As part of its efforts to restructure its global business under recently appointed executive chairman Hal Turner, Elephant Talk Communications Corp. (NYSE MKT: ETAK) recently announced a series of executive and board appointments. These appointments are expected to be the first in a number of critical improvements to the company’s organizational structure designed to boost Elephant Talk’s business operations, technological developments and ability to deliver the best services and support to its rapidly expanding customer base.

The executive appointments and transitions include:

• Gary Brandt has been named chief restructuring officer and will be responsible for leading the transition and reorganization of Elephant Talk’s global operations. Brandt brings more than three decades of experience in C-level and executive finance leadership with several public companies in the technology space.
• Armin Hessler, formerly co-president of the company’s mobile platform business, will now serve as Elephant Talk’s chief operating officer.
• Robert Skaff, founder of DiNotte Lighting Hampton, has been elected as a new independent director, assuming the position formerly held by Jaime Bustillo.
• Tim Payne, current president of Elephant Talk North America (ETNA), has stepped down as the company’s interim chief executive officer. Payne will continue to serve as president of ETNA.

“When I assumed the role of executive chairman last month, one of my first priorities was to undertake an extensive, top to bottom review of the company,” Hal Turner, executive chairman of the board of Elephant Talk, stated in the news release. “With Gary Brandt’s appointment to lead the restructuring and the expansion of Armin Hessler’s responsibilities, we are building a foundation of world-class leadership to run our global business operations that will complement Elephant Talk’s world-class technology.”

The company expects to continue its restructuring efforts by announcing additional executive appointments during the first half of 2016.

Hal Turner was appointed to the position of executive chairman last month. He brings more than 40 years of international C-level global telecom and communications experience to Elephant Talk, including extensive experience as an executive with major wireless and wired operators. Notably, he served in senior sales and marketing roles at AT&T (NYSE: T) and as the president and chief operating officer of BellSouth Communications, Inc. prior to its merger with AT&T.

Elephant Talk is a leading international provider of mobile networking software and services. Leveraging software-defined networking, network function virtualization and cloud technologies, the company has developed a suite of products that are at the leading edge of performance and reliability in the rapidly evolving mobile telecommunications industry.

For more information, visit www.elephanttalk.com

North Carolina passed a law in October 2015 allowing for the regulated cultivation of industrial hemp. Once guidelines for the hemp program are established, landowners will be permitted to produce and harvest cannabis containing less than 0.3% THC – the psychoactive chemical in marijuana that creates a euphoric feeling. The NC Department of Agriculture will be responsible for issuing licenses and distributing seeds to those who have registered. The bill became law on October 31, 2015.

Industrial hemp will give North Carolina farmers another valuable cash crop and could replace tobacco crops that have lost value in recent years. For those concerned, hemp is very different than marijuana, containing less than 0.3% THC, so it would be impossible to get “high” from industrial hemp. Various parts of the plant can be used in the manufacture of more than 25,000 products. The leaves and flowers can be used to make CBD medicines for patients with cancer, intractable epilepsy, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and many others. The oil and seeds have high amounts of omega fatty acids, which help improve cholesterol levels and lower the risks of heart disease.

Hemp, Inc.’s (OTC: HEMP), wholly-owned subsidiary, Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC, is in the starting blocks ready to capitalize on the country’s growing attraction to hemp by way of the operation of the largest decortication plant in North America, which is located in Spring Hope, North Carolina. In a proactive, strategic move, the company’s management team initiated construction and installation activities at its 70,000-square-foot warehouse several months prior to the passing of the new law in order to prepare for the likely legalization of industrial hemp production in the state. Currently, the decortication plant is near completion.

Pat McCrory, Governor of North Carolina, passed Senate Bill 313, which is viewed by many as a major step in the direction of sustainable financial growth for Hemp, Inc. The law’s intent is to “establish an agricultural pilot program for the cultivation of industrial hemp in the state… and to pursue any federal permits or waivers necessary to allow industrial hemp to be grown in the state.”

Hemp, Inc. produces products made from industrial hemp. The company also offers products and services to the medical and recreational marijuana industries. The company develops and operates a website providing entertainment and news related to the medical marijuana industry. The company was formerly known as Marijuana, Inc. and changed its name to Hemp, Inc. in June 2012. Founded in 2008, Hemp, Inc. is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For more information, visit www.hempinc.com

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Parkinson’s disease is a progressive movement disorder, meaning that symptoms continue to get worse over time. Approximately one million people in the US are living with this disease. While there is currently no cure and its cause remains unknown, treatment options for managing symptoms range from medication to surgery.

Parkinson’s (PD) involves the death of nerve cells in the brain, called neurons. Some of these dying neurons produce dopamine, a chemical that sends messages to the part of the brain that controls movement and coordination. As PD progresses, the amount of dopamine produced in the brain decreases. The result is that the inflicted individual is unable to control movement in a normal fashion.

Scientists are also exploring the suggestion that loss of cells in other areas of the brain and body contribute to PD. As an example, researchers have discovered that the first indication of PD — clumps of a protein alpha-synuclein, which are also called Lewy bodies — is found not only in the mid-brain, but also in the brain stem and the olfactory bulb. These areas of the brain are associated with non-motor functions such as sense of smell and sleep regulation. Scientists believe that the presence of Lewy bodies in these areas could explain the non-motor symptoms experienced by some people with PD before any motor sign of the disease appears.

Central to the conversation of the treatment of PD is International Stem Cell Corporation (OTC: ISCO). The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Cyto Therapeutics, has received regulatory approval by the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) of Australia to initiate a phase I/IIa dose escalation trial of human parthenogenetic stem cells-derived neural stem cells (ISC-hpNSC) in patients with moderate to severe PD.

In 2014, the company announced encouraging results from preclinical studies of its ISC-hpNSC therapeutic candidate. In its preclinical studies, the cells demonstrated an improvement in PD symptoms and promoted increases in brain dopamine levels following the intracranial administration of ISC-hpNSC. The studies also noted that the ISC-hpNSCs provided neurotrophic support and cell replacement to dying dopaminergic neurons.

International Stem Cell Corporation is a publicly traded biotechnology company with a powerful new stem cell technology called parthenogenesis, which uses unfertilized eggs and promises to significantly advance the field of regenerative medicine by addressing the problem of immune-rejection. The company is centered on using stem cells to treat diseases of the eye, the nervous system and the liver, where cell therapy has been proven clinically but is limited by the availability of safe immune-matched human cells or tissue.

For more information, visit www.internationalstemcell.com

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QualityStocks today announces the availability of a new audio interview with Rik Deitsch, CEO of Nutra Pharma Corp. (OTC: NPHC), a biotech company specializing in the acquisition, licensing and commercialization of pharmaceutical products and technologies for the management of neurological disorders, cancer, autoimmune, and infectious diseases. The interview can be heard at http://www.QualityStocks.net/interview-nphc.php.

Nutra Pharma is developing a broad product platform for numerous indications, and it currently has 21 patents in its intellectual property portfolio. The QualityStocks interview begins with Deitsch describing Nutra Pharma’s business model and three key patents: one for autoimmune disease, one for antiviral therapeutics, and one for the treatment of pain. Nutra Pharma also has launched a line of over-the-counter (OTC) pain drugs (Nyloxin, for humans, and Pet Pain-Away, for dogs and cats), which financially buoy the research and development of the company’s potential blockbuster drugs.

“The sales of these OTC drugs produce revenue that mitigates the risk to investors and actually pays for the clinical research as we move the products forward,” Deitsch explains.

Before highlighting other individuals on the company’s management team, Deitsch, a seasoned biochemist, adjunct professor and author, describes his extensive professional background, which includes 25 years researching drugs derived from venomous animals, and employment with the world’s largest manufacturer of dietary supplements, for which he formulated more than 50 dietary supplements and conducted more than 50 clinical studies.

The topic then turns to several of Nutra Pharma’s historical milestones, its strategies to increase domestic and international reach, and how it transitioned into its current line of operations. One of Nutra Pharma’s largest achievements to-date, says Deitsch, is obtaining Orphan Drug Status from the U.S. FDA for RPI-78M for pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS).

“We went back and forth with the FDA for several weeks, but it only took about five weeks from the point where we applied for Orphan Drug Status to actually getting the Orphan Status designation, which is huge,” he says. “It really means the FDA saw the value that we had in our drug.”

Deitsch next describes the advantages of this corporate achievement, how it prepares the company to move into a larger market, and how it differs from currently available drugs.

“With our drug … we stop the hyper immune response that causes multiple sclerosis. So from the day you start taking the drug, what we’ve seen in our clinical research is that your disease progression stops and over time your symptoms improve. So this is a game-changer when it comes to treating any auto-immune disease, but certainly when it comes to treating multiple sclerosis. We really believe that we’re going to prove this in our clinical studies and then we’ll seek a licensed partner,” he says.

In the near future, Nutra Pharma plans on commencing and completing phase II clinical studies of RPI-78M and building a strong domestic sales force to increase sales and availability of its Nyloxin and Pet Pain-Away Products.

“I think that as we get this message out there we’re going to see a huge increase in sales that of course is not only going to help bring the company to the next level, it’s going to help us create more and more products for our platform that we’re going to be able to license to big pharma in the next 12-18 months,” concludes Deitsch.

For more information on the company, visit www.NutraPharma.com

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According to the latest data from the American Cancer Society, in the U.S. alone over 21,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year, and more than 14,000 will perish from the disease. In most cases, ovarian cancer is detected by a combination of symptomatic expression and/or the discovery of a mass or lump during a routine pelvic examination. The disease is generally feared as a silent killer due to routinely being detected in later stages, after the problem has already become unwieldy.

This is most unfortunate given that if ovarian cancer can be detected early enough, the primary endpoint of five-year survivability is actually quite good, coming in at around 92 percent or greater. The sad reality however, is that the vast majority of cases are not detected early and are instead only identified after the cancer has already spread far away from the ovary, forcing the five-year survivability endpoint down to as low as 27 percent, or even as low as 18 percent. To complicate matters, the only way to currently obtain a certain diagnosis is through exploratory surgery (either via less invasive laparoscopy or open surgery if malignancy is expected), and if an apparently cancerous growth is observed on an ovary, a biopsy is typically forgone in favor of removing the ovary outrightly. This is in part due to the risk of a biopsy spreading the otherwise potentially localized cancer, as well as because the removal of only one ovary will not necessarily induce menopause or infertility in the patient, so long as the other ovary is in good condition.

Luckily, minimally invasive early detection technologies are rapidly evolving. Many of which are focused on exploiting key cancer biomarkers in order to bypass the need for surgical examination. In fact, according to a publication from MarketsandMarkets out earlier this year in August, the global cancer biomarkers market has really taken off over the last handful of years, and it is currently on track to experience a CAGR of 11.6 percent through 2020. This segment of the global cancer diagnostics space, which is on track to reach upwards of $168 billion over the same interval (according to a report published late last year by Transparency Market Research), is currently dominated by major players like Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), Agilent (NYSE: A), Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Roche (OTC: RHHBY), but there is also considerable room for true innovators to breakout via disruptive technologies.

One company of particular interest here is Avant Diagnostics (OTC: AVDX). Avant has secured a worldwide licensing and sponsored research agreement with Sunnyvale, California-based life sciences developer Arrayit Corporation (OTC: ARYC) and Wayne State University in order to progress the state of the art in pre-symptomatic, noninvasive ovarian cancer screening. Leveraging the patented and proprietary microarray platform developed by Arrayit, AVDX is currently advancing its flagship diagnostic OvaDx®, a high sensitivity/specificity screening platform, which has been shown in extant research to be effective for all types, as well as stages of ovarian cancer. Currently proposed for monitoring women who have already been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, OvaDx could go from benchmarking aide to default frontline diagnostic very quickly, making the company an extremely attractive play for investors.

Recent reception of IRB approval from the FDA in order to validate OvaDx amid an ongoing run up to 510(k) approval has put the company in a kind of pole position, out ahead of the field with a nearly-ready diagnostic tool for physicians that could allow for everything from improved monitoring of diagnosed patients and the identification of optimal surgical approaches, to better chemotherapy targeting, and synergy with other existing tests. Effectively the market’s first large panel screening solution for ovarian cancer, OvaDx has the potential to be a real game changer in women’s health, and the raw versatility of the underlying technologies places numerous other diseases well within striking distance of the company’s rapidly-developing diagnostic pipeline, including diseases ranging from other cancers such as breast, prostate, pancreatic, and throat/neck, to CNS diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Highly accurate, rapid turnover-capable, noninvasive testing technology like this could transform the diagnostic market for certain diseases in short order, and AVDX is very bullish about the potential to build out a pipeline of as many as six key diagnostic tests over the next few years. By combining organic development of existing capabilities, as well as acquisition of parallel or complementary diagnostic technologies, Avant seeks to transcend the ovarian cancer screening market longer term, applying the power of microarray biomarker validation to a whole host of diseases.

For more information, visit www.avantdiagnostics.com

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Before the opening bell, Legacy Ventures International, Inc. (OTC: LGYV) announced the addition of media/technology venture capitalist G. Scott Paterson to its advisory committee. Paterson currently serves as chairman of Symbility Solutions, Inc., a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider for the insurance industry, and Engagement Labs, Inc., a cloud-based SaaS provider for marketers. He is also a director and chair of the Audit & Risk Committee of Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF), a major film and television studio, and chairman of QYOU Media, Inc., a PayTV service available in over 20 countries around the globe.

“We are very pleased to welcome Mr. Paterson to the Legacy Advisory Committee,” Evan Clifford, chief executive officer of Legacy, stated in the news release. “We look forward to his highly respected and valued guidance as we explore strategic ventures and continue to expand the Legacy portfolio.”

Some of Paterson’s most noteworthy accomplishments in the media/technology industry were achieved during his time with JumpTV. As chairman and chief executive officer, Paterson successfully guided JumpTV through a $65 million IPO in August 2006, and he played an instrumental role in a subsequent $100 million secondary financing in February 2007. In 2008, Paterson negotiated JumpTV’s takeover of NeuLion, a global leader in digital broadcasting, distribution and monetization on behalf of clients such as the NFL and NBA. Following the takeover, Paterson became NeuLion’s vice chairman of the board, a role he held until June 2015.

Adding Paterson to its advisory committee is the latest news in what has already been an exciting week for Legacy and its shareholders. On Monday, the company, through wholly-owned subsidiary RM Fresh Brands, Inc., announced a new distribution agreement with Sysco (NYSE: SYY), propelling share prices to a new 52-week high. Through this partnership, Legacy aims to expand upon its current Canadian distribution network for Boxed Water, as well as its other portfolio of products.

Boxed Water, the company’s leading product, is a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional bottled water. By utilizing a 100 percent recyclable carton with a modular design, Boxed Water provides significant ecological benefits over water packaged in plastic bottles. In shipping alone, Boxed Water offers a substantially decreased carbon footprint. According to company data, a single truckload of Boxed Water cartons in the equivalent of 26 truckloads of plastic bottles.

For more information, visit www.legacyventuresinc.com

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The peanut: a rather inconspicuous snack for the majority of people. However, peanut allergies are among the top eight food allergies in the U.S., accounting for 90% of the food allergies from which 21 million Americans suffer. However, peanut allergies tend to be the most severe and are likely to cause a serious, or even potentially fatal, allergic reaction. For individuals with food allergies, the best strategy for their safety is to completely avoid the culprit, although that’s not always an easy prescription to fill.

Yahoo! Travel recently published a heart-rending article about two children and their accidental interaction with peanuts – one of them fatal. The title of the article, “Big Debate: Is it OK to Bring Peanuts on a Plane?”, demonstrates the danger of bringing food allergens that are known to cause fatal reactions in a public setting, and how we can take others’ risks into consideration, especially when traveling.

Read the full article here: https://www.yahoo.com/travel/big-debate-is-it-ok-1291594081484854.html

Among many medical professionals and experts to chime in on the article is Tara Zamani, a Nutritionist for Content Checked Holdings Inc. (OTC: CNCK), the developer of a family of apps specifically designed for people with specific dietary requirements. While the majority of airlines no longer serve peanuts, there are currently no laws prohibiting passengers to bring nuts on board.

Zamani suggests a few easy precautions peanut-munching passengers can take to alleviate the risk of accidentally contaminating a traveler with a peanut allergy.
“Keep peanut butter in a closed container. If you want to use it as a spread, prepare your sandwich prior to coming on to the plane, wrap it in foil, and put it in a Ziploc. It’s best to ask your neighbors if they have allergies. If so, change seats if you plan on consuming what they’re allergic to,” she says.

Zamani’s comments, in addition to those of Content Checked’s other Nutritional professionals, are becoming increasingly recognizable in food and health-related articles. The company has continued to gain traction as not only the developer of an impressive suite of apps, but also as a reliable and respected source for food and food-related information.

Consumers set their food allergies or intolerances on the Content Checked apps, and simply scan the barcodes of whichever items they are considering purchasing. The app then tells the user whether or not the product in question is suitable based on their dietary restrictions. If the product is not suitable, the app suggests alternatives, similar products free from their allergens. This connection between consumers/users, food products and food manufacturers at the point-of-purchase is the basis of Content Checked’s business model – a highly engaged platform that educates consumers in need of recommendations for products that fit their dietary restriction profile.

Zamani’s commentary on in-flight allergens potentially exposes the Content Checked brand and expertise to Yahoo! Travel’s roughly 57.2 million unique monthly visitors. Additionally, Content Checked is hyperlinked in the article, making it easy for readers to click through for more information about the apps or Content Checked itself.

“This feature is great as it continues to elevate Content Checked’s status while getting it in front of a huge consumer audience,” Content Checked CEO Kris Finstad tells MissionIR, part of the DreamTeamNetwork (DTN). “We are continuing our outreach efforts and also constantly scanning for additional features.”

For more information visit www.contentchecked.com

Since February 2014, Alternet Systems, Inc. (OTC: ALYI), through wholly owned subsidiary Alternet Financial Services, has been an authority for Hub Culture’s digital currency, ven. Hub Culture is an elite by-invitation-only social network founded in 2002. Its members use the global crypto-currency ven, the value of which is determined by a weighted basket of currencies, commodities and carbon futures trading against other major currencies at floating exchange rates.

Ven is the first digital currency to float, and the first to include carbon in its pricing, making it the only environmentally linked currency in existence. Since ven in circulation is 100% backed by reserve assets, the inclusion of these assets in the reserve basket generates demand for carbon futures, resulting in environmentally positive benefits. It has been estimated that over 25,000 acres of Amazon rainforest have been preserved because of trading in ven. Ven is the only digital currency trading on any regulated financial exchange. It trades on the U.K.’s FX exchange, LMAX, and on Kraken, the Bitcoin exchange.

As a Ven Authority, Alternet takes part in the distribution of ven and in managing its liquidity by providing real-time currency trading that allows corporations to convert assets to ven to hedge their balance sheets or to meet carbon obligations. Attracted by fluctuations in the value of the crypto-currency, speculators are trading in ven both for short-term gains and as a long-term investment. Alternet’s authority status allows the company access to the sophisticated hedging algorithms that balance the underlying reserves to the issuance of currency in real time using live financial market data that is updated many times per second.

Alternet Systems’ vision is to accelerate the future of money through the creation of a digital bank; multi-channel payment solutions, including hard and digital currency; and by providing an exchange that allows for the movement from virtual money to fiat currency. The company has already entered the digital currency space, with ven, and further aims to provide end-to-end security for digital currencies, and to launch its digital currency bank, which will be fully compliant with government regulations. The ability to purchase and trade foreign currencies will be offered, and the company will also offer micro payment services to the un-banked and under-banked, domestically and abroad. In a 2013 survey, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) estimated that 7.7% of U.S. households (1 in 13) are un-banked and another 20% are under-banked.

To cement its relationship with Alternet, Hub Culture acquired a stake in Alternet Systems, using ven to fund the purchase. Hub Culture has stated: “Our investment in Alternet Systems is based on our confidence in the future success of the new products and services related to ven which Alternet is developing… We felt it was important to have a stake in their success as these services come to market. Granting Alternet Systems status as a Ven Authority leapfrogs them to the cutting edge of the multi-billion dollar digital currency industry, and maximizes their unique capabilities to grow ven in new markets faster.”

According to Hub Culture, part of the attractiveness of the deal is based on Alternet’s activity in the mobile sector, where they hope the company will be able to further the use of ven in the Latin American market. “…they have a mobile wallet and deep telecom connections, plus government multilateral connections… imagine a digital euro for LATAM”

It’s a magnificent vision: a digital euro for Latin America, a good reminder that he who dares, wins.

For more information, visit www.alternetsystems.com

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Cherubim Interests (OTC: CHIT), an investment company, focuses its attention on undervalued commercial assets and single and multi-family dwellings for purchase. The company aims to be at the forefront of alternative construction, property management, multifamily real estate, and investment opportunities. The company is involved with each project from beginning to end by covering due diligence, acquisitions, construction, and management. Cherubim Interests promotes safer living environments and better lifestyles overall with its business model while promising high returns for investors.

Recently, the company has partnered with BudCube Cultivation Systems, a subsidiary, to get involved with the rapidly growing cannabis market, which is expected to grow $35-$51 billion in the long run. BudCube has developed a proprietary cultivation technology that allows cannabis businesses to meet increasing market demands. This technology will allow a faster output of cannabis along with faster financial gain.

Cherubim Interests will own and develop new properties while BudCube will handle the technology and cannabis cultivation system application. Both will deliver macro solutions (single tenant) and micro solutions (multi-tenant) for prospective cannabis growers. This strategy is expected to promote huge financial growth for both companies.

Along with BudCube, Cherubim Interests also establishes investments within the Texaplex. This is a triangular region in Texas consisting of Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. These cities are largely populated and highly influential. They each have booming economies that cultivate innovation and culture while providing a lower-cost of living.

Using these two strategic resources, Cherubim Interests seems to have solidified its investment goals while paving the way for more. These thriving opportunities should provide a great financial return to the company and its investors.

For more information, visit www.cherubiminterests.com

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The rate at which a virus like influenza adapts and evolves has always been a subject for concern in the medical community, with vaccine technology only barely able to keep up from year to year. In many cases, as was the case this year, the latest vaccine for the latest strain is largely ineffective, with this season’s flu vaccine only obtaining around 23 percent efficacy according to the CDC’s own data (a figure which has dropped to as low as 10 percent in the past). However, in recent years this concern has given way to an increasing degree of outright alarm among savvy epidemiologists, upon whom it is now dawning that, without some serious technological innovation, we may soon be hitting a brick wall with public health crisis written all over it.

Just this week, the first Influenza fatality for the current season was reported in the state of Idaho, where 32 people died from flu-related illness last year. As many as 49,000 or more have died in the U.S. in a given year since the CDC started tracking such data over four decades ago. The majority of flu-associated deaths are typically in people over 65, and influenza vaccines are currently the most popular and widely accepted vaccination amongst adults.

As is typical, influenza vaccines accounted for the lion’s share of the $33.1 billion vaccine market last year. A market which is on track to hit upwards of $57.8 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of around 11.8 percent, according to a report from MarketsandMarkets out earlier this year. The market is currently dominated by a handful of major players like Merck (NYSE: MRK), Glaxo Smith Kline (NYSE: GSK) and Sanofi (NYSE: SNY), with smaller positions held by the likes of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), as well as CSL Limited (ASX: CSL), which acquired Novartis’ (NYSE: NVS) vaccine business earlier this year, including the influenza vaccines development pipeline.

The kind of forward growth projection contained in the MarketsandMarkets report is quite reasonable considering the increasing public attention about influenza in recent years, following the swine flu (Influenza A, H1N1) pandemic in 2009, and the avian/swine flu scares since. The rapidity with which influenza viruses mutate (driven by underlying, gradual antigenic drift), which can and has resulted in cross-species mobility into human populations for avian/swine flu, is one of the leading sources for the increasing alarm. Just this week, officials at the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection confirmed the presence of avian influenza (AH7N9) in two humans from mainland China who have had routine exposure to poultry, both of whom are currently hospitalized and in serious condition.

Such news is particularly alarming when one stops to consider the mounting evidence that we may be approaching the end of antibiotics as we have come to know them. A daunting problem which has been illustrated most recently by a report in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal on plasmid-mediated resistance to the last-resort antibiotic Colistin in animals and human beings in China. The decades-old antibiotic Colistin is only used as a last-resort these days in cases where multidrug-resistant bacteria are encountered, due to significant liver toxicity risk. Thus, this report has really raised eyebrows among many in the medical community, who are concerned that even stopgap measures like Colistin are becoming ineffective.

Luckily, we have some extremely compelling work being done in this area by a development-stage nanobiopharma company called NanoViricides (NYSE: NNVC), which has developed a novel nanoviricide® class of drug candidates that employ an ingenious and wholly unique approach to antiviral therapeutics involving nanomaterials. The company’s incredibly versatile nanoviricide platform has the potential to address a wide range of underserved and unserved demands, with pipeline indications under development ranging from its injectable/oral FluCide™ for influenza and the HerpeCide™ indication for herpesvirus, to candidates that may one day become the leading combatants of such devastating diseases as HIV or Ebola.

What really makes the company’s proprietary nanoviricide technology so interesting is its exploitation of an as-yet critically under examined property among even fast-mutating viruses, where the receptor binding site does not substantially change across iterations. This ingenious approach grants the nanoviricide platform’s method of action immense versatility that is unparalleled anywhere else in the industry today, and allows for the development of both virus-specific and broad-spectrum indications. By pairing a maximally-expressed virus-binding ligand made from the binding site on the virus cell’s own surface receptors, with a proprietary nanomicelle flexible polymer, the company is able to create molecular smart bombs that seek out and attach to virus cells, and yet which look to the virus like an extremely tasty normal human cell.

The virus is fooled into attacking the antibody-scale nanoviricide and is then fully engulfed by the highly flexible nanomicelle polymer in what is effectively a nano-scale Velcro effect, completely stopping the virus from infecting any more cells, degrading the protein shell of the virus, and outrightly dismantling it. This brilliant method of action stands in stark contrast to what most current entry and fusion inhibitors do, blocking only some of the binding sites, which leaves the virus cell able to infect other cells. This method of action is also expected to be far superior to similarly-large antibody agents as well, because it does not require the often already compromised immune system of the host to clear the virus particle, and instead is able to destroy the virus particle on its own.

Moreover, the company’s already successfully demonstrated ADIF technology (Accurate-Drug-In-Field) represents a lightweight, field-deployable frontline defensive and offensive solution for novel or emergent, quickly mutating strains like Ebola. The ADIF technology allows emergency medical responders to rapid-prototype an accurate drug on-site, anywhere in the world an outbreak might occur. This capacity means that NNVC holds the power to potentially allow medical professionals to safely combat the most dangerous infectious diseases, as well as bioterrorism agents directly, before they can spread and become a more serious issue for an increasingly connected world.

This is a key advantage for NNVC that investors should keep an eye on, especially considering the latest Ebola scare in Africa, with news breaking that as of December 15, seventeen suspected Ebola patients have gone missing from a healthcare facility in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, after a mob attacked the facility on Saturday. We could be looking at the start of another Ebola outbreak surge (previously thought to be contained), tipped off by this incident in Liberia, which has not had a history of the disease until recently, but which saw more than 400 fatalities alone due to the disease after the outbreak began last year. This now apparently ongoing outbreak, which began in Guinea two years ago this month, has also caused significant loss of life in Sierra Leone, and even managed to reach the U.S. and EU, forcing governments to critically reassess the potential severity of such a problem.

Dig deeper into this company’s revolutionary tech by visiting http://www.nanoviricides.com/