Cardium Therapeutics has built a name for itself by capturing innovative biomedical technologies that emerge in the health sciences and regenerative medicine space, while simultaneously developing its own technology portfolio. By focusing on underserved demand and products/business opportunities with a clear path to monetization, CXM has been able to create a lightweight approach that harnesses all of the external partner, market, and technology strengths, while avoiding the cost structure pitfalls that plague many other operators in the same sector.
The envelope of medical business opportunities CXM has assembled to date includes the in-house MedPodium® Health Sciences healthy lifestyle product platform, and the tissue repair company, Cardium Biologics (therapeutics for wound treatment and cardiovascular indications). This granular approach to execution of the overall business model is extremely efficient from a capital standpoint, and the company derives maximum momentum from this advantage by actively pursuing new opportunities/technologies.
A perfect, recent example of how effective this strategy can be is seen in the exhibition of the company’s new, FDA-cleared, Excellagen® Wound Care Management Platform (a child of the company’s robust tissue engineering competencies), at the Spring 2012 SAWC (Symposium on Advanced Wound Care). Excellagen is CXM’s lead commercial product, a topical gel with exceptionally high molecular weight, made with a highly-refined bovine Type I fibrillar collagen formulation, and applied via easy-to-use, single-use, pre-filled syringes. The product (intended for physician use following surgical debridement procedures) is ideal for maladies like diabetic foot ulcers, and the recent SAWC showcasing really got the word out about this easy-to-control, pre-filled syringe, as well as the exceptionally biocompatible, optimal viscosity formulation that only requires applications every one to two weeks.
The company’s proprietary Gene Activated Matrix™ technology allows site-localized therapeutic levels of protein synthesis, and can be utilized in a variety of soft tissues. It is this type of brilliant technological refinement that has led to CXM’s ability to grow shareholder value, and the company is confident in this technology’s capacity for enhancing stimulation of processes like tissue repair, because the localized/site-specific production of therapeutically significant levels of DNA-driven proteins is seen as a driver of angiogenesis and tissue aggregation/formation.
CXM’s extensive market research identified the massively underserved demand from physicians for easy-to-use products that help shoulder the burden of an increasingly complex and hectic healthcare environment, developing Excellagen to surpass all other offerings in the space from a workflow standpoint, even making Excellagen ready-to-use (requires no thawing or mixing). Additionally the special formulation allows for only a thin layer to do the job, meaning a single syringe (0.5 cc), using the 24-gauge single-use flexible applicator tip that comes with the syringe, can cover wounds up to five square centimeters.
The company’s lead clinical candidate, Generx®, has tremendous potential for the initial target, advanced coronary artery disease (specifically the resulting myocardial ischemia, a heart disease where demand/supply of oxygen eventually leads to much worse conditions and heart attack). CXM is developing this innovative DNA-based angiogenic biologic via a cost-effective, international strategy, using Russian clinical development partner, bioRasi-Vendevia Group, to carry out the “ASPIRE” Phase III/Registration Study. Russia is the perfect place to do this as the incident rate in the population is very high and there is an abundance of potential cases where the costly alternative, angioplasty/stent procedures, are prohibitively expensive compared to something like Generx. This kind of DNA-based biologic technology has unquantifiable potential in regenerative medicine and there is great confidence for disease-modifying physiological response mechanisms stimulating growth and microvascular circulation.
Leveraging R&D investments by big pharma, institutional investors, and venture capital to springboard emergent tech into underserved markets, CXM is doing it all via shrewd partnerships that maximize both forward momentum and the underlying cost structure. The MedPodium portfolio has some attractive offerings as well, with a variety of science-based neutraceuticals designed for maximum quality and ease of use; the company’s Nutra-Apps® products are currently being rolled out over the web, as well as select target markets. With a three pronged front of developing products and diligent acquisitive activity, CXM is wielding an increasingly powerful capital structure that is grounded in an asset-based business strategy.
With zero outstanding debt and a huge market of some 1.3M (projected $80M in revenue at 10% domestic market penetration) patients in the U.S. alone with diabetic foot ulcers potentially treatable by their FDA-cleared Excellagen product, CXM is ideally-positioned as the U.S. patent system approaches the first major change in over 60 years with the coming Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA, signed into law Sept 16, 2011). This move to a “first to file” system will throw a huge spotlight on small biotech firms like CXM, giving them increasing range and force in the market.
For more information on Cardium Therapeutics Inc., please visit the company’s website at: www.CardiumThx.com
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