Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of biotech SIGA Technologies (Nasdaq: SIGA) leapt nearly 14% in intraday trading as investors reacted to company comments about a recently commenced survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) (try saying that ten times fast).

So what: It was just earlier this month that SIGA seemingly had a major success snatched back by the government. A contract through BARDA that could potentially be worth $2.8 billion for supplying 1.7 million doses of SIGA's smallpox treatment was initially awarded to SIGA through a small business set-aside program. After complaints from competitor Chimerix, though, the SBA determined that due to the ownership position of McAndrews & Forbes (Ron Perelman's holding company), SIGA didn't qualify as a small business. In its press release today, however, SIGA highlighted a market survey that BARDA is conducting to determine if there is enough capacity among "true" small businesses to supply the needed smallpox vaccines. SIGA's CEO expressed his optimism that the survey would basically show that SIGA is the logical choice for the contract.

Now what: It's good to see that SIGA's management is optimistic on this issue, but the fat lady certainly hasn't sung yet. That said, on the matter of bio-defense, it'd be good to know that the government is making sure to choose the very best suppliers rather than setting size qualifiers that potential suppliers have to limbo under. And of course we should recall that SIGA shareholders are likely not the only ones that are watching this contract debate closely -- with its lawsuit against SIGA still outstanding, PharmAthene (NYSE: PIP) shareholders will be tuned in as well.

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