve the ability to develop and deliver such therapies, it may also help support a new mechanistic understanding of oncogenic transcriptional activity. And, given the desperate lack of treatment options for indications like pancreatic cancer, management believes clinical researchers across the country have been eagerly awaiting a breakthrough like this.

Keep in mind that the applications for this treatment are very broad, ranging from brain tumors to pancreatic cancer.

Walter Klemp, board chair and chief executive of Moleculin, commented:

We believe our unique approach to develop immuno-stimulating STAT3 inhibitors just took a major step forward. Our WP1066 portfolio has already resulted in multiple collaborations with some of the most prestigious cancer centers in the world and now this new discovery could dramatically improve our ability to treat a broader range of the most difficult cancers, and especially pancreatic cancer.

Roth Capital started this stock off with a Buy rating and an $8 price target back in December. According to the brokerage firm, Moleculin’s Annamycin liposomal anthracycline is in a great position due to positive recent precedents and due to positive clinical feasibility and a favorable regulatory environment.

Excluding Thursday’s move, the stock was down about 2% year to date. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock was up about 50%.

Shares of Moleculin were last seen up about 50% at $2.72, with a consensus analyst price target of $8.00 and a 52-week range of $0.71 to $3.38.

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