Patient Heal Thyself.
Many, many years ago I worked in the crude oil marketing business with a gentleman (and I use that term loosely) who had a drawer full of “marketing mints”. The so called “mints” ranged from antacids to Tylenol to Advil and various assorted other over the counter remedies for just about anything that ails you. He had a quote that I still use today, “better living through modern chemistry”. Medical science has come a long way over whatever time frame you want to compare and continues to marvel and astound with every new innovation and improvement. Society as a whole is very fortunate for all the really smart people who work hard every day to make our lives better and more comfortable.
Along those lines, today we are going to discuss a bioscience accelerator focused on next-generation drug delivery, diagnostic, and new active pharmaceutical ingredient investment opportunities. XPhyto Therapeutics Corp. (CSE: XPHY | OTCQB: XPHYF) is a next generation bioscience company whose business activities include: precision transdermal and oral dissolvable drug formulations; rapid, low-cost infectious disease and oral health screening tests; and standardization of emerging active pharmaceutical ingredients for neurological applications, including psychedelic compounds and cannabinoids. It’s like a health and wellness ETF all in one stock.
Similar to many of its peers in this new age of a global pandemic, XPhyto was able to adapt some of its existing IP and pivot towards the development of a rapid point of care COVID-19 RT-PCR diagnostic test. However, the key differentiator for XPhyto is that this 25-minute test is a PCR test, not your typical rapid test. The PCR test is accurate and reliable, and has become the gold standard test for diagnosing COVID-19. In March of this year, the Company’s test was approved and registered within the European Union as a commercial in vitro diagnostic test. This in turn led to an agreement with an established German pharmaceutical wholesaler and service provider for the distribution, storage and logistics of XPhyto’s diagnostic products in Germany. By the end of May, they had begun the sale of its 25-minute SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test system in Germany. And in late June XPhyto announced that ten COVID-19 test centers in Berlin, Germany had taken delivery of approximately 1,000 tests for the summer and high travel season.
For many countries, only polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are accepted to travel making XPhyto’s decentralized testing model critical to yield faster results and more versatile test center options. Processing will occur directly at the sample collection site representing a significant shift from conventional PCR testing models whereby samples are collected and then shipped to large centralized and automated labs for processing. So now instead of trying to track down a test facility before your flight home and hoping you get the result before you head out to the airport, all you have to do with XPhyto’s test is get to the airport half an hour early and you’re good to go.
This is the meat and potatoes stuff going on at XPhyto which could help achieve near term revenue and hopefully help finance the more interesting and exciting developments they have on the go. Those exciting things include the latest announcement by the Company regarding the launch of their first biosensor test. This test for oral inflammation is an easy at home self-check that can be performed without the need for specific medical knowledge or training, analytical equipment or even a power supply. When placed on the tongue, the thin film dissolves and, after 5 minutes, the biosensor releases a bitter taste if oral inflammation exists. The biosensor functions as a quick test for heightened levels of certain bacteria and viruses to check whether a doctor’s visit and further tests are necessary.
In fact, this is the second biosensor announcement in a month. At the end of July, XPhyto and its soon to be acquired partner 3a-diagnostics reported the breakthrough identification of COVID-19 biosensor candidates. It’s the first saliva activated biosensor molecules identified to diagnose COVID-19 infection using XPhyto’s oral dissolvable delivery platform. These enzyme-activated biosensors are developed for real-time, low cost and easy to use oral screening applications for the rapid detection of infectious diseases at home or at the point of care. XPhyto, via 3a, has developed a pipeline of molecular biosensor screening tests for bacterial and viral infectious diseases which include stomatitis, periimplantitis, periodontitis, group A streptococcus, and influenza A. Pretty fascinating stuff, even if I don’t know what half of the things they can readily identify even are.
These are just some of the activities going on at XPhyto, other pursuits include work in the psychedelic space with an exclusive development deal with a Canadian University for industrial scale synthesis of pharmaceutical grade Mescaline and an exclusive development deal with German University for industrial scale biotech production of pharmaceutical grade Psilocybin. The Company has a letter of intent for cooperation in the field of development, production, and distribution of new cannabis infused beverages and products with renowned German brewery Oettinger Brauerei GmbH. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Vektor Pharma TF GmbH, it’s planning to build a new commercial drug manufacturing facility in Germany. Hence the ETF comment earlier.
The Company should be well funded for the time being as there were 3.1 million in the money warrants exercised for $2.5 million prior to the July 31st expiry date. Combined with the $1.6 million in cash available at the end of Q2 should provide enough liquidity to get to the next quarterly results which will hopefully show some revenue from the rapid COVID-19 PCR tests. The warrant exercise takes the shares outstanding to approximately 72.9 million making for a market cap of roughly $120 million based on yesterday’s close of $1.65. Let’s see if XPhyto Therapeutics provides us with a better living via their modern chemistry.