The Healthcare sector has a wide selection of companies with a diverse array of verticals, each boasting unique core technology to address vastly different issues that affect millions around the world. This week, several medical companies from different corners of their field and North America released updates on their business and the opportunity they represent for investors.
Advancing its work to develop antibody therapeutics that selectively target toxic oligomers implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, biotechnology company
ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. (TSX: PMN) began a program this week to test a
multivalent peptide vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease.
PMN’s platform can rationally predict the site and shape of targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes (DSEs) on the molecular surface of proteins such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, or Parkinson’s. These DSE’s are “misfolded” and represent antigens that can help create assays to detect the presence of antibodies that arise in response to a specific infection, such as COVID-19.
These antigens can serve as the basis to develop therapies or a vaccine. The first steps in vaccine development are critical to its success and will be carried out by a global leader in vaccine research and development -
VIDO-InterVac.
In this week’s news release updating these developments, ProMIS’ Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Neil Cashman explained that demonstrating the versatility of the Company’s proprietary discovery platform, they are now advancing the program to develop a safe and effective vaccine to induce a specific immune response against the root cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
“The encouraging initial results clearly support the development of a multivalent vaccine for [Alzheimer’s disease] prevention, uniquely positioning ProMIS as offering a three-pronged approach to combat AD: detect with blood-based biomarkers, treat with PMN310, and prevent with a vaccine.”
(ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. stock chart. Click to enlarge.)
Shares spiked 25% upon the release of this news and investors took stock of this news.
Another company that saw a healthy jump in its share value this week after reporting its news is
Precipio, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRPO).
(Precipio, Inc. stock chart. Click to enlarge.)
PRPO is out to address a serious issue in the medical field with a platform to eradicate misdiagnosis. It has been doing so by
harnessing the intellect, expertise, and technology developed within academic institutions. These assets are united to deliver quality diagnostic information to physicians and their patients worldwide.
PRPO launched its latest tech, the HemeScreen Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) panel both clinically in its CLIA laboratory, and as part of its HemeScreen product offering this week. This new panel expands the HemeScreen offering for reference laboratories and physician office laboratories, enabling them to provide improved patient care through faster turnaround time.
In
a media release on this news, Precipio explained that time to treatment is critical for AML patients and cited data published in a
Journal of Clinical Pathways study that found that patients treated within four days of diagnosis and admission to the hospital more than doubled their overall survival time compared to patients who were treated after more than four days.
Through its collaborations with world-class academic institutions specializing in cancer research, diagnostics and treatment (such as the Yale School of Medicine and Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Precipio is working to offer a new standard of diagnostic accuracy, which can, in turn, provide a higher level of patient care.
This week also saw an update from a company focused on reducing opioid addiction by finding treatments for conditions accompanied by pain and bringing to market drugs and therapies with nonaddictive pain-relieving properties.
That company is
JanOne Inc. (NASDAQ: JAN), who reported this week that it had obtained authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration to transfer an investigational new drug for its sodium nitrite tablets. JAN also stated that its team had completed stable formulation and engineering of JAN101 for Good Manufacturing Practice to support its planned Phase 2b PAD study.
To find out more about these tablets and its PAD study, click
here.
JanOne operates in three segments: Biotechnology, Recycling and Technology. It derives the majority of its revenue from recycling, which provides turnkey services for electric utility energy efficiency programs.
(JanOne Inc. stock chart. Click to enlarge.)
These are just a few of the movers in health care this week. Do you have any cutting-edge health stocks in your portfolio? Let us know in the comments below.
To learn about some of the most-talked about Healthcare stocks on Stockhouse, check out the Healthcare Bullboards.
For more of the latest info on Healthcare stocks, check out the Healthcare Trending News hub on Stockhouse.