Here are some more opinions posted by Dr Karmaswimswami on...

Here are some more opinions posted by Dr Karmaswimswami on Gumshoe and Seeking Alpha stock forums:

February 6, 2014 at 12:09 pm:

Here is one I throw out to the group for an opinion: QRXPY. This is QRx Pharma, an Australian company with offices also in New Jersey. My feeling is that it is in a position to surprise here in coming weeks with a drug approval. It is underfollowed and largely unknown. While I am not so sure about it as a long term investment, as I think ardor over its new agent will cool, it may have a place for a 6-12 month hold.

This company has developed and put much study into an opioid agent for pain called MoxDuo. It is a fixed combination of morphine and oxycodone. When I first heard about this company two years ago I was inclined to dismiss it. Increasingly, however, I suspect the drug will be FDA-approved. Its PDUFA data is 24 May 2014. The company’s lead advisor is Solomon Snyder, a Hopkins psychiatrist who has long been considered the “dean” of American neuroscience, particularly for opioid receptor work. The theory behind the combination is that there is synergy, that one gets better pain relief overall than with equianalgesic doses of morphine or oxycodone alone, and with significantly less respiratory drive suppression. At its first FDA review, the FDA seemed warm to the idea of the combination but wanted clarification about the respiratory safety data. I predict it will get approved. If it does, the company (now at a market cap of about US$100 million) should have acute and robust share appreciation. It has some stealth. It is not being followed by analysts, but has done creditable solid clinical trials.

I am tempted to get in for the ride up and then sell.


February 6, 2014 at 1:41 pm:

QRx Pharma did not choose the oxycodone/morphine combination haphazardly. Both are mu-opioid receptor agonists for their analgesic effects, but have very different profiles in their pharmacodynamics as regards receptor stimulation in different brain zones versus spinal cord. Snyder has advocated for a long time that a combo of the two would give the best of both worlds for pain relief, as the agents have different pain relief behaviors, but without the downsides of full doses of either drug. This sophisticated recent paper on the differential effects of morphine versus oxycodone in a mouse bone pain model suggests Snyder is probably exactly right. Studies like this, though not in humans, are likely to figure favorably into the FDA’s decision on whether to approve MoxDuo.


February 7, 2014 at 5:26 pm:

I haven’t taken a position yet but I really think I will. I feel it was oversold in December because of the delay in FDA approval. Many companies come out with “old wine in new skins” painkiller preparations, but this morphine oxycodone blend, which was specifically chosen because it combines intensity of pain control with duration and minimizes side effects, really could become a big seller for acute, post-operative pain, if it is marketed correctly. Their version for chronic pain will be quite tamper and abuse resistant. It may not make the huge pop that a brand new drug in a new class would make, but there is a huge market, and right now success is not priced in. If MoxDuo is approved, the company is likely to be acquired. This stock has been marinading forever waiting for something to happen, and now it probably will, and yet almost no one is covering it or aware of it. Let me know what you think. I am not convinced I will buy, but think I will.



And from Seeking Alpha, Feb 28 10:53 AM:

QRx Pharma Is A Buy

I am reiterating a buy rating on QRx Pharma (OTCQX:QRXPY). I feel that these shares are beaten down because of all the fervor just now about the FDA's approval last fall of Zohydro, a high-dose hydrocodone formulation with no abuse-deterrent features. There are calls for the FDA to pull this agent off the market from consumer and physician groups concerned about abuse. ...

QRx is an Australian company whose abuse-deterrent blend of oxycodone and morphine for acute pain will be re-reviewed by an FDA advisory committee in April and has a PDUFA date in late May 2014. The main firm following it has a near term price target of A$1.79, implying US$8.05 for the ADR shares here. The company has no marketed products and has a market cap of US$132 million, and approval would be a transformative event for the company. (US) Shares are currently at about $4. Australian analysts are famously stingy in their upside ratings, a sort of underpromise/overdeliver mentality.

QRx has addressed all concerns about the formulation raised in a prior CRL. The science behind this blend of two drugs in the ratio set forth in MoxDuo, the agent's name, is elegant and solid.

Disclosure: I am long QRXPY.

END QUOTES

On 28 Feb, when Karmaswimswami issued his Buy recommendation, QRX opened at $0.88 and closed at $0.93 on the ASX. Today, 2 April, it closed at $0.725.