InMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: IMLFF), a pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that specializes in the development of therapies through research and development into the pharmacology of cannabinoids and drug delivery systems, continues to get positive media coverage of ongoing operational developments, propelled by the company’s impressive leadership team.

Insider Financial highlighted InMed Pharmaceuticals as a “Cannabis Runner” in an article back in January, stating that “This is the kind of company that needs to maintain a positive news flow in order to keep investors interested.” More recently, Forbes released an article describing the company as “more than just another cannabis drug company”. This was due to the excitement surrounding the development of its proprietary cannabinoid manufacturing system and sought-after database, its biosynthesis for cannabinoids that is similar to that used to create synthetic insulin, as well as its ability to leverage some of the leading experts in the pharmaceutical industry.

Although the company’s pipeline is expected to generate a significant amount of attention in 2018, InMed Pharmaceuticals’ manufacturing system and database are catching the eye of investors and biotech companies. THC and CBD have, of course, been used for treating medical conditions, but there are now more than 90 different cannabinoids identified in one plant, and all of these are thought to serve various purposes. InMed has managed to plug these different cannabinoids into its system, allowing the bioinformatics compounds to test them against various illnesses and drug compounds, matching the right cannabinoids to help fight specific diseases.

This tool has helped the company identify two therapies, one for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a rare skin disease found in children, and one for glaucoma, a degenerative condition that causes damage to a person’s optic nerve. In addition to all of the above, the company has now developed a method of biosynthesis similar to that used to create synthetic insulin, but for cannabinoids. This process is not only cheaper, but quicker, and it gives access to cannabinoids that are not currently profitable to turn into drugs.

These are all developments that owe their success to leadership that comprises some of the world’s most experienced professionals in the pharmaceutical, drug discovery, cannabinoid therapy, and R&D industries (http://dtn.fm/DTx95).

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.InMedPharma.com

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With demand constantly on the rise and the recent closing of several mining operations in China, the global shortage of zinc has grown exponentially. The zinc shortage is expected to widen to 360,000 tons this year (http://dtn.fm/qab6X), according to market analysts, but the figure might grow further in wake of China’s decision to completely halt production as part of a nationwide environmental crackdown on the local steel industry. Major zinc exploration projects such as Canadian mining company Kootenay Zinc Corp.’s (CSE: ZNK) (OTCQB: KTNNF) Sully property could have a major impact on the global output of zinc and significantly narrow the offer-demand gap.

Responsible for roughly 50 percent of the global zinc output, China has been relying heavily on imports in recent months, further putting strain on the dwindling supply of the metal. China is both the largest consumer and producer of zinc, accounting for roughly five million tons of output before the crackdown. Zinc prices have also been more volatile in recent months, after reaching an all-time high of $3,000 a ton in February of this year and now settling to approximately $2,400-$2,500, as initially forecast by experts last year.

Despite the price drop, zinc remains one of the most attractive investment opportunities on the metals market, with mining companies rushing to expand current reserves or discover new ones in view of helping solve the global shortage problem. Additionally, any mining company that will release large volumes of zinc on the market could certainly make a sizeable profit and see its stock value soar.

Vancouver-based zinc mining and development corporation Kootenay Zinc Corp. is set to capitalize on the current market situation when it fully begins extraction operations at its massive Sully Project. Located just 30 miles (18 kilometers) from the legendary Sullivan Mine, the Sully Project seems to meet all the conditions for a highly successful zinc extraction operation, with all tests so far indicating the presence of a large deposit. Sully shares several geological features with the Sullivan Mine, which was one of the world’s largest deposits of silver, lead and zinc. Some of these features include: being in the same sedimentary basin, having the exact stratigraphic time horizon, gravity anomaly indicating excess mass at Sully comparable to Sullivan, Pb-Zn present in drill core, outcrop and soil geochemical anomaly.

Kootenay Zinc Corp. has not issued any estimate as to how much zinc it expects to extract at Sully, but all signs point to the presence of a massive SEDEX deposit in the area. The project is being managed by Paul Ransom, a reputed geologist and Sullivan SEDEX deposit expert who has worked with several other mega-deposits throughout his career. It should be noted that the nearby Sullivan Mine, which was in operation for roughly 100 years, produced 17 million tonnes of zinc and lead and 337 million ounces of silver prior to its closing in 2001. The estimated value of Sullivan’s total output, calculated at current price values, was roughly $49 billion.

To find out more about Kootenay Zinc Corp. and the company’s exploration efforts at Sully, visit www.KootenayZinc.com

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Nowhere seems safe anymore in a world filled with evildoers, the mentally deranged, radical religious extremists, or anyone with criminal intent. One of the latest acts of heinous depredation killed 22 and injured 166 in a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena — kids, mostly young girls, out for a night of revelry at an Ariana Grande concert. Lives destroyed and dreams demolished in split seconds of stark terror. Civilized society and grieving families worldwide beg for answers and protection from the insanity.

Public places, venues and events are nearly impossible to secure. So called soft targets have become targets of choice. By nature, they’re much harder to monitor and screen — thus easier to attack. Wherever crowds of people gather, stand in line or collectively commute, they become attractive targets. It isn’t the size of the bomb that matters most, it’s where it’s detonated.

Conventional screening systems just identify the presence of metal objects, not what those objects may be. It could be a belt buckle, keys or phone, and monitoring subways, schools and stadiums becomes nearly impossible. Current screening systems are inadequate, since they just don’t offer precise enough information to be effective and require compliance on the part of the target subject.

Patriot One Technologies, Inc. (TSX.V: PAT) (OTCQB: PTOTF) has a solution. Patriot One has an exclusively licensed system to detect concealed weapons utilizing novel radar technologies. This first of its kind concealed weapons detection system is designed to detect weapons being carried on people in public places using radar technology called PATSCAN CMR™, which Patriot One has licensed from McMaster University.

Patriot One’s patent-pending system enables stand-off detection, even on moving targets, with the ability to learn, analyze and identify new threats upon deployment. The system actually gets better and smarter at detecting hidden weapons with each screening instance. The technology is able identify passersby carrying a knife, gun or bomb by analyzing metal content and relating it to a database of known weapon signatures.

Patriot One’s PATSCAN CMR™ system is small enough for unobtrusive door, hall or entryway installation with no privacy concerns since no target images are generated. The system doesn’t require line-of-sight, works on moving crowds and is the first cost-effective solution for active shooter prevention on the market. Early warning is the key to effective deployment of timely countermeasures, and widespread use of Patriot One’s pioneering detection technology could be the sought-after deterrent desperately needed to reduce the horrors inflicted on far too many around the world today.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Patriot1Tech.com

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The status quo never likes change, nor the upstarts that attempt to initiate innovation. When innovation and change occur, the entrenched typically lose prominence, certainly preeminence, and often times money. Disagreement and conflict ensue, but the strongest survive and seem to stay in power. It happens across the full spectrum of businesses, and it’s happening again now with Nasdaq, Inc. and Bats Global Markets.

Most are familiar with Nasdaq, the world’s first electronic stock market. It was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers, the financial self-regulatory agency of its era. At first, Nasdaq was only a quotation system, but, eventually, it effectuated the majority of trades that previously had been executed through the over-the-counter system where trades between parties occurred without exchange supervision. Over time, Nasdaq helped lower the bid-ask spread in stocks and became more of a true stock exchange by adding trade and volume reporting and automated trading systems. It was the first stock exchange to start online trading and touted itself as “the stock market for the next hundred years“. A hundred year superiority was not in the cards, but Nasdaq did attract new growth companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, and Cisco, and it helped modernize the IPO process. In 1992, Nasdaq merged with the London Stock Exchange and formed the first globally linked markets. In 2000, it was spun off and went public as an independent exchange and was licensed as a national securities exchange in 2006, about the time its claim of a one-hundred year reign was being challenged.

Bats Global Markets was founded in June 2005 by a computer programmer, Dave Cummings, after watching the consolidation and monopolization of the exchanges by the NYSE and Nasdaq. Cummings publicized the Bats service by sending solicitation emails to companies highlighting the benefits of trading on platforms other than the NYSE or Nasdaq, which had eliminated competition and raised prices for their services. The Bats system charged less, which helped attract other brokerage firms and hedge funds to engage with the upstart trading system. In 2008, Bats entered the European equities markets to compete against global incumbent securities exchanges. Bats tried to go public in 2012 but withdrew due to a calamitous trading system glitch and admitted what it called a system issue. In March of 2017, Bats was acquired by CBOE Holdings, the owner of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, for $3.2 billion. Established in 1973, the CBOE is the largest options exchange in the U.S., and the acquisition of Bats put the CBOE in direct competition with Nasdaq and the NYSE.

The latest contest between these trading behemoths centers on Bats wanting to offer brokers a type of order that would give them the same closing prices derived from the closing auctions on Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange for stocks listed on those exchanges, but with lower execution fees. Nasdaq said in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that such a move by Bats, which currently only lists ETFs and the stock of its parent company, CBOE Holdings, would fragment the market close and result in less accurate pricing. NYSE has also blasted the Bats proposal, saying that diverting trades away from closing auctions would add to volatility and distort prices. (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nasdaq-bats-marketclose-idUSKBN1942GM?utm_source=applenews)

This is a turf war among giants and one can only believe that whoever wins and becomes dominant will adjust prices to their own benefit. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

A recent Forbes (http://dtn.fm/2WfWR) article shows just how far Additive Manufacturing (AM), a.k.a. 3D Printing, has come, reporting that the government of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, ‘has set a target for 25 percent of buildings to be 3D-printed by 2030.’ Apparently, the AM industry now believes it has the technology to “print” houses. That technological prowess also appears to extend to smaller objects, much smaller, where the challenges are different but just as formidable. An Economist feature (http://dtn.fm/71FDh) tells how a Chinese contract manufacturer is using 3D printers ‘to print electronic circuits, such as antennae and sensors, directly into products instead of making those components separately and assembling them into the devices.’ Printers need ink, however, and 3D printers need the special kind produced by PV Nano Cell (OTCQB: PVNNF). Under the Sicrys™ brand, the innovative Israeli outfit has developed a menu of customized single crystal nanometric conductive inks for use in the manufacture of a wide range of electronic devices.

The devices that PVNNF’s inks are designed to work with are less than Lilliputian. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter or, put another way, it would take 25,400,000 nanometers in a line to cover a distance of just one inch. These tiny devices are, more often than not, required to transmit electrical signals and, consequently, need conductive inks of quality. Sicrys™ inks serve a wide range of applications that demand high-performance conductive inks, including mass produced printed electronics applications such as printed circuit boards, antennas, sensors, and touch screens, as well as photovoltaic applications, and are available in both silver-based and copper-based formulations.

PVNNF is bolstering its intellectual property (IP) war chest with a plethora of patents. In May 2017, the company announced (http://dtn.fm/xVPO4) that the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) had granted its silver nano particles patent. The company has already been granted patents in four countries for its silver single crystal nano particles based dispersions and inks and has submitted patents related to its silver and copper nano particles in nine other countries. To date, PVNNF has submitted patent applications for both its silver and copper nano particles in Brazil, China, Europe, India, Israel, Japan, Russia, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

Owing to its general applicability, the Sicrys™ portfolio of conductive inks is appearing in many potentially lucrative market segments. For example, the market for “printing” antennas is about $0.5 billion, while for photovoltaic (PV) metallization it’s about $1.8 billion. For flexible and customized electronics, market size is estimated at around $2.0 billion, and for printed circuit boards (PCB) it is about $6.0 billion. The inks are already in use. Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Optomec prints antennas for the mobile industry using Sicrys™ inks, and Stratasys, a pioneer in developing 3D printing technologies, uses Sicrys™ too, as does inkjet technology provider Pixdro.

In the world of 3D printing, PV Nano Cell’s Sicrys™ ink family is hot off the press. The company continues its quest to develop the very best conductive inks for use in solar PV and printed electronics applications.

For more information, please visit www.PVNanoCell.com

Now that the internet girdles the entire globe, Net Element, Inc. (NASDAQ: NETE), with its innovative range of electronic payment solutions, has made the world its oyster. The global mobile payments and transactional processing provider is based in North Miami Beach, Florida, but its customers are halfway around the world. The company recently announced that V-Tell, an international mobile operator with offices in The Netherlands and Russia, has signed up for its services. The deal will showcase Net Element’s capabilities as a global payment acceptance platform facilitating cross-border transactions through a comprehensive range of services that includes an on-boarding interface, an extensive suite of fraud protection solutions, data analytics and reporting tools.

According to the press release (http://nnw.fm/1wM3G), Net Element will begin providing payment acceptance services, through its PayOnline subsidiary, to V-Tell. PayOnline offers a fully integrated, processor-agnostic ecommerce platform that is capable of handling a variety of transaction processing tasks. Features include payment acceptance, processing, risk prevention and payment security via point-to-point encryption and tokenization. PayOnline’s proprietary software-as-a-service (SaaS) suite of solutions for electronic and mobile commerce payments is compliant at Level 1 (the highest level) of Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS).

Being processor-agnostic means that PayOnline’s systems can be integrated with the systems of other providers. Tokenization is a security technology that substitutes sensitive private data with an identifier or “token” when that data must travel over public networks, where it may fall into the wrong hands. Conceptually, tokenization operates like a mathematical function, allowing the encrypted data to be “mapped” (linked) to the token but not the reverse.

V-Tell is the ideal customer for all these bells and whistles. The company provides roaming-free mobile services across the world, with its website listing 185 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe to which V-Tell provides communication services. The press release announcing the tie-up with Net Element’s PayOnline offers a hint at the scope of V-Tell’s services, waxing eloquently, “V-Tell Subscribers can forget about multiple devices and multiple SIM cards. A single V-Tell SIM card provides V-Tell customers with the ability to have an almost unlimited number of permanently active personal phone numbers from any country on one device.”

To get that message out, V-Tell touted its wares at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in early June. SPIEF is an annual event and this year the plenary session was hosted by NBC News Anchor Megan Kelly.

Net Element is a global fintech group specializing in mobile payments and value-added transactional services. The company owns and operates a global mobile payments and transactional processing provider, TOT Group, Inc., under which a number of brands and companies operate. These include Unified Payments, recognized by Inc. Magazine as the #1 Fastest Growing Company in America in 2012; Aptito, a next generation cloud-based point of sale payments platform; Restoactive, a seamless digital add-on for legacy POS systems; Digital Provider, a leading provider of SMS messaging and mobile billing solutions; and PayOnline, a fully-integrated, processor-agnostic ecommerce platform.

For more information, visit www.NetElement.com

When a would-be traveler is booking a trip, the last thing they want to do is wait around for hours or even days for the owner of an alternative lodging rental (ALR) to get back to them and confirm a booking of the property. Streamlining the travel booking process like never before, Monaker Group’s (OTCQB: MKGI) proprietary booking engine has solved one of the travel industry’s most frustrating problems: lack of access to instant booking confirmation for ALRs. The company is rolling out the technology with “white label” B2B integrations into main stream travel channels.

Hotel websites have long offered instant booking, letting travelers immediately see and have confirmation that they have successfully booked a hotel stay. However, for ALR properties, which include private vacation homes, apartments, condos, chalets, villas and even castles, those wishing to book a stay have been at the mercy of property owners to get back to them before they could complete a booking. Monaker has done away with that waiting game, however — much to the delight of travelers everywhere.

Monaker’s recently launched NextTrip website and accompanying NextTrip mobile app have solved the issue of ALR booking delays, providing users with a huge selection of instantly bookable ALR property choices throughout the world — instant confirmation, no waiting! NextTrip also lets users book other major travel services while they’re shopping for ALR properties, including conventional hotels, airlines, car rentals and tour packages, making NextTrip a true one-stop shop for travelers everywhere. In all, the NextTrip website and mobile app list over 1.2 million instantly bookable ALR properties along with 200,000 hotels, 400 airlines, every major rental car company and 10,000 activities for tourists.

The Monaker Booking Engine (MBE), a new cloud-based technology platform, powers NextTrip, delivering Monaker’s worldwide ALR inventory through a flexible API that also supports the distribution of the company’s ALR products to B2B travel industry partners. The company’s MBE and API have been built to the very latest industry standards, enabling customer integration into virtually any existing travel booking system.

ALR is one of the fastest growing sectors in the travel industry and is projected to grow at more than seven percent CAGR to reach $194 billion by 2021. The global online travel market is expected to reach $1,091 billion by 2022, according to a recent report from Allied Market Research. Monaker is seeking to capitalize on these incredible growth projections as it meets the rapidly increasing demand for easily bookable alternative lodging.

For more information, visit www.MonakerGroup.com or www.NextTrip.com

These days, people want convenience. Consumers want things to be faster and easier, and they’re willing to pay for it. One company, LottoGopher Holdings Inc. (CSE: LOTO), is catering to that demand within the lottery realm.

The lottery industry is considered quite behind the times. Players must still buy their tickets in person, and many states require that lottery tickets be paid for with cash only. Because a paper ticket is all you get, it can also be easy to lose a lottery ticket, which contributes to approximately $2 billion in lottery winnings going unclaimed in United States every single year. LottoGopher, however, is poised to disrupt the lotto industry in a big way.

LottoGopher is a lottery messenger service that makes it possible for lotto players to order and manage their state lottery tickets online and to pay for them using debit and credit cards—no more need to leave home and stand in line to purchase lottery tickets. The service also makes it easier for players to keep track of their tickets and their winnings, stay current on the most recent drawings, and even collect winnings. LottoGopher members additionally have access to jackpot alerts, player strategies, lucky number pickers, lottery news and financial resources for winners.

Through LottoGopher, players can participate alone using a single ticket, or they can create and join public and private groups to pool winnings. Different LottoGopher memberships are available that let players order multiple tickets from different lotteries. To use the site, players can purchase a day pass, monthly passes or annual memberships, and ticket prices are not marked up for LottoGopher users. They pay the same price they would pay if buying a ticket in person.

At present, LottoGopher’s services are only available to residents of California, but the company plans to expand into 22 other lottery states. The company also has a goal of signing up 500,000 paying members within a four-year period. LottoGopher has already attracted a highly desirable strategic partner in Lottoland, which has 5.5 million customers across the globe and is a leading lottery betting company in Europe.

In 2014, Americans spent more than $70 billion on lottery tickets, making it a highly lucrative industry for a disruptive brand like LottoGopher. LottoGopher’s strategy involves targeting 80 million potential subscribers who already buy lottery tickets and have a history of online shopping.

LottoGopher began trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange in May 2017.

For more information about the company, visit www.LottoGopher.com

A total of 29 states now allow for comprehensive medical marijuana programs, and recreational marijuana is legal in eight. There’s no question that the country’s opinion of marijuana has changed. Public support for making marijuana legal has continued to climb over the years, as 61 percent of Americans now think recreational use of marijuana should be legal and 88 percent favor medical marijuana use. A vast majority of the states and the citizens of this country support legalized marijuana in spite of antiquated federal government strictures.

These antiquated federal strictures create conflict. The states where it has been legalized, the citizens in those states and the businesses that engage in the marijuana industry operate in a nether world of uncertainty. Even with state sanctioned legality of cannabis there’s a cloud of potential issues created by the federal government, though no action has been taken nor is any action anticipated to occur. In keeping with the 71 percent who oppose any federal government effort to stop marijuana sales or its use in states that have legalized it, the federal government has ignored the issue and treated it with benign neglect. However, state approval and benign federal disregard have created a real financial conundrum for the states, businesses, operators and consumers of marijuana products. The problem lies within the banking system. Banks are governed by the Federal Reserve System and the FDIC and are subject and sensitive to federal laws.

Since marijuana hasn’t been legalized at the federal level, most banks are reluctant to have any business dealings with the marijuana industry. Subsequently, somewhere north of 70 percent of cannabis companies currently operate without access to a corporate bank account, forcing them and their patrons to operate as cash only businesses. This causes great risk and inconvenience to the businesses and customers and creates obstacles for the states to monitor, regulate and collect taxes.

SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING) recently announced a solution for cannabis businesses to legally break this banking roadblock and accept credit card payments (http://dtn.fm/8xjJc). In partnership with First BitCoin Capital, SinglePoint is creating a game changing bitcoin payment solution for the marijuana industry. This could easily provide marijuana businesses the answers they need and significant recurring revenue for the providers of the service.

SinglePoint is a specialized holding company that, through accretive acquisitions and partnerships, is fast becoming a dominant player in the cannabis services market. SinglePoint is building strong relationships as well as uncommon companies in its quest to become the dominant force supplying products and services to the cannabis industry. There’s little doubt the marijuana market in the United States is poised for further explosive upside growth. SinglePoint understands its destination and has just taken another huge step toward dominating markets and reaping the attendant rewards.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.SinglePoint.com

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With more than a century of combined experience spanning the gamut from pancreas/GI tract issues in hepato-gastroenterology and infectious disease to the development of novel non-systemic (localized) therapeutic biologics and proteomics (protein engineering), the AzurRx BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZRX) core science team is the real strength behind the company’s developing portfolio of recombinant therapies. AzurRx has come quite a long way on the strength of its science-driven approach and today stands tall upon the IP foundation of its two main pipeline programs. The lead candidate of which, MS1819 lipase, is currently in ongoing, open-label Phase IIa trials in EPI (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency) associated with chronic pancreatitis (CP). Human trialing where this novel, orally delivered, non-systemic (non-absorbable, locally-acting, does not reach systemic circulation), yeast-derived recombinant enzyme has already shown solid dose responses at various levels with no apparent safety issues.

Given such positive Phase IIa in vivo study data (reported in mid-April 2017), where the efficacy of MS1819 is characterized by a 20 percent increase in the coefficient of fat absorption in all patients (or CFA, the primary efficacy endpoint), AZRX is confident that its lead candidate will continue to show a marked superiority to currently marketed, porcine-derived pancreatic enzyme replacement therapies (PERTs). With an anticipated completion of the MS1819 Phase IIa in the third-quarter of 2017 and strong applications for the drug in EPI associated with CF (cystic fibrosis), as well as demonstrably apparent efficacy in CP-associated EPI, the $8.50 valuation set by Zacks Small-Cap Research earlier this year (January, April) looks well within striking distance (given that the projection is based on a 2020 launch of MS1819).

A recent report from April of 2017 by GlobalData paints a bullish picture for the broader CF market with a CAGR of around 13.6 percent through 2025 when it will reach upwards of $7.6 billion on the strength of new drugs becoming available. This is exciting news when contrasted with the Transparency Market Research projection from last year, which depicts the EPI space alone to be worth around $2.85 billion by 2023, on a CAGR of some 8.3 percent, with the U.S. representing roughly 57 percent of that global pie. The PERT market is currently dominated by a small handful of players, with the AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) drug Creon accounting for the lion’s share, and newer, more technologically advanced entrants such as Allergan’s (NYSE: AGN) Ultresa currently being seen by analysts as having the highest future growth rate.

However, these drugs and other PERTs such as Nutrizym, Pancrease and Pancrex are derived from pig pancreas gland extracts, carry a pork viral contamination risk, and thus represent a biopharma niche that is ripe for disruption by an innovator like AZRX.

PERT Demand May be Larger than Expected

Somewhere from 10 to 12 million people in the U.S. are estimated to carry the defective CF gene that leads to CF, and while the patient population is only around 30,000 or more, it can be inferred from CDC statistics that there are approximately 400 or more new cases in the U.S. alone each year (around 1,000 worldwide). CF is also no longer considered a childhood disease like it was only a few decades ago, because patients are now able to more effectively manage the disease via therapy and have an average life expectancy of around 37 years. EPI is observed to occur in 85 to 90 percent of CF patients according to research done by one of the most trusted names in pathology, Robbins Basic Pathology.

With the rate of CP around 50/100,000, and a growing awareness of the influence of diabetes on pancreatic exocrine function, the emergence of a yeast-derived recombinant enzyme therapy such as MS1819 is really something to take note of, especially due to the fact that AZRX’s offering has shown high potency in low pH environments (stable in protease and bile salt environments), and activity in long chain fats. EPI affects as many as half of all the people with insulin-dependent diabetes by some estimates, and it is well-known that CP patients typically develop type 3c diabetes. The key takeaway in all of this is that there is a growing market for MS1819, a drug which is now clearly underscoring the success of earlier Phase Ib in vitro work, during in its ongoing Phase IIa in vivo trial.

Phase IIb Enabling Trial & Successful Placement Very Bullish

CEO of AzurRx BioPharma, Thijs Spoor, was clearly pleased by extant Phase IIa results with MS1819, pointing to the observably robust dose-response pattern and overall safety characteristics. Anticipation is high that MS1819 will prove to be a more effective and safer alternative to existing PERTs. Given the warm reception by patients, as well as physicians noted by the Clinical Investigator, this drug could gobble up market share very quickly.

It’s little wonder then that the recent private placement financing (closing announced June 8) went so well, with the issuance designed to fund the MS1819 program being over-subscribed, allowing AZRX to rake in gross proceeds of some $5 million. The $3.50 priced units in the placement consisted of a share of common stock, one Series A Warrant for 0.25 shares at $4.00 (exercisable through Dec 31, 2017), and one Series A-1 Warrant for 0.75 shares at $5.50 (exercisable six months after closing through June 6, 2022).

Potential Sleeper Hit in the Wings

The second program under development by AZRX at this time is another oral non-systemic, AZX1101 (recombinant beta-lactamase derived from a bacterial source), which is in the preclinical stage for localized shielding of the GI tract against HAIs (hospital-acquired infections) associated with broad-spectrum beta-lactam antibiotic use. Beta-lactam antibiotics (especially penicillins and cephalosporins) have really come into their own as the drugs of choice for many infections, but their use is also frighteningly threatened by the emergence of increasingly resistant strains of bacteria.

This could be a nice one-two punch lineup for AZRX, with MS1819 commercialization supercharging the development ramp for AZX1101, amid a global infection control market that is on-track to run a 6.5 percent CAGR through 2021, reaching around $17.78 billion on the dominance of factors such as the growing prevalence of HAIs. It is worth noting that the Zacks Small-Cap Research doesn’t even factor the potential upside from AZX1101 into its $8.50 price target, despite the admittedly substantial market opportunity.

To take a closer look, visit http://www.azurrx.com