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Biotech /
Medical Sector Special Report
By: Glenn Wilkins - AllPennyStocks.com News Reporter
February 24, 2008 (AllPennyStocks.com Media, Inc.) – An often
overlooked but important and lucrative industry for investors
is the Biotech/Medical sector. In this sector, the main focus
is the well being of humans and animals. For companies, the
payoffs can be huge if a large pharmaceutical company takes
notice of them, or if their drug is approved by the FDA,
Health Canada or any other countries governmental drug
gatekeepers. Once a drug or medical technology is developed,
pre-clinical trials are initialized. The companies then go
through a series of trial phases, where the drug or medical
technology is put to the test.
One such medical advance is in research to treat patients in
pain and make them well. This aspect of the biotech field
applies to all methods including chemicals that, in many
jurisdictions, remain illegal.
Toronto-based Cannasat Therapeutics Incorporated
(TSX-Venture:CTH) is taking on
that risk, developing medicines derived from cannabis plants. That’s right,
marijuana. The company’s flagship product, CAT-310, purports to take away the
“buzz” of smoking pot that could otherwise produce anxiety in elderly patients.
The company hopes for a piece of the $4-billion neuropathic pain market,
normally the domain of the anti-convulsants and anti-depressant market.
In media interviews, Cannasat Chief Scientific Officer Omar Syed has said the
chief driver of the move to perfect and market CAT-310 lies among diabetics,
who, as they age, acquire nerve pain. Syed adds the variety of medicines
available to treat such pain has been limited to opiates such as oxycondin,
percodan, etc., which he indicates, have not been very effective.
Cannasat, only four years old, has just completed Phase I trials on healthy
people, of CAT-310, belonging to the family of chemicals known as cannabinoids -
naturally occurring molecules unique to the cannabis plant. The drug, which is
absorbed on the tongue, rather than smoked does not get digested by the stomach
or processed by the liver before reaching the brain, hence eliminating most of
the high. The cannabinoid market alone is forecast to grow to $700 million (all
figures in U.S. funds unless specified otherwise) in the next few years.
Results of the crossover study, released in December, comparing two different
formulations of the product, demonstrated the safety of CAT-310, and the impetus
of Phase II tests – to be conducted on sick people. Syed says the tests are set
for sometime this year. If all goes well, it could open up a whole new market
for the drug, possibly to treat schizophrenia, bi-polar, even Alzheimer’s
disease.
With apologies for falling back on the obvious pun, Cannasat’s fortunes are
getting higher, likewise its ability to raise capital. Since being launched in
2004, the company has closed six seed rounds of investment and went public on
the TSX Venture Exchange raising around $8 million Canadian. CTH has also linked
up with larger firms such as Montreal-based IntelGenx Corporation,
(OTCBB:IGXT)
a drug delivery company focused on the development of oral controlled-release
products.
CTH’s stock price came in during late February at 19 cents Canadian, the middle
regions of a 52-week range between 15 and 26 cents Canadian. Prospects for
CAT-310’s acceptance could change Cannasat’s fortunes on a dime – or maybe, a
quarter.
Other exciting developments are due out of San Diego-based Aethlon Medical
Incorporated
(OTCBB:AEMD). The company is a pioneer in developing medical
devices to treat infectious diseases, which, last in November, filed with the
U.S. Patent Office what it calls the Aethlon Hemopurifier®, a device meant to
separate and capture circulating viruses, viral proteins, and toxins in a
patients body before the occurrence of cell and organ infection. The device
allows the patients natural immunity to recover and wage an effective battle
against viral infections.
Pre-clinical human blood studies have documented the effectiveness of the
Hemopurifier in capturing HIV (The AIDS Virus), HCV (Hepatitis-C), and Orthopox
Viruses related to human Smallpox as well as many others. The Hemopurifier® is
usable with portable pumps or dialysis machines in hospitals in clinics.
AEMD, which has performed clinical studies for larger drug companies likes
Pfizer and Eli Lilly, spent much of last year pursuing clinical programs
targeting the market clearance of the Hemopurifier as a countermeasure against
bioterror threats. In India, one of the world’s most populous countries, the
Company is preparing to continue with clinical programs rushing the Hemopurifier
to market.
Early this year, Aethlon’s proved its product’s effectiveness in capturing the
highly fatal H5N1 strain of the Avian Flu Virus (Bird Flu.) The study data
indicated that during a six-hour testing period, the Hemopurifier(R) removed up
to 99.4 per cent of the virus.
The stock could be just what a portfolio ordered; its price remains in a gully
around 50 cents, a far cry from its 52-week peak of 88 cents, achieved last
July. Attempts to market Aethlon’s Hemopurifier could change that, so small-cap
investors are well advised not to lose too much time doing due diligence on the
company.
Neuralstem, Inc.
(AMEX:CUR), a company headquartered in Rockville, Maryland,
also looks on the cusp of something special. The company develops technology to
produce neural stem cells of the brain and spinal cord in commercial quantities.
In late February, the company announced it has landed a $2.5-million investment
from Korean conglomerate CJ CheilJedang, to market CUR’s products throughout the
Far East, once the U.S. firm successfully completes human trials of its
stem-cell products, which are set for later this year.
CUR’s stem cell research has resulted in a patent-protected technology, enabling
the Company to produce mature, commercial quantities of neural stem cells to
treat previously incurable diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), various
spinal cord injuries and Ischemic Paraplegia, a form of paraplegia that
sometimes results from complications in the repair of aortic aneurysms, once it
receives the okay from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The Company is getting the word out that some of its experimental treatments are
effective. Last May came word that Neuralstem’s human spinal stem cells reversed
paralysis in a rat model of a spinal disorder.
The price of CUR is settled in the middle of a 52-week range at just over $3.10,
zooming to $4.17 in April before taxiing to a low of $2.20 last August. It is a
stock that folks clearly have their eye on, as the Company strives to reverse
one’s health, in once incurable diseases.
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