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GREAT ARTICLE: Tappimmune/Tekmira

What's Next: Investors Place Ebola Pandemic Stock Bets

One strong candidate which has seen a quiet increase in activity/volume lately is tiny TapImmune Inc. (OTCQB:TPIV - News).

Like Tekmira, TapImmune offers investors an infectious disease side bet while serving up a main course of “new frontier” cutting-edge science-- in this case, a pipeline of multiple cancer vaccines showing superior results in human clinical trials. Those results strongly support progression to Phase ll and a very realistic shot at Orphan Drug Designation for multiple drug candidates in the short term.

TapImmune, despite having multi-billion dollar product potential in Breast and Ovarian Cancer- two separate large market indications with clearly unsatisfied medical needs- has not been able to catch the attention of most investors. In fact, the Seattle based microcap has seen its share prices hit after a recent corporate re-structure and a financing deal which has armed them with new resources.

That has not dissuaded at least some speculators from quietly picking up shares in growing volumes at currently discounted levels for what some believe to be a 5x to 10x opportunity. In fact, volume has been rising on the recent positive clinical data and since rumors began to spread that the firm’s PolyStart™ technology may be getting attention from bigger firms and government agencies- this after successful preclinical work at Mayo Clinic showed the platform can boost vaccine productivity FOUR fold, which becomes particularly relevant as the Ebola threat continues to spread more aggressively.

PolyStart™, which was primarily, developed “in-house” by Bob Florkiewicz, PhD as a way of boosting the effectiveness of TapImmune’s existing Her2Neu and Ovarian Cancer vaccines, but it is such a versatile ‘plug and play’ technology, its potential for treating infectious diseases including influenza, H1N1, Dengue, and yes, Ebola cannot be ignored or overemphasized. Even as the platform is likely being prepared for an Ebola application, serious investors in the company have given kudos to the firm for not trying to jumping on the Ebola band wagon. Still, as this threat gains momentum and global panic grows, we believe the technology could play a major role in its containment and eradication given the right collaboration and partners- some of which are rumored to be circling.

Those who understand PolyStart’s™ mechanism of action, say that it can increase the effectiveness of just about any vaccine and perhaps provide a platform countermeasure to bioterrorism. In short, the PolyStart™ expression vector is a significant advance in vaccine technologies which may not be ignored much longer.

Image: https://d1ty0e8cxefhfl.cloudfront.net/contributor/ME-Garza/user_content/ckimages/orig_TPIVInfectious.jpg

It’s worth noting that Florkiewicz, who serves as Senior Director of Molecular Biology & Virology at TapImmune,was at ID Biomedical when GlaxoSmithKlineagreed to buy the Canadian vaccine developer for C$1.7 billion.

The way we see it, whether inferring from company presentations or street rumors about PolyStart™ as an infectious disease play out in the weeks ahead or not, the firm has made clear to investors a series of important pipeline milestones and catalysts which could certainly spur more buying and interest. Most recently, during their presentation at the at the 16th Annual Rodman & Renshaw Global Investment Conference, management also told investors that it plans to seek an up listing to the Nasdaq as soon as possible. That hints at, and would require, a significantly higher share price.

Finally, when one considers that TapImmune has only 19M outstanding shares with roughly 8M in the float and that it trades at prices significantly lower than those of other players in the immunotherapy space by 5 or 10X, downside risk at these levels is certainly minimized.