Oculus Shares Spike Higher Following WebMD Interview With President Obama On Antibiotic Resistance

Shares of Oculus Innovative Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCLS) spiked up Friday morning amid the publishing of an interview with President Obama on WebMD.

President Obama said, "Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing public health issues facing the world today. It causes tens of thousands of deaths and millions of illnesses every year – just in the United States alone."

The interview coincided with Obama administration releasing its National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria on Friday.

According to the President, the plan "addresses the problem from multiple angles at once: from stopping the spread of drug resistance right now through the more judicious use of antibiotics, to developing new antibiotics that will save and improve lives in the future, to working with partners worldwide to make sure that while we're fighting drug resistance here in the United States, it isn't gaining ground somewhere else in the world. And we're working to significantly reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry, too."

Part of the plan included doubling the budget for investments in combating and preventing antibiotic resistance.

President Obama concluded that antibiotics were "vital to our national security," when it came to saving lives of service members in battle, preventing widespread infections and defending against bio-terrorism.

After spiking to $0.845, Oculus Innovative Sciences gave back its gains and recently traded unchanged at $0.810.