Avalon GloboCare Corp (ALBT)

[TripTrap]

Due Diligence on AVCO

*Sources listed at the bottom

Avalon GloboCare (AVCO) is a clinical stage bio developer of cell-based technology and therapy in the sector now called Cell Tech. Avalon’s proprietary technologies are focused on the development and innovation of medicines and diagnostics to serve the strong unmet needs in cancer and other various diseases including Covid-19. Avalon has 4 different candidates in the pipeline and anyone of them could be a blockbuster.

Founded in 2016 by means of a reverse merger they started trading on the Nasdaq in 2017. They have a 60 thousand square foot world headquarters, called the Avalon Executive Center, located in Freehold, New Jersey. Part of their corporate space is leased out to gain revenue as they build their pipeline. Avalon has also built two world-class subsidiary facilities: Avactis Biosciences and Genexosome Technologies in China. They are operating laboratories for bioproduction and standardization to produce clinical grade cells. Avalon has built up this infrastructure in anticipation of future growth.
----------------
--------
Market Cap: $104 million
Outstanding Shares: 81 million
Float: 25.89 million
No debt
Approximate cash on hand as of Sept 2020: $20 million plus
Approximate monthly burn rate: $400,000
Annual revenue from rental of extra commercial space: USD $1.2M. (In these early stages, Avalon for added revenue, also provides strategic advisory and outsourcing services to facilitate and enhance its clients’ growth, development, as well as competitiveness in healthcare and CellTech industry markets.)
% of shares held by insiders: 71.30%
% of shares held by institutions: 3.46%
Joined Russell 3000 Index in June 2019
-----------
-----
Two key players for Avalon:

1. CEO - Dr. David Jin, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Jin was the CMO of BioTime from 2009 to 2016. He served as the physician/scientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Ansary Stem Cell Center at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University.

Dr. Jin is a CEO who knows the "ins and outs" of pharmaceutical investment and innovation. As the principal investigator of more than 15 pre-clinical and clinical studies, he authored over 80 peer-reviewed medical publications.

With his background as the faculty of internal medicine, hematology, and clinical oncology at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH), he trained a breadth of talents from Cornell and Columbia Universities.
Dr. Jin also garnered recognition receiving two prestigious awards as the Top Chief Medicall Officer by ExecRank in 2012 and Leading Physicians of the World in 2015.

Dr. Jin owns 15,766,667 shares of AVCO which is 19.1% of the common stock

2. Chairman of the Board – Mr. Wenzhao (Daniel) Lu
Chairman Lu is a seasoned healthcare entrepreneur with extensive operation in China. He has also been serving as Chairman of the Board for the Lu Daopei Medical Group in China since 2010.
Under his leadership, the Lu Daopei Medical Group has recently expanded its clinical network involving a state-of-the-art stem cell bank at Wuhan Biolake, three top-ranked private hospitals (located in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hebei), specialty hematology laboratories, as well as a hematology research institute, with more than 100 partnering and collaborating hospitals in China.

Chairman Lu received a Bachelor of Arts from Temple University Tyler School of Arts in 1988 and subsequently worked as senior Art Director at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Company. Prior to joining Lu Daopei Medical Group, Chairman Lu served as Chief Operating Officer for BioTime Asia Limited which is a subsidiary of BioTime, Inc. (NYSE/AMEX:BTX) in 2009.

Chairman Lu is a multimillionaire with deep pockets and vast connections in biotech. He is AVCO’s largest shares holder with 29,400,000 shares which is 35.6% of the common stock. This leaves him highly motivated to keep AVCO free from cash flow constraints and this money reserve is a huge advantage that Avalon has over competitors.
-----------
-----
Key Partnerships / Relationships: Avalon has put in place a way to accelerate its product development and commercialization through strategic working relationships.

GE Healthcare - On June 22, 2019, Avalon announced a highly strategic partnership with GE Healthcare. This partnership will allow Avalon to ramp up cell therapy production, streamline the whole development/commercialization process and allow Avalon to conquer the vast cellular therapy market in China while building its footprints worldwide.

Weill Cornell Medicine - On October 9th, 2018 Weill Cornell Medicine selected Avalon’s subsidiary, Genexosome Technologies, proprietary exosome isolation system as a key component in the world’s first standardization processing of cGMP-grade exosomes for clinical studies. "This strategic co-development endeavor will synergize Genexosome Technologies’ top-rated isolation platform with Weill Cornell’s world-class cGMP cellular therapy/cell-derived product processing facility to accelerate innovative exosome technology development, as well as standardization in clinical-grade exosome bio-production process,” stated David Jin, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and President of Avalon GloboCare Corp.

MIT - On May 21st 2019 Avalon Globocare entered into a sponsored research and licensing agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to generate novel therapeutic targets for cellular therapy using artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced protein design “QTY Code” technology. This breakthrough technology of “QTY Code” greatly enhances the solubility of designer peptides and proteins, therefore expanding the repertoire of selected therapeutic targets against cancers and other diseases. Avalon will initiate research and development with MIT professors Robert S. Langer and Shuguang Zhang to design the next generation of therapeutics for Cytokine Release Syndrome, T-cell leukemia, as well as novel methodology to re-engineer immune cells for cellular immunotherapy.

Lu Daopei Hospital Network - Avalon has a direct working relationship with the most prestigious hospital group in China, the Lu Daopei Hospital Network. The Lu Daopei Medical Group was founded by a stellar physician, Professor Daopei Lu, a renowned hematologist pioneering in hematopoietic stem cell transplant and member of the Academy of Engineering in China. He is held in the highest regard in China.
The Lu Daopei hospital network, is the largest clinical center for CAR- T (completed over 300 cases of CAR-T therapy) as well as well as bone marrow transplant treatment in the world. Avalon’s chairman, Daniel Lu, is also the chairmen of the Lu Daopei medical group GIVING AVALON A HUGE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AS AVALON GLOBOCARE BEGINS TO EMERGE ON THE WORLD STAGE.

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) – On June 25th 2020 Avalon Globocare reached a strategic partnership with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria to develop a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
The principal investigator of the project will be Uwe Sleytr, a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a pioneer of applied surface layer (S-layer) nanotechnology. Eva-Kathrin Ehmoser, professor, and head of the Institute for Synthetic Bioarchitectures at BOKU, will serve as co-principal investigator for the vaccine program.

Cellex, Inc. - On August 19th 2020 Avalon Globocare announced the Company has entered into a commercialization partnership agreement with North Carolina-based Cellex, Inc., whereby Avalon has been awarded distribution rights to market Cellex’s COVID-19 antibody-based rapid test kit, which has been granted U.S. FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). Avalon is also working with Cellex to source manufacturing facilities and to develop next generation COVID-19 detection kits.

ASTCT – Avalon is one of 25 elite members of the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.
---------
-----
There are several blockbuster prospects in the pipeline for Avalon Globocare:
1. Cellular Immunotherapy (i.e. CAR-T - Avalon's lead franchise)
2. Exosomes Diagnostics
3. Regenerative Medicine
4. Covid-19 related

Though all four franchises have a high probability of generating winners, you only need a single blockbuster for the stock to appreciate into a huge long-term winner. Here are further details:

1. Cellular Immunotherapy CAR-T: On June 29, 2020 Avalon reported the successful completion of the Phase 1 first-in-human pilot study of its CAR-T dubbed AVA-001. As a third-generation CAR-T, AVA-001 modulates the CD28 co-stimulation pathway with the CD-19 target suppression. It marked a ground-breaking development in the CAR-T space, AVA-001 delivers the robust therapeutic efficacy in nine out of ten patients with RR/B-ALL. In other words, the complete response (i.e., CR) rate is 90% one month after treatment. Moreover, patients who achieved the CR successfully proceeded to allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for curative intent.
There are several other potential blockbusters in their cellular immunotherapy franchise such as AVA-101 - the most advanced CAR-T known to man due to its ingenious design, -201, and -203. Global CAR T Cell Therapy Market is anticipated to reach multiple billions of dollars over the next five years.

2. Diagnostic portfolio: Avalon harnesses the power of "exosomal biomarkers" to launch an avalanche against oral cancer, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis ("NASH"), leukemia, colorectal cancer, and macular degeneration.
Avalon's exosome technology is as promising as its CAR-T. AVA-201 is a novel miR-185 enriched exosome that has both diagnostic and therapeutic value against oral cancer. Regarding the medical diagnostic and regenerative medicine, developments are precisely on target. Specifically, AVA-201 will go in a clinical trial by year-end 2020.

3. Regenerative medicine: Exosome regenerative medicine can be employed for hair restoration, skincare, anti-scar, anti-wrinkle, diabetic foot ulcer, wound care, anti-fibrosis, etc. This technology works because stem cells and its exosomes mature into other tissues that catalyze the regeneration process. This market could reach $39.4B by 2023.

4 Covid-19: Avalon recently set up its Avalon Combat COVID-19 Taskforce (“ACCT”) to fight the devastating Coronavirus pandemic.

June 25th 2020, Avalon forms a strategic partnership with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria and the nanotechnology laboratory of Professor Uwe B. Sleytr on a novel S-layer SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccine.

August 12th, 2020, Avalon announced today that it is expanding its AVA-Trap™ Program to Treat COVID-19 and CAR-T Related Cytokine Storms. They plan to file two USPTO provisional patent applications jointly with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab to develop a cytokine-specific blood purification system based on Avalon’s proprietary AVA-Trap™ technology.

This decision reflects advancements to Avalon’s AVA-Trap™ blood filtration system designed to rid the body of cytokines unleashed during the “cytokine storm” and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in COVID-19 patients, as well as cancer patients treated with CAR T-cell therapy and other patients that require rapid removal of cytokines from the body.

The expanded patent application combines two novel technologies—S-layers and a protein design code tool—for a decoy cytokine receptor system to filter out pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in the blood in those experiencing cytokine storm.

August 19th 2020, Avalon announces commercialization and distribution agreement with with North Carolina-based Cellex, Inc. for a next generation COVID-19 Antibody Rapid Test Kit. The kit has been granted U.S. FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and are expected to be in high demand. Avalon is also working with Cellex to source manufacturing facilities and to develop next generation COVID-19 detection kits. This agreement allows Avalon to initiate distribution and marketing of the U.S. These rapid test kits are highly accurate and are able to detect IgG and IgM antibodies specific to the SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 in serum, plasma, and whole blood within 15 minutes.
-----------
-------
Avalon is a Potential Buy Out Candidate from a Large Pharmaceutical:
Back in 2017, CAR-T biotech companies Kite Pharma and Juno Therapeutics were correspondingly acquired by Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Novartis (NVS) for $11.9B and $9B. Some argue that Avalon’s CAR-T technology is even better. Avalon has a cutting-edge pipeline, global commercial relationships, no debt, and many patents making it an ideal candidate to be bought out one day.
------------
-----
I am no medical expert and inevitably there will be info that I can tighten up here. For that reason and as things change, I will be updating this info from time to time and posting updates.

*Sources:
Dr. Tran - Integrated BioSci Investing https://seekingalpha.com/checkout?service_id=mp_1174
Avalon Globocare website: http://www.avalon-globocare.com/
Avalon Globocare’s SEC filings
Yahoo Finance: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AVCO/
Numerous youtube videos interviewing the CEO, Dr Jin