While hardly a meteoric spike, shares of Miraculins Inc. (TSX: MOM.V) have inched forward on Wednesday following news that they had been issued a patent by the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China covering elements of the company’s PreVu Non-Invasive Cholesterol Lab Processed Test. Shares have risen from a low of 0.105 on Wednesday to a high of 0.120 today and they are currently holding around the 0.115 level while trading volume has already exceeded 750,000 during the first two hours of the day.
Thursday’s news is obviously more about what could be rather than a glowing report about what has happened; simply meaning MOM.V, which focuses on developing and commercializing diagnostic tests and risk assessment technologies for unmet clinical needs, now has their foot in what may be an impressive emerging market, China. The issued patent covers the use of a tape stripping device for skin sampling which would then be sent to a central lab for processing and measuring the skin cholesterol values.
This advancement in patent protection aligns with MOM.V’s “global plans for our PreVu Skin Cholesterol technology,” as stated by company President and CEO, Christopher J. Moreau. In Wednesday’s release Moreau went on to say “This simple to use laboratory based version of the PreVu technology could prove to be very attractive in certain key emerging markets. Miraculins is very enthusiastic about PreVu’s potential risk assessment role in the fight against cardiovascular disease, the world’s leading cause of death and disability.”
For MOM.V this has been the second big announcement this week concerning patents related to their technology for testing cholesterol levels. On Monday MOM.V announced they had received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a patent that covers use of spectrophotometric measurements for the non-invasive analysis of skin cholesterol. According to the presss release on Monday the allowed patent “will cover elements that are key to the PreVu(R) Non-Invasive Skin Cholesterol Point of Care (POC) Test, specifically relating to the PreVu Handheld Spectrophotometer, which is used to read the level of skin cholesterol during the test.”
With this patent in place Moreau said it “significantly strengthens Miraculins’ intellectual property portfolio in the U.S. market. In addition to broadening coverage of the PreVu technology, which is protected by a number of patents and patents pending in North America and internationally, this is another important step towards introducing the PreVu technology into one of the largest markets in the world.”
Not only is MOM.V taking a step into one of the largest markets in the world but doing so with a technology designed to be a risk assessment in the fight against cardiovascular disease, the world’s leading cause of death and disability; that, in and of itself, gives MOM.V significant potential in the minds of investors and for good reason.
Making MOM.V even more attractive to investors is the fact they don’t have the arduous and costly task of clinical trials to gain approval. They have also benefited from the findings of medical research showing that skin cholesterol has been shown to be strongly associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) as measured by treadmill stress testing, coronary angiography, coronary calcium, carotid artery thickening and carotid artery plaque.
This is a significant benefit given the fact that MOM.V’s PreVu LP Test “non-invasively measures the amount of cholesterol that has been deposited in skin tissues by painlessly and rapidly collecting skin cells from the palm of the hand using a proprietary medical adhesive collection device, which would then be sealed and sent to a laboratory for processing. The sample collection process is easily self-performed, takes fifteen seconds to conduct and does not require fasting. The PreVu LP Test is Miraculins’ second format of its innovative PreVu Non-Invasive Cholesterol Test technology and is being developed as part of a broader commercialization strategy.”
There is still a ways to go for MOM.V as they need to start generating meaningful revenue from their efforts but they have signed agreements that would place their devices in pharmacies and have partnerships that could expand their market reach in the near future.
