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TIME MAGAZINE WARNS AGAINST INVESTING IN CERTAIN "EBOLA STOCKS"
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Companies Mentioned
OTC:BB:TPIV / NASDAQ:SRPT / NASDAQ:NLNK / NYSE:GSK
10/28/2014 [ACCESSWIRE]
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 28, 2014 / Time Magazine is today warning investors that while developmental stage pharmas like Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INO , NewLink Genetics Corp. (NASDAQ:NLNK), Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TKMR) and Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT) have all generated significant interest among stock market investors lately, there are good reasons to shy away from buying into experimental Ebola treatment therapies. But how can this be?
According to Scientific American, the number of Ebola cases continues to rise because control measures in the outbreak area are insufficient. Experts say these numbers could drop quickly if the international community and affected countries manage to implement an effective response.
As such, a better answer for speculative investors may lie in betting on companies who might emerge as front runners to develop prophylactic (not a therapeutic) vaccines against Ebola.
The problem is, most small-cap investors aren’t likely to afford enough shares of established companies in the prophylactic vaccine arena. You see, the vaccine industry is dominated by five pharmaceutical powerhouses: Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), Novartis (NYSE:NVS), Merck (NYSE:MRK), Sanofi Pasteur, and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK), four of which command over 75 percent of the market.
One low-priced emerging player in the space, has shares trading at technically and fundamentally “oversold” levels following a recent financing and company re-structuring.
TapImmune, Inc. (OTCBB:TPIV) is a Seattle based biotech who some believe may hold the key to greatly reducing the mortality rate of HER2/neu breast and ovarian cancer - two major killers with very limited existing treatment options.
Given the market size and potential of their lead products (not to mention recent clinical trial results), it’s hard to defend the firm’s low market cap valuation. The stock has been inexplicably punished after having seen shares trade as high as $7 recently. In fact, shares are now priced more like options that won’t expire and there are plenty of reasons to like the upside here.
A breakthrough in medical technology within TapImmune’s arsenal may hold the key to silencing the world's most fearsome diseases. The firm’s PolyStart™ technology boosts the effectiveness of existing vaccines on several cancers and infectious diseases including influenza, H1N1, Dengue, and possibly even Ebola or Enterovirus.
Successful proof of concept studies conducted at the Mayo Clinic have recently shown that human cells transfected with a PolyStart™ construct containing vaccinia virus ("smallpox") antigens could express antigens on the surface of cells resulting in a marked increase in the killing efficacy with an immune serum against these antigens. In addition, PolyStart(TM) can be used in concert with TapImmune’s TAPvax platform which can improve antigen presentation and confirms a significant portfolio of technology depth in this important component of immunotherapeutic vaccine development.
The use of PolyStart(TM) can increase the production of targeted vaccine peptides by FOUR fold, making the vaccine present significantly more of the target peptide to the immune system resulting in increased killing of the target rogue cells and potentially making production of large volume vaccines more cost effective. This is a major advance in vaccine development and confirms a tremendous platform in the TapImmune portfolio.
PolyStart(TM) enables a patient's immune system to better combat diseases by making the diseased cells more visible to the immune system and because immune function plays a huge role in the success of a vaccine, PolyStart(TM) makes new and existing vaccines much more powerful.
Various studies have shown that the human immune system is able to combat and rid the body of cancers and diseased cells. Observations showed dramatic tumor regression when the immune system is active and functioning optimally. Most cancers fail to call the immune system to action due to a shortage of triggering proteins on the surfaces of cancerous cells. TapImmune's PolyStart(TM) is based around helping to solve this issue.
Think of it like a targeting system. When a person gets ill, their immune system knows that something's wrong and it deploys Helper and Killer T-cells to destroy the infected cells. The problem with cancer and diseases like Ebola is that the immune system has a hard time telling enemy cells from innocent ones. PolyStart™ makes these enemy cells 400 percent more visible by marking them with specific chemical peptides that attract T-Helper and T-Killer cells.
PolyStart's(TM) versatility is one of its most interesting traits. It not only marks infected cell surfaces with immune triggers, but can easily switch the peptides that make up these markings to provide much wider protection from various strains of the diseases. Peptides play a variety of roles in the body, and are important building blocks for vaccines. Once the right peptide is identified, scientists can quickly develop a targeted vaccine. The technology has the potential to save many lives otherwise lost during a pandemic or emergence of a new virus strain.
Short and Long-Term Goals
TapImmune believes there is a strong market for its technology. Together with the Mayo Clinic, corporate partners, and other supporters, TapImmune is focusing its infectious disease program development efforts to target smallpox and other leading threats in many countries, and could easily be ramped up to address Ebola. In fact, PolyStart's(TM) adaptability makes it a prime candidate in responding to not only viral outbreaks but also to bioterrorism.
TapImmune’s management has officially indicated that they plan to initiate PolyStart™ clinical trials and to secure a variety of new partnerships, R&D collaborations and break into the competitive vaccine market with developers seeking a more effective treatment tool.
Management is confident in PolyStart's(TM) ability to power up existing vaccines and assist in the development of new vaccines and if TapImmune successfully secures such a collaborative research and development partnership in the near term, shareholders could see their stock bounce back towards the published one-year target price of $6.97.
If TapImmune fails to secure a partnership or collaboration, there appears to be little downside risk at today’s prices. In fact, we note various news catalysts about the firm’s pipeline progress which could easily spur more interest and positive price inflections ahead.
Whether they are mentioned as Ebola stock plays or not, the Time Magazine article points out that all these clinical-stage companies tend to have limited resources and huge cash burns which are heavily dependent upon dilutive financing to fund their operations. Minimize risk as much as you can by doing careful due diligence and truly weighing the value proposition being offered at today’s prices by these firms.

Author Michael Greenberg covers emerging companies and small cap opportunities
SOURCE: BioMedReports