The confidence radiating from Dr. Craig Dees and his team at Provectus Pharmaceuticals is undeniable. The Knoxville-based, early stage drug development firm—comprised of former research workhorses from the Oak Ridge National Laboratories—says it has discovered a cure for cancer that will render other methods obsolete.

“Everything we’ve got, we’ve invented. We’re an inventive bunch of little critters here,” says Dees, Provectus’ CEO. He boasts the success of its cancer-fighting agent, rose bengal disodium, an elegantly aggressive compound that shrinks and defeats life-threatening skin, breast and liver tumors while leaving surrounding healthy cells virtually unscathed.

“The safety of this drug is not an issue. It actually becomes a tougher drug when the tumors are ‘meaner,’” Dees says.

Is it too good to be true? Not if you’re a lab rat. Although there’s enough positive results from laboratory testing to convince investors to pony up $8.3 million in equity financing (a nominal amount by biotech standards), stockholders at large will probably keep holding out. Getting this drug to market is still many months off.

In the vast sea of biotech upstarts, financial analyst Wayne Lottinville of California-based Dutton Associates considers Provectus one of the more promising. His latest report says if the firm can navigate successfully through the daunting phases of clinical trials, it could add $100 million or more to the company’s market capitalization and more than double its stock price to $3.90 per share.

Even that goal is at least two years away and hinges on Provectus’ ability to fetch a good price for the drug or land a lucrative licensing deal with a major pharmaceuticals company. “We’ve seen in the past companies that have good early data that just do not pan out. It’s one thing to cure cancer in a mouse. It’s another thing to safely and effectively cure cancer in a human,” Lottinville says. Human trials of Provecta—the company’s flagship rose bengal drug—are underway in New Zealand.

Dees doesn’t seem worried about the future of his team’s cancer destroyer. He says, without naming names, that big pharmas have been calling. Provectus also offers Xantryl, a topical gel powered by rose bengal used to treat chronic psoriasis, acne and eczema, a separate line of Pure-ific hand sanitizer, as well as some laser technologies.

To avoid stockholder confusion, it might be best if the company funneled its concerns into its most impressive commodity—rose bengal. Provectus’ focus right now, Dees says, is pouring all its cash into proving its claims. Rose bengal could truly be a miracle. The rats already think so.