On the cusp of a cure for COVID, one of the most promising yet under-the-radar biotech stocks on the OTC is generating much well-deserved buzz in the scientific community and is poised to go viral.

Bioxytran Inc. (OTCMKTS: BIXT) over the weekend had their phase 2 top-line results published in the peer-reviewed journal “Vaccines.” There is a not-so-subtle tinge of irony in that name because while their drug is nothing like a vaccine, there is no doubt about its efficacy– 100% PCR negative rate by day 7 versus 6% in placebo.  The medical journal article was titled “An Oral Galectin Inhibitor in COVID-19 – A Phase 2 Randomized Controlled Trial.” This is a landmark journal article because – until now – only one other drug, Harvoni, had equaled a 100% responders rate in the past decade.  Harvoni ultimately ended up being a cure for Hepatitis C Virus.

At this point in Bioxytran’s drug development pipeline, it essentially has a functional cure for COVID-19 that simply needs a pivotal phase 3 trial to show the true extent of their discovery.  Their drug is a galectin antagonist, which neutralizes the now infamous spike proteins by placing a carbohydrate sheath over the spikes making attachment to the cell impossible. The carbohydrates binding grip is so tight on the virus that it carries it around in the blood until it is eventually filtered out by the liver and excreted. 

If solving the pandemic wasn’t enough, the company recently reported that in vitro studies suggest the drug would be effective in Influenza and RSV.  Yet despite the fact that this one drug could seemingly end upper respiratory infections, which most of us refer to as a “common cold,” it has a nominal market cap of just $50 million.       

For the past three months, BIXT has been teasing this peer-reviewed article as a catalyst and a major value inflection point for the company. Despite that, investors haven’t gotten the hint, and have been steadily selling into this inflection point. Even though the company has yet to report it in a press release, the scientific community is understandably going crazy over it. Investors, however, are seemingly oblivious to the viral traffic and simply not paying attention to the sheer magnitude of the discovery–a functional cure for COVID and the methodology to seemingly combat any virus.  

One of the reasons peer review is so important for a biotech is that major media outlets won’t touch the science without it. With its publication, this article means that BIXT now has an opportunity to tell its story on network media. The biggest risk that investors now face in BIXT is FOMO, driven by an unexpected media appearance that ushers unbridled buying into the name and leaves tepid investors chasing up.   

If the article itself wasn’t enough, their peer-reviewed article was picked up by a major biotech influencer on Twitter, quickly garnering more than 100k hits.  The influencer, Chris Turnbull, summarized the article highlighting key points like the rapid viral clearance in 3 days through entry inhibition and suggested the ideal use is when you know you were exposed. He hammered the point that ProLectin-M was for standard-risk patients and that Paxlovid was for high-risk groups with at least one medical condition.   

This discovery changes the COVID landscape permanently.  Multi-billion dollar antiviral drugs like Paxlovid and Lagevrio can’t hold a candle to the viral clearing power of BIXT’s galectin antagonist. Looking at the Twitter account of BIXT Chief Commercial Officer Michael Sheikh, it’s clear that there are some ongoing discussions with big pharma that have not yielded any fruit. But big pharma may not be their only option. BIXT has also said they are looking to partner with companies with large cash balance sheets.  Both galectin antagonist companies Galectin Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GALT) and Galecto Bioscience (NASDAQ: GLTO) fit the profile and are the subject of a number of relatively supportive tweets by Sheikh.  Sleuthing Sheikh’s LinkedIn profile reveals hardcore evidence of that sort of dealmaking with clusters of top executives in certain companies and networking, which suggests significant activity among their larger Galectin-focused peers.  In an emerging growth interview, the CCO did say that he got a lot of business cards and was networking.      

There exists a huge chasm between the current market cap and what it ought to be given that it successfully completed a phase 2 and nailed the endpoint with a perfect score. The CCO described in an Emerging Growth video how valuations work and a number of comparables in the $500 million range for a number of disease indications that BIXT is developing.  The stock has a very tiny float of 19 million with an OS of 123 million.  This represents a float of 15% and insiders own over 60%.  There is no dilution from the convertible notes as they have company-friendly terms that allow up to 5% conversion into restricted common stock. In an Emerging Growth interview a couple of months ago, the CCO acknowledged the stock’s current challenge, indicating a legacy seller was responsible for half the daily volume and was almost gone. In early March after a ZeroHedge article was published, the stock went on a record run to $1.05 in a matter of minutes before short forces brought it back down. On March 7th it looks like the seller ran out of inventory for the day and the demand just lifted the stock price allowing it to go through a short period of natural price discovery.  The long-term legacy seller seems to be at the end of his block, which means any news announcement could push the stock higher.    

Low-Risk Explosive Reward Profile

There is no doubt that BIXT has incredible potential yet the stock continues to languish. With the anemic volume, it’s very difficult to diagnose what the root cause is for the disconnect from the comparable valuations established by big pharma in the $500 million region and BIXT’s current $50M cap. If one article that generated a little bit of buying pushed it to the brink of explosiveness, perhaps there is more stock from this legacy seller that is still controlling the narrative.  

Upcoming Catalysts

For the investor with a longer-term view, BIXT represents a safe place to park funds for explosive returns.  The upcoming catalysts are a dosing of patients in India for the dose optimization trial, a potential IND from the FDA, and of course, the announcement of the peer-reviewed journal article.  While it’s uncertain which catalyst will send the stock into overdrive it’s abundantly clear this is one of the most undervalued stocks in OTC.   

Pound-for-Pound Comparison of Paxlovid and PLM

Paxlovid also helped lower the length of time people with underlying medical conditions were infectious.  However, Paxlovid is not a very effective drug and is walking a tightrope with respect to its approval as more and more real-world data reveals their toxicity.  

Here is a chart capture from the company’s latest scientific webinar that shows a side-by-side comparison for illustrative purposes.  The charts show that Paxlovid can barely turn 30% of the patients PCR negative by day 20 whereas a majority of the PLM patients were PCR negative on day 3.  This is an absolute game-changer in controlling the pandemic.  The other thing that this peer-reviewed journal highlighted is that the symptoms were eliminated and without those symptoms, people were unlikely to develop Long COVID.  It’s very reasonable to believe that PLM stops Long COVID due to its mechanism of action as well as the fact that it appeared to eliminate symptoms in this trial, as seen in the picture below.  While it’s nice that Paxlovid stops hospitalization and death, PLM takes it to a new level by making you feel better faster and eliminating the risk of Long COVID.

Investment Summary

Bioxytran is not only sitting on a solution for COVID and a possible end to the pandemic, but it appears they can also treat Long COVID and a number of viruses.  All this information is out there in the public domain and investors seem to be sitting on their hands waiting for something more to happen.  It’s unclear what that trigger will be.  Will it be a video interview on major media? Will it be the IND announcement from the FDA? Or will it be an explosion of XBB1.16 cases in India whereby they fast-track the PLM development in the country?  Whatever the catalyst, the risk/ reward scenario on BIXT is one of the best in all of the OTC.  The small float coupled with the lack of an S-1 on file eliminating the risk of immediate dilution bodes well for either a long-term or medium-term investor.  

Investors need to ask themselves if they could have invested in penicillin knowing the impact it was going to have last century would they have dived in?  Investors are facing a similar scenario with PLM.  This is perhaps the biggest antiviral discovery of the century which amounts to a functional cure for COVID and possibly other viruses.  Will investors stay on the sideline because some grumpy shareholder is selling not allowing immediate price discovery or will they step up to secure their place in history?  Time will tell, but what is certain is that PLM will save an immeasurable amount of lives and take away untold suffering if it can navigate its way to regulatory approval. But while BIXT may be curing Covid, there is still only one cure for FOMO. Investors would do well to stop waiting on the sidelines to enter or affirm their positions before this game-changing anti-viral goes viral.     

Disclosure: MicroCap Daily and its owners do not have a position in the stocks posted and have posted this article for free without editorial input. This article was written by a guest contributor and solely reflects his opinions.     

Last month, BioXyTran Inc (OTCMKTS: BIXT) achieved a once-in-a-decade type event with their announcement of a perfect phase 2 clinical trial outcome with a 100% response rate by day 7.  Only when Gilead (NASDAQ: GILD) announced results of their Hepatitis C treatment in May 2013, which became a cure for HCV, did a trial last achieve a perfect response rate status and then increased the company’s market value by $80 billion in the process. Most investors familiar with BioXyTran know the company for its oxygenation drug, BXT-025, which has massive potential across many medical indications, including ischemic stroke. However, fewer investors are just as familiar with the company’s prowess in infectious diseases, specifically with antivirals.  The question on investors’ minds is how an obscure oxygen carrier company turned into a potential pandemic-ending therapeutic company. The answer is that the therapy wasn’t a repurposed drug; it was developed from scratch.

During the pandemic’s start, the company made a hard pivot into COVID-19, where a predominant number of biotechs shifted toward COVID-19 treatments. Clinical trials in chronic diseases slowed to a halt while healthcare facilities focused solely on the pandemic. The company’s deep expertise in carbohydrate chemistry presented a unique opportunity to do what nobody else was doing—design a carbohydrate-based antiviral for COVID-19 that might act as an entry inhibitor instead of blocking viral replication from the inside. The idea’s genesis started in March 2020, when the focus of the world’s researchers was on getting a compromised immune system to respond better and faster to clear the viral infection. The oral version of the antiviral they developed, ProLectin-M, is an unconventional antiviral since it doesn’t interfere at the intracellular level; instead, it blocks viral docking of the virus to the target cell by binding to galectins and a conserved site on the spike protein. Most antivirals work inside the cell, but this works outside the cell as an entry inhibitor.

Overcoming Adversity – David vs. Goliath Struggle

The company successfully jumped through hurdles that other companies did not have placed in their path. They were one of 38 companies suspended by the SEC in a blanket of COVID-19 enforcement action that temporarily suspended the company and effectively forced them to reregister the company in order to achieve trading status via a 15c211 filing. To survive, the company had to raise money as essentially a private company and negotiate with debtors they were in default to. They found the backing of a private equity firm and high-net-worth individuals and went through an almost 2-year process in order to regain trading status while cleaning up all their toxic debt. They were the only company to return to trading status as an OTCQB-listed stock from the SEC COVID trading halts. If the SEC was using the premise of “survival of the fittest” during the COVID halts then BioXyTan might have emerged as a new life form because as you will see their drug not only works but has pandemic-changing potential.

Helping drive the need for new therapeutics is the fall off of vaccine effectiveness, along with COVID-19 becoming an endemic problem. However, it doesn’t seem quite endemic yet as deaths in the United States are still averaging over 2000 weekly. Ongoing infections and hospitalizations as well as antivirals proving effective are going to help validate the long-term stability of a market for antivirals. Thus, this story has become pretty compelling.

BioXyTran’s Value Inflection

Last month, BioXyTran released topline results from its lead asset, ProLectin-M, an orally administered COVID-19 antiviral candidate, in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. The drug exceeded all expectations with:

“-Complete elimination of viral load in 100% of patients at day 7 vs 6% in placebo (p=.001)

-Complete elimination of viral load in 88% of patients at day 3 vs 0% in placebo (p=.001)

-Treated population experienced no viral rebounds within the 14-day observation period”

When looking at these results, investors have to keep in mind that BioXyTran achieved these pristine-looking results despite enrolling patients 1) with high viral load (Ct<25), 2) regardless of vaccination status (unvaccinated and vaccinated), and 3) with any medical conditions—no limits. This is noteworthy because current COVID antivirals aren’t technically indicated for patients who are otherwise considered healthy and vaccinated—Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) excluded vaccinated individuals in their phase 3 studies to help them achieve their endpoints. In the case of Paxlovid, there are many contraindications for Paxlovid, which limits its market, which is enormous anyway; Pfizer expects $22 billion in 2022 Paxlovid sales.

It’s a bit of an apples-and-oranges comparison to try to compare these results to Paxlovid because of methods and materials differences and data availability. But by all available measures, it sure looks like ProLectin-M is overthrowing Pfizer’s Paxlovid as the superior COVID-19 antiviral.

The company released data a while ago in a small phase 1 study which suggested that the drug would work fairly well, but issues in gathering data on placebo patients made it really difficult to draw solid conclusions confidently.

However, the new data BioXyTran released arguably puts it in the lead in the COVID-19 antiviral field with respect to viral load data. It seems that no other company could compete to this degree if they wanted to use their antiviral as a prophylactic, which could be especially useful in, for instance, travel or healthcare situations since the viral load can have a great effect on transmissibility.  These two clinical trials denote what looks to be an unstoppable trend that could culminate with regulatory approval.

ProLectin-M Likely Eliminates SARS-CoV-2 More Effectively

This is where the red-apple-to-green-apple comparison sets in. ProLectin is much more effective at quickly bringing the viral load down since it prevents viral entry while helping mop up the existing viral load. However, the only way to really compare the rate of viral elimination (by time-to-Ct≥30) is through two different studies with two different PCR tests, and heterogeneous populations. Despite that, the drastic difference between time-to-undetectable viral burden is so different between the groups that it paints a pretty clear picture of which antiviral likely works better:

A real-world study of Paxlovid and Lagevrio was done in a hospitalized group of patients, where key endpoints measured were time to achieving low viral burden, or Ct≥30. The real-world study showed that the antivirals were highly effective in getting patients’ viral loads down, with cycle threshold values increasing over placebo by ~3 by days 5-7. However, the antivirals failed to cause a large portion of patients to have a low viral burden by days 5-7; if one looks at the excerpted charts below, ~4-5% of patients on those two antivirals had low viral burdens vs ~1-2% in the match controls. Compare this to BioXyTran’s 100% of treated patients reaching Ct≥30 vs 6% of the placebo group reaching Ct≥30.

Adapted from https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00507-2/fulltext

BioXyTran’s treated patient data outperforms the real-world Paxlovid/Lagevrio data to the extent that when it is superimposed on the journal’s graph of the antivirals’ performances, the Prolectin curve doesn’t even fit on the chart, which is cut off at 50%. Note that in BioXyTran’s trial, the placebo arm reached a mere 6% Ct≥30, so the placebo line would basically look flat up until day 7. Does it even matter that the compared populations are heterogenous when Prolectin-M outperforms by such a large margin?

We can do a further comparison with Paxlovid and see that after day 7, Paxlovid mustered a mere ~-1log10 change in viral load over placebo (about 1/10th the viral load). This is good but when compared to Prolectin-M it falls short. Prolectin-M, which is showing about an average Ct value of ~+8 versus placebo on day 7 (which translates to over 1/100th the viral load in my estimation). The picture starts becoming clearer; Prolectin clears the virus really quickly.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2118542

The last drug to achieve such a high responders rate for viral load was Gilead’s drug Harvoni which is a cure for Hepatitis C.  This drug supplemented Gilead’s HIV business and helped bolster its market capitalization by $80 billion of dollars in the course of 1.5 years.

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Hepatitis C was indeed an incurable chronic condition that isn’t the same as an acute infectious disease like COVID. But they both have enormous economic burdens. And COVID-19 can lead to Long-COVID.

Long-COVID, however, is also a chronic condition with an immense burden to the person and the overall economy. It is likely that with a lack of viral rebound seen in BioXyTran’s COVID-19 phase 2 and some symptom measurement in the anticipated phase 3 trial, they would be making a great case for Long-COVID. And in terms of economic burden, Long-COVID is estimated to be much greater ($3.7 trillion) than Hepatitis-C, especially when one considers the fact that every time COVID mutates and reinfects patients, it has the chance of causing Long-COVID again. Hepatitis C doesn’t pose the same issue since it’s not airborne.

Two of the leading theories for Long-COVID include viral persistence and the persistence of the spike protein S1 subunit in monocytes. Prolectin-M targets this part of the spike and therefore could theoretically address Long-COVID from either perspective. In fact, when looking at viral rebound after therapy, Prolectin-M exhibited no patients with viral rebound whereas it is documented that “Paxlovid has significant rebound issues: 3.53% and 5.40% for COVID-19 infection, 2.31% and 5.87% for COVID-19 symptoms, and 0.44% and 0.77% for hospitalizations.” So when considering these facts it isn’t a stretch to expect BioXyTran to measure viral rebound in its upcoming phase 3 and potentially even start to pursue Long-COVID.

Financials

BioXyTran has maintained about a $2 million cash burn for the past 2 years, but only has about $0.37 million of cash in the bank. The company will need an estimated $2.7 million outlined in its latest presentation for running its pivotal acute COVID-19 trial. If it wants to pay off its convertible notes, it will need an additional $2.2 million. While this picture, makes it seem like BioXyTran is insolvent and unable to finance a phase 3 trial, its cost structure is extremely lean with officers forfeiting accrued salaries and benefits. The biggest risk with BIXT is their ability to attract capital because the risk of the medicine failing is just not realistic and it may seem too good to be true.  This assumes that the peer review goes off without a hitch and doesn’t turn into a Theranos scandal. While a risk, it is important to characterize it as a very low risk since their journal article included the Mechanisms of Action (MOA) deduced from Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) imaging. The NMR tests show binding to the spike and arguing against that conclusion is equivalent to saying 1+1 is not equal to 2.

There is also the traditional regulatory risk, but the company is going after approval in the United States and India, so its dual track offers investors a plan B should any barriers present themselves.  The Indian regulatory climate makes it very tough to get a drug into trials because unlike the US FDA all the manufacturing needs to be done beforehand.  However, it’s a dual-edged sword because if the study meets its endpoints in India approval happens swiftly whereas in the United States there is a lot of back and forth on the safety and manufacturing of the drug.

The risk of dilution is very high given that they filed an S-1 on April 12, 2022, but it has not gone effective.  It’s reasonable to assume that BioXyTran got a “no comment” S-1, meaning all they have to do is mark in a price and resubmit it for effectiveness.  The fact that they didn’t complete a raise in light of these phase 2 trial results suggests that the valuation levels might not be high enough or that they might have another plan.

Valuation

The quickest way to figure out what kind of value these homerun phase 2 results brings to BioXyTran is to compare the market potential to existing antivirals on the market and in development. From a sales perspective, Pfizer’s antiviral Paxlovid pulled in sales of $7.5 billion just this last quarter, which met the company’s expectations for $22 billion in the full year. There is a significant market opportunity for new market entrants with differentiated products; a Fierce Pharma article stated that:

“More needs to be done to convince doctors that Paxlovid is a good option for patients, said Angela Hwang, chief commercial officer and president of Pfizer’s global biopharmaceutical business.

‘The one area of education that we need to emphasize is: Who are the eligible people for Paxlovid,” Hwang said. “There are 22 risk factors for who should be eligible and those include those who are over 65—age-related risks—but equal risks like mental health illness, inactive lifestyle, risks you may not be aware of. I think that’s where we want to focus now.’”

BioXyTran probably doesn’t expect to sell its drug with a large sales force. What is more likely is that the company pursues a licensing deal with pharma or sells directly to governments, like when Pfizer sold 10 million courses of Paxlovid to the U.S. government for $5.3 billion.

With respect to stock market value, we can compare to a company that lost billions in market capitalization when its phase 2 results for a COVID-19 antiviral flopped. BioXyTran isn’t the first company to design a phase 2 trial to measure viral load. Well-backed Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVIR) released topline results from its Phase 2 trial of its own COVID-19 antiviral about a year ago. Atea Pharmaceuticals lost over $2 billion in market capitalization the day it announced that its oral RdRp inhibitor called AT-527, intended to be an improved version of Gilead’s remdesivir, failed to meet its primary endpoint, and the company cited that in a subset of patients, the viral load went down (a little bit): “In high-risk patients with underlying health conditions, a reduction of viral load of approximately 0.5 log10 at Day 7 was observed at 550 mg (prespecified subgroup analysis) and 1,100 mg BID (exploratory subgroup analysis) compared with placebo”.

The drug failed to meet its primary endpoint in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, where BioXyTran passed with flying colors. Compare Atea’s subgroup 0.5log10 reduction in viral load vs placebo at day 7 to my estimate of BioXyTran’s reduction: 2log10 reduction at day 7 for ProLectin vs placebo. Prolectin even compares favorably to Paxlovid’s ~1log10 change vs placebo). So we can speculate that BioXyTran’s results, in the heat of COVID-19, might have been worth $2 billion. While the pandemic fear has subsided, these results are still highly valuable and it’s likely safe to say that an antiviral with robust viral clearance such as Prolectin-M should be worth at least a few hundred million.

In a hypothetical situation where BioXyTran completes its phase 3 trial successfully and secures an order to a government organization in 2024 for 1/5th of what Pfizer did, we can discount that value to the present using a modest P/S multiple of 2.5x and a WACC of 30%, as well as a risk factor of 50%. The resulting value is $784 million. Accounting for some additional dilution, using 150 million shares outstanding, we arrive at $5.23/share. This valuation is well below the $2.2 billion AVIR lost when posting negative phase 2 results, and it is significantly less than the total revenue Pfizer posted for Paxlovid in this latest quarter. From about $0.50 for BIXT shares, this would be a 10-bagger, hypothetically.

Risks

Primary risks at this point include funding; the company needs money to run its phase 3. The company may also have to compete with big pharma to sell their antiviral, though at this point the patient populations do not necessarily overlap much. Lastly, the endpoints currently set in its planned phase 3 trial are primarily seropositivity and secondarily, symptoms, time to discharge, duration of hospitalization, and mortality. Other key antivirals have been approved based on time to resolution of disease/alleviation of symptoms (Tamiflu – Roche (OTCMKTS: RHHBY)) and reduction in hospitalization and death (Paxlovid – Pfizer, and Lagevrio – Merck), all of which are clinical endpoints rather than biomarker endpoints (serum positivity). However, BioXyTran is still measuring clinical endpoints; they’re just listed as secondary endpoints at this time.

As with all clinical-stage biotechnology companies, there are management, funding, and clinical trial outcome risks that in general put biotech companies like this in a very high-risk category, which balances against the high reward. BIXT also trades on the OTC, where volumes are lower and investments can be more speculative.

Conclusion

Bioxtytran is fighting the mindset that COVID is over and that there is no way a small pharma can produce a pandemic-ending therapeutic. The prevailing thought is that the world has entered the endemic phase and that we all must find ways to live with the virus.  The facts tell a different story. Although there are no head-to-head comparisons of ProLectin-M to Paxlovid, BioXyTran’s phase 2 results appear superior in every metric.  There is no known toxicity or drug-to-drug interactions compared to the 40+ known drugs that Paxlovid interferes with. The efficacy results are unprecedented because BIXT had almost a 90% response rate by day 3 and no viral rebounds within 14 days like those that are reported with Paxlovid use. The company also proved their MOA that their drug attaches to the spike protein and galectins to prevent viral entry—these results are not expected to be a fluke. Their journal article BIXT published harps on the idea of reducing infectivity and introduces the idea that by treating the disease early we can potentially prevent Long-COVID.  ProLectin-M is a drug designed for the masses and would likely have broad appeal given its currently-observed tolerability profile.

BIXT has about a $50 million market cap despite its completion of a phase 2, and the price attempted a readjustment on the day of the release but it appears that profit takers had other plans, and the stock isn’t quite well-known yet.  Given the high insider ownership of 75% and the low float of 12 million shares, it takes some time to get the word circulated.  Some may speculate that this could be a cure for COVID because two clinical trials denote a very favorable trend, but what’s arguably more important is counteracting the increased infectivity as the variants have mutated to become more transmissible or evade existing anti-spike antibodies from mass vaccination.  The time spent quarantining and the productivity lost before returning to work or feeling better is all calculus in the future pricing of the drug.  In all likelihood, with governments buying bulky contracts, the governments will set the pricing and consider these factors.  ProLectin-M has the potential to be one of the biggest hits of all time, like Pfizer’s $22 billion Paxlovid, though this claim might seem ridiculous in light of BioXyTran’s market capitalization.  Having a small amount in a portfolio could dramatically improve its performance as word of the clinical breakthrough starts to spread.

Disclosure: MicroCapDaily has not been compensated for this article. This post was written by a guest contributor and posted on our website for free. The owners of MicroCapDaily have no position in any of the securities mentioned.

CytoDyn Inc (OTCMKTS: CYDY) has formed a solid base over $0.30 and is beginning to move northbound again. The stock recently made a solid bounce from new 52-week lows of $0.231 to a high of $1.26 per share. CytoDyn was one of the biggest runners of 2020 skyrocketing from pennies to $10 per share before the Citron short attack took the wind out of the stocks sails and the long downward trend began.  CyyoDyn lows earlier this year came as the FDA placed a partial clinical hold on the Company’s HIV program and a full clinical hold on its COVID-19 program in the US. This was followed by the CEO and registered public accounting firm, Warren Averett LLC, both resigning and the Company electing to pause its Brazil COVID-19 trials pending results from its previously scheduled data safety monitoring committee meeting. All of this has culminated in CYDY being offered at a cheap discount to prices from just a few months ago and the opportunity to buy in to Cytodyn for under $0.40 per share.    

CYDY is a highly volatile stock that ran to $10 per share in 2020 with a similar share structure. The underlying science of Leronmilab has not changed; leronlimab has demonstrated significant potential to attack a number of diseases including cancer, and HIV and leronlimab with zero side effects. leronlimab (PRO 140), is an investigational humanized IgG4 mAb that binds to CCR5, a cellular receptor that appears to play multiple roles with implications in HIV infection, tumor metastasis, and immune signaling. leronlimab also has a lot of big believers including many well-respected scientists. Cytodyn recently raised $21.8 million in a stock offering and signed on a new President; Cyrus Arman, Ph.D. who said upon his hiring: “I look forward to uniting our teams and individuals in the pursuit of CytoDyn’s success through a renewed focus on the entrepreneurial spirit. Leronlimab is a unique molecule with the potential to help many individuals, particularly with unmet medical needs. We will focus on enhancing shareholder value through focused execution and refining of the path forward for leronlimab.” 

CytoDyn Inc (OTCMKTS: CYDY) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of Leronlimab, a monoclonal antibody CCR5 receptor antagonist, to be used as a platform drug for a variety of indications. The target of leronlimab (PRO 140) is the important immunologic receptor CCR5. The CCR5 receptor is a protein located on the surface of a variety of cells including white blood cells and cancer cells. On white blood cells, it serves as a receptor for chemical attractants called chemokines. The CCR5 receptor is also the coreceptor needed for HIV to infect healthy T-cells. Recent research has identified the CCR5 receptor as an important target for many disease processes including cancer metastasis and certain immunological conditions. 

Leronlimab is a unique humanized monoclonal antibody. Leronlimab prevents HIV from using the CCR5 receptor as an entry gateway for healthy cells; preclinical research has also shown that leronlimab blocks calcium channel signaling of the CCR5 receptor when present on the cancer cell surface. It is believed that calcium channel signaling of the CCR5 receptor is a crucial component to the spread of metastatic cancer. The CCR5 receptor has been identified as a target in HIV, GvHD, NASH, oncology, transplantation medicine, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, stroke recovery, and a variety of inflammatory conditions. As we progress in evaluating leronlimab (PRO 140) via a pathways approach, we are encouraged by the opportunity to build a broad pipeline of indications. 

Earlier this year the FDA placed a full clinical hold on CytoDyn’s COVID-19 program and a partial clinical hold on its HIV program in the United States. As the stock price was collapsing Nader Pourhassan resigned and the collapse intensified after the Company’s registered public accounting firm, Warren Averett, LLC resigned. Since than Dr. Cyrus Arman has been appointed as new President of the Company and they are looking at potential strategies including:

• Strengthening CytoDyn’s pharmacovigilance program enabling it to remove the FDA clinical holds placed on its HIV and COVID-19 programs to allow it to conduct future clinical studies.
• Advancing CytoDyn’s NASH program to a Phase 2b or Phase 2b/3 trial for steatosis and liver fibrosis associated with NASH.
• Exploring a study for patients with HIV and NASH as well as review the Company’s strategy for its COVID-19 program.
• Continuing CytoDyn’s Phase 2 program for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer with current standard of care, explore a Phase 2 colon cancer trial with current standard of care, and explore other solid tumor indications.
• Continuing CytoDyn’s work to evaluate the feasibility and timelines for the HIV BLA resubmission and explore other cancer and immunologic indications for leronlimab, continue its work on developing a long-acting version of leronlimab, and pursue proof of concept studies for HIV cure using leronlimab and AAV vectors.

pay no mind to the possible dillution models. This molecule is going to change the world. Its like giving your immune cells a shield and a sword. We're all gonna be taking it very soon. endless indications, zero side effects, zero exclusions. $CYDY #Leronlimab

— Dr. Bruce P's Burner (@Mateo3032) September 12, 2022

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Cytodyn has been beefing up its BOD recently appointing Mr. Stephen Simes, a career public company biotech CEO and Mr. Ryan Dunlap, a current CFO with public company biotech experience to its board of directors. They join Tanya Durkee Urbach, Karen J. Brunke, Ph.D. and Lishomwa C. Ndhlovu, M.D., Ph.D. The Company’s corporate website looks more like a big boards. Check out their management team here. As we have reported, on July 9 of this year Dr. Cyrus Arman was appointed President of CytoDyn. 

On October 28 CytoDyn announced it has voluntarily withdrawn its pending BLA for leronlimab as a combination therapy in persons living with HIV with resistance to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the HIV multi-drug resistant population (HIV-MDR). The decision to voluntarily withdraw was based on various factors, including systemic issues related to the quality of the data collection and monitoring of the pivotal clinical trials by the clinical research organization (CRO) contracted to manage the trials, resulting in significant concerns with achieving a successful U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) BLA approval. The Company is of the opinion that FDA approval for the HIV-MDR indication is not feasible without significant additional investment to remedy the issues. CytoDyn plans to publish soon the safety and efficacy data in which it met its primary endpoint, in its Phase 2b/3 randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial for the HIV-MDR population, in a peer-reviewed journal. 

The Company believes the data it currently possesses is sufficient to complete and submit its responses to the FDA to seek the removal of the clinical hold placed on the Company’s HIV program. Further, the Company will continue to leverage the performance of leronlimab in these and other studies to advance leronlimab in other HIV-related, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and oncology indications – where compelling data has been generated – that may benefit a greater number of patients and result in significant shareholder value creation. For example, the Company plans to continue to pursue other underserved HIV-related indications, where it can potentially be first to market. 

Cyrus Arman, Ph.D., President of CytoDyn, stated, “We have decided to voluntarily withdraw our BLA for the HIV-MDR population at this time only after extensive review and deliberation, including audits from three external independent regulatory quality firms. While the Company met its primary endpoints in these pivotal trials, which we think is a clear indication that leronlimab performs well in the clinic, we believe the issues identified in each of the three independent audits related to the quality of the data collection and oversight by the CRO make it difficult to support a successful BLA regulatory submission. Further, we have filed a claim against the CRO seeking damages resulting from its breach of the Master Services Agreement and related agreements and reimbursement of our attorney fees and costs associated with the action. As previously discussed, we are focusing on continued development in other HIV indications, NASH, and oncology, where we have Fast Track designation for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. We plan to reenter the clinic in those indications and believe these steps will allow us to further build on the strong signals we have seen in these indications. I am very excited and quite optimistic about these opportunities, which are what ultimately attracted me to leronlimab and CytoDyn. I believe we have a unique opportunity to impact a significant number of patient lives while creating long-term value for our shareholders.”

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Currently trading at a $310 million market valuation CYDY is fully reporting OTCQB and while they are pre-revenue the Company has close to $100 million in assets and about the same in debt. At current levels CYDY is worth a close look; The stock was one of the biggest runners of 2020 skyrocketing from pennies to $10 per share. Now trading for under $0.40, the underlying science has not changed; leronlimab has demonstrated significant potential to attack a number of diseases including cancer, HIV and coronavirus with zero side effects. leronlimab (PRO 140), is an investigational humanized IgG4 mAb that binds to CCR5, a cellular receptor that appears to play multiple roles with implications in HIV infection, tumor  metastasis, and immune signaling. Now that Cytodyn has completed a stock offering and brough on new CEO Cyrus Arman, Ph.D. things could be on the up and up here. With a recent low of $0.231, a high of $10 CYDY at $0.38 should be at the top of speculators watch lists. We will be updating on CYDY when more details emerge so make sure you are subscribed to Microcapdaily.

Disclosure: we hold no position in CYDY either long or short and we have not been compensated for this article.