"there is a lot of unawareness about brilacidin and CTIX still, perhaps because it's such a low market cap OTC stock"
It's not a commentary on the science, it's just that most (almost all) mutual fund/institutional investors have hard and fast rules that screen out companies that aren't on an exchange and/or sell for less than $X (X used to be 5, may be more nowadays). Because they are locked into the parameters in their prospectus they can't invest in companies that fall below them no matter how promising, or even profitable, they may be.