All,
I found it strange that this was the first time I encounter a company that sends you a 10K instead of a flashy "annual report". Dry reading, but I enjoyed it. Since the 10K is also on the SEC database, you can read it yourself. But of note to those who are also interested in related trophic companies such as amgn and regn, and pain company such as nxco...
(1) ctii mentioned that they intend to do a cocktail of trophic factor in the treatment of ALS, which makes a lot of sense to me. However, this is not their immediate goal. The bottomline is that there is still a long way to go.
(2) in several sections of the filing, ctii cited the failure of neurotrophic factors in the treatment of ALS and others (although it did not name the companies and the drugs, we know they must be regn and amgn, right?), and hinted its delivery method of using encapsulated cell technology would provide a direct route of CNS administration, thus is more superior. This again confirms the common belief in the efficacy of trophic factors: they did not fail, it was the way they were delivered.
(3) Ctii got some encouraging results from its pain program, and is seeking protocal approval (along with Astra) from FDA for P II. ctii named snx-111 (it didn't say it was from Neurex) as one of the possbile competitive drugs in treating pain. This sounds good for nxco since someone IS taking it seriously, that someone believes snx-111 works and may be threatening possible market. Although I like ctii's delivery method, I side with nxco on this one as it is at least one giant step ahead of ctii. If ctii succeeded and approved though, nxco might have a hard time fighting it off. Well, this is many many years away in my crytal ball.
(4) regarding the Cognetix collaboration, I was surprised to find the originator of conotoxin has a powerful subfamily of conopeptides known as conantokins that are believed to function as potent NMDA receptor antagonists. and ctii now has access to them... hmm, a potential stroke play...
Anyway, go read it yourself too and come share your view of this company, it might not go too far this year in terms of stock price, but it defintely can set a good tone for the next.
Chuck |
