Ebola, Tekmira Pharma, Highlight SF BIO Investor Forum Meeting

San Francisco, The Palace Hotel, BIO Investor Forum meeting, Tues. Oct. 7, 2014. The annual BIO Investor Forum opened its meeting at midday with welcome remarks and a program change that included new information about the urgent subject about healthcare developments in Ebola among other topics. The welcome remarks featured a short discussion with Tekmira Pharmaceuticals’ CEO, Dr. Mark Murray PhD about his firm’s involvement in this fast moving healthcare area. Dr. Murray touched on the fact that Tekmira is working on a promising early stage antiviral drug to treat patients infected by the ebola virus. More details would follow at his afternoon investor talk

Dr. Murray said in his afternoon investor talk that Tekmira Pharmaceuticals uses an RNA interference based therapeutic in their ebola drug development program.  RNA interference (RNAi) is a naturally occurring internal cellular process that shuts down the production of targeted proteins. Dr. Mark Murray also talked about Tekmira’s drug therapy developments in nine clinical programs underway.  He said that Tekmira can trigger RNAi, but needs a delivery technology that uses the LNP-RNAi trigger mechanism.  They are working on the TKM-PLK1, TKM-H8v, TKM-ebola drug programs.  The firm is using the FDA orphan drug rare disease designation for HTG, GSD4 and so on. Their Lipid NanoParticle (LNP) partner, is Anylum, using their ALN-TTR02 platform.

Tekmira has nine products in its clinical pipeline. Dr. Murray said that its lead products include two antiviral programs.  The TKM-HBV is being developed to treat Hepatitis B and is being readied for sometime in 2015. The TKM-Ebola program is in phase 1 clinical testing.  The FDA gave Tekmira a‘Fast track’ designation for the program.  Dr. Murray added that the product formulation gave a very high survival result in animal testing using monkeys.  Tekmira will work with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the West African region for its ebola drug human clinical testing program.

Oncology product programs. The TEK-PLK1 product acts on pololukekine-1, which is found in many tumor types, usually ones linked to poor outcomes.  The tumor types include GI neuroendochrine tumor and adenocortico cancer.

Rare disease program. Hyper trigliceridemia. The condition leads to pancreatitis.  GSD glycogen is a rare condition.

Financials. Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (TKMR) is a public stock company located in Toronto, Canada, is on the NASDAQ stock Exchange and has a $528Million market cap.

Drug Program Status.

• 2014    PLK1 Phase I/II
• 2015    Follow on of clinic activity.

Dr. Murray concluded his talk by saying that for further information go to the company website at ir@tekmira.com.

Several hundred investors and presenting company officials gathered at this year’s BIO Investor Forum meeting for one-on-one partnering meetings, 128 company presentations, plenary informational talks, workshops and networking.

 

British Tech Network and New Products at MacWorld/iWorld 2014

SAN FRANCISCO (HighTech Reports), Moscone North, March 27, 2014 – MacWorld/ iWorld 2014. We watched a panel discussion session at the Second Stage presented by the British Tech Network (BTN) with speaker Paul Wheatley, User Experience Consultant and Host at the BTN. Paul and the panelists talked about the pros and cons of a bigger screen on the current or future iPhone, among other topics. He said that consumers are buying bigger iPhones, but the panel still preferred iPhones with smaller screens because they fit better in men’s pants pockets.

The panelists also talked about two interesting new products that they saw at the expo, BearExtender Edge and the Ring. The BearExtender Edge is long range Wi-Fi repeater/ booster that works with Macs, iPad/iPhone, and other devices (PCs with Wi-FI, other phones or tablets with Wi-Fi). The one-piece Wi-Fi repeater block plugs into an AC outlet and has an antenna that repeats/ boosts the Wi-Fi signal in the area. It does not require software or USB connector.  BearExtender also makes a high power standalone USB Wi-Fi radio adapter with an external antenna that increases the range of a Mac’s Wi-Fi signal by nearly four times that of an internal AirPort card. It adds Wi-Fi to older Macs or Windows PCs that do not have a built-in Wi-Fi adapter.

Paul and the panel were very intrigued by a new product called the Ring from Logbar, Inc., a San Carlos, California-based company.  It is a wearable technology product that fits on a finger as a finger ring.  The new Kickstarter funded device transmits hand movements or gestures to an iPhone or other Bluetooth enabled devices. The Ring works as an in-the-air pointing device that drew a largish crowd around its booth. A spokesperson from the Asian firm that is making the device suggested that the Ring is still in beta-test.

MacWorld/iWorld 2014 Returns to Moscone North

SAN FRANCISCO (HighTech Reports), Moscone North, March 27, 2014 – MacWorld/ iWorld 2014. It was refreshing to see that MacWorld/ iWorld returned to Moscone North, MacWorld’s former location of years ago. There were around 30,000 attendees at this year’s MacWorld. The exhibit floor seemed bigger than last year and highlighted more booths that we visited. We spent some time in the MacIT room where companies that had booths gave presentations. While there, we learned about products from Printer Logic, Lantronix, Absolute Software, Parallels, and Crash Plan.

Printer Logic sells an enterprise software app that attaches to Windows 2008R file server. The app replaces print server boxes in the enterprise. A license for up to 50 printers costs $5,000. The spokesperson said that most users have 25-30 printers. Each client driver for Mac/Windows PCs links to the printer app via Wi-Fi that scales very big in the enterprise. For example, the Department of Homeland Security used its service to reduce support calls for print servers that went down. The app solution was more efficient and saved the client money.

Absolute Software makes software that helps organizations manage all types of computer assets: PCs, laptops, tablets, phones, etc. It helps track the life cycle of all IT equipment assets to end-of-life. For example, the software helps Apple track iTunes content licensee IP assets. The firm’s solution helped the Columbine school track tablets, laptops, and thefts from intruders entering its campus. The company puts a special sticker on devices with a phone number to call if a child gets cyber bullied. The victimized child connects to a caring person to talk to and so forth. Absolute Software is also exploring other vertical markets.