What’s teased as “The #1 Stock to Profit from the Big Biotech Boom?” Checking out the teaser pitch from Biotech Millionaire
By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, July 15, 2020
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Today we’re headed into the wild and woolly world of biotech once again, sniffing out the secret stock from a teaser pitch for Biotech Millionaire, edited by Chris Wood and Jake Weber over at Mauldin Economics ($1,795/yr, includes their Healthy Returns letter… and unlike most higher-cost letters these days, they actually offer a 30-day refund period, so we should say “good for them” on that front).
The ad begins with a spiel about the “Hawking Factor” — which, to summarize, is basically the idea that a treatment that can offer reversal of a disease… some sort of regenerative factor… is far more valuable than a drug that can just stop its progression. There are drugs for ALS, for example, but none that reverse it, and therefore Stephen Hawking was treated for his slow deterioration and was able to live for 50 years with ALS, but a revolutionary treatment would have been one that actually reversed the disease. Here’s how they put it:
“A treatment that doesn’t just save the life of the patient but could completely transform it by reversing the symptoms.
“Reversing disease is the latest example of revolutionizing science, which Hawking was all about.”
So that’s the idea, which probably means we’re dealing with something in regenerative medicine, either stem cells or something similar. What, then, is this secret biotech that they dangle before us as we fumble for our credit cards? Apparently they’re also a bit topical, and they’re doing something that might help COVID-19 patients… this is how they sum it up on the order form:
“This company is testing a groundbreaking treatment for stroke and ARDS, the leading cause of death in COVID-19 patients… for projected gains of up to 1,270% in the next 12–18 months.”
The primary focus of the company seems to be on treatment for strokes, here’s a bit about that from the ad: it aids doctors in the fight against one of the world’s largest killers: stroke.
“According to the CDC, acute ischemic strokes strike almost 800,000 Americans per year and kill 140,000.
Are you getting our free Daily Update. There are about 15 million cases of stroke worldwide every year.
“Stroke is the #1 cause of disability and the #3 cause of death worldwide.”
And we’re told that although there are very good treatments for strokes like this, they have to be administered within hours of the event… which means that people who don’t immediately get to a hospital are out of luck. This new treatment can be effective on people for much longer, which is why the market for the drug could be dramatically larger… more from the ad…
“It’s not a drug in the traditional sense. It’s a stem cell therapy….
“It can effectively treat patients up to 36 hours after they’ve suffered a stroke which would make 90–95% of stroke patients eligible for treatment. This is a HUGE milestone for modern medicine.”
OK, so there’s our confirmation of the “stem cell” idea. What else do we learn about this secret stock? More clues from the pitch…
“We’re looking at late-stage clinical trials that are already well underway. But this cell therapy has even more exciting applications. Aside from stroke, one of the main killers of people worldwide it can treat the leading cause of death from COVID-19: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
“The tiny company I’ve vetted is the only one in the world that has shown promise in the treatment of ARDS.”
And that COVID-19 stuff sounds impressive, particularly given how brutal an extended time on a ventilator can be for your body…
“Most vaccines and antiviral treatments that are in the works to treat COVID-19 are specific to the virus.
“This therapy is not.
“That means we could use it to treat any future viral outbreak that causes ARDS—no matter what the virus is.
“Also: This amazing ‘Hawking Factor’ therapy can not only reduce inflammation in the lung it can regenerate tissue.”
I guess it makes sense that the treatment is not COVID-specific, since they’re talking about using the same drug for stroke patients.
Other clues?
They’ve been granted fast-track status by the FDA, presumably for the COVID/ARDS treatment.
And it’s a universal stem cell treatment, not a personalized one — so you don’t have to have a donor match to you, or create pluripotent stem cells from your own body, it’s something that is standardized and can be stored by a pharmacy… the ad says it can be “administered to the patient in less than an hour,” and if they’re mentioning that time to treatment
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