It’s been a big start to the week for a couple of biotech companies, as the summer quietness starts to reverse and speculative volume starts to flow once again. Two of the day’s biggest movers so far are Macrocure Ltd (NASDAQ:MCUR) and CoLucid Pharmaceuticals Inc(NASDAQ:CLCD). Here’s what’s driving the action.

Let’s kick things off with Macrocure.

This one’s a tiny development stage biotech with a market cap of just $36 million, but it’s up already for the day to the tune of 76%. This isn’t just some low float volatility, however. The move comes on the news that Macrocure has signed a deal with the Israel based Leap therapeutics, a private oncology focus. The deal will see the two companies merge and Macrocure become a wholly owned subsidiary of Leap, with the latter applying to list on the NASDAQ once the merger completes. It’s an interesting deal, and to us it seems a little convoluted – it would be much simpler for Macrocure to acquire Leap and continue with the current exchange listing, perhaps even change the name/ticker if so inclined. That way the company avoids having to reapply for a listing – a process that takes time and costs money. Anyway, this is how the two have decided to go about it, and the markets have rewarded Macrocure (and its shareholders) handsomely.

Exactly what the focus of the two companies will be remains to be seen. The boards are merging, so it seems likely they will continue with a dual focus. Macrocure is currently a wound care company, and Leap an oncology junior.

Moving on to CoLucid.

CoLucid kicked off the session on Monday at $8.60 a share. Heading into the final hour of play it’s going for a $9.74 bid – an increase across the session of nearly 13%. This one’s slightly less straightforward. There have been no major developments across the session (or indeed for over a week), yet speculative volume is looking in and pushing the stock higher. Dig a little deeper, however, and things become clearer. Alongside CoLucid’s earning report, released earlier this month, the company announced that it was set to report topline from a pivotal trial of its lead candidate during the week of September 5. We highlighted it as being a stock to watch mid last week, with our Two Catlaysts To Watch Early September In Biotech article.

It looks like the action we are seeing today is in anticipation of the data release, on the assumption that the news would be positive and CoLucid will get a data driven boost. Speculative entries of this nature are very risky, but common place in biotech. Whether it will pay off (and there’s a lot of it going on, with volume over the last few days being 3-5 times multiples of the average count) remains to be seen.

For those looking for a preview, check out the above mentioned article. By way of a quick introduction, however, the drug is a migraine target pain management drug, designed to tackle migraine associated pain without cardiac risk. The current SOC is a vasoconstrictor, and this can be problematic for at-risk patients.

So there we go. Two of the biggest movers in the biotech space for today. This is just the beginning of what promises to be a busy week in biotech, and then once Labor Day passes us by, things should really start to heat up. Stick with us for more updates!