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Argus Research is an independent research firm, and our business is producing, distributing and marketing high-quality investment and economic research.

Our recommendations - BUY, HOLD and SELL - reflect the judgment of an analyst about a company’s prospects as an investment in terms of value, expected growth and risks.

Argus Research does not bring companies public, advise companies on mergers and acquisitions, broker trades, make markets in stocks or manage money. Our independence allows us to make critical judgments about companies that we might not be so free to make were we competing for a firm’s underwriting business. Because we’re not a broker/dealer, we don’t have “inventory” of a stock that we have to move with a tainted recommendation.

In recent years, numerous academic studies have concluded that investors benefit from independent research. Here are some of the benefits:

The incentives to bias recommendations upward are stronger for brokerage analysts affiliated with Investment Banks, according to a Stanford Graduate School of Business study.

The use of Independent Research through the Global Settlement has pulled optimism out of the market & cleared up rating confusion for retail investors, according to a Washington University/Case Western Reserve University study.

Independent Research Provider BUY ratings statistically and significantly outperform Investment Bank BUYS, according to a study published by the University of California-Davis, University of Michigan and University of California Los Angeles.

MEBIAS holds a game-changing platform to discover next generation, pathway-selective GPCR drugs devoid of on-target side effects once thought to be unavoidable.

Summary

Assets

  • Fully validated in vitro and ex vivo assay suite correlating ligand-induced dynamic conformation of GPCR to pathway-specific signaling

  • Differentiated mu-opioid receptor pre-development candidates for the treatment of pain, plus backup molecules

Business Proposal

MEBIAS seeks capital to establish a NewCo:

  • To co-develop our mu-opioid drug candidate

  • To fund lead discovery of additional targets

Team

Shariff Bayoumy – Unique expertise in GPCR expression and purification; former head of Janssen gene‑to‑protein team on soluble and membrane proteins

Lawrence Kuo – Former head, Structural Biology (Janssen); former head, Enzymology and Structural Biology (Merck); core member of project teams for Crixivan™ and Stocrin™

Brett A. Tounge – Extensive expertise in designing drug like small molecules from hit discovery through NME declaration; former head of Janssen NMR team

Customer Problem

G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) therapeutics exhibit significant on-target adverse effects that can be alleviated by developing pathway-selective/biased drugs. The clinical benefit to dial pathway selectivity into future GPCR drugs has been clearly established, but current discovery approaches in the pharma/biotech industry are inadequate to speedily design and develop biased drugs.

Target Market

With the downsizing of internal R&D in the pharma industry, there is a dire need for new discovery platforms and assets to help fill early pipelines. GPCR therapeutics comprise ~30% of current prescribed drugs with a global market of >USD100 billion and a projected growth of 20% by 2018.

Customer

Our immediate targeted customers will be pharma and biotech R&D. Our intention is to co-develop GPCR pathway-selective drugs to treat CNS, Metabolic, and Inflammatory related disorders. The pathway-selective GPCR landscape is wide open.

Business Model

The first round of funding from investors will be used to form a NewCo with the specific goal to discover and progress pre-development candidates for pathway-selective GPCR indications. In hand we hold differentiated mu-opioid receptor pre-development candidates for the treatment of pain. Revenues from the sale or partnering of our pre-clinical assets will fund new R&D efforts.

Competitive Advantage

Additional players in the GPCR pathway selectivity space are highly desirable to help advance clinical need in numerous disease areas. Given our experience and access to two key technologies – native GPCR purification and protein nuclear magnetic resonance – our approach offers unique advantages lacking in current methodologies (that employ only cell-based assays).  We have demonstrated our competitive advantage by successfully delivering a series of mu‑opioid receptor compounds among which is an NME-stage compound.

The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance is dedicated to playing a catalytic role in accelerating cures for cancer by enabling the pursuit of the most innovative and advanced cancer research and by facilitating collaborations between science and business.

The Alliance will launch a series of initiatives to further its Mission.

Karen and Bill Ackman established The Pershing Square Foundation in December 2006. Bill is the CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. Based in New York, The Pershing Square Foundation has committed close to $350 million in grants and social investments to support exceptional leaders and innovative organizations that tackle important social issues and deliver scalable and sustainable impact across the globe.

The Foundation’s commitment to be a philanthropic catalyst inspired Bill Ackman to partner with The Sohn Conference Foundation to accelerate cures for cancer. The Sohn Conference Foundation was born from the loss of Ira Sohn, a Wall Street professional who succumbed to cancer at 29. In 1995, his colleagues, friends, and family joined forces to honor his memory. The Sohn Conference Foundation is dedicated to supporting innovative initiatives to cure and treat pediatric cancer. Identifying specific areas of need, the Foundation funds groundbreaking research, state-of-the-art technology, and programs to target cures and improve patient care.

The alliance of these two foundations will leverage their respective resources, their investigators, and their opportunities to exponentially impact the field of cancer research.

Visterra is a biotechnology company that uses its proprietary Hierotope™ Platform to identify unique disease targets and design and engineer effective therapeutics. The company’s technology is powered by computational tools and techniques, the core of which is Atomic Interaction Network (AIN) analysis, which uniquely identifies an area, or epitope, on the target site that is fundamental to its structure and function. This ideal epitope, or hierotope, becomes the target against which the company designs a novel therapeutic to effectively and durably combat the disease. 

The company is currently focused on therapeutics for infectious diseases, and its lead product candidate, VIS410, is a broad spectrum human monoclonal antibody for the prevention and treatment of both seasonal and pandemic influenza. The company’s second product candidate, VIS513, is a human monoclonal antibody for the treatment of dengue that has been shown to broadly neutralize all four dengue virus serotypes.

Bancroft is a leading provider of programs and supports for children and adults with autism, intellectual or developmental disabilities, and those in need of neurological rehabilitation. Our services include special education, vocational training and supported employment, structured day programs, campus and community living programs, short-term behavioral stabilization services for children, in-home and outpatient services.

A private, nonprofit organization, Bancroft was founded in Haddonfield, N.J., in 1883. Over the years, we have grown to become the fifth-largest private employer in Camden County. We currently serve more than 1,500 children and adults annually in settings throughout Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Ocean, Middlesex and Salem counties in New Jersey, and in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware.

For 130 years, Bancroft has been making a difference in the lives of many. The organization is well known for helping people with disabilities achieve fulfilling lives while improving their function, activity and participation in society. Bancroft’s reputation for excellence is based on our commitment to providing a spectrum of individualized services, treating each person with respect and dignity, and providing services in an encouraging and supportive environment.

As a not-for-profit, the goal of One Million Solutions in Health is to shape health care by sharing solutions and, importantly, to accelerate the discovery, development and delivery ... of innovative cures, treatments and preventative measures for patients around the world.

In this next year, we will be reviewing 100's of new solutions and new scientific discoveries through the Technology Evaluation Consortium™ (contact us about membership). By engaging scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, industry experts, health care professionals, and patients across various disciplines, and from around the world, we can utilize the power of the internet to disrupt things in a positive and transformative way.

We are on our way towards accelerating high-potential innovations, catalyzing investment and increasing awareness of, and support for, transformative ideas to improve health and save lives. As an example, we have had a fabulous, global response, through our sister company, to find cures and raise $100 million to support their commercialization.

We are thrilled to have you be a part of this transformative journey!

Our mission is to identify potential projects and participants across CUNY and in the community at large, to help members identify sources of funding and to prepare grant applications, to facilitate the execution of the projects, providing advice, space, and computer facilities, to create research programs by aggregating multiple projects with common defining factors (such programs will promote interactions and networking that will increase the value of the research activities with respect to the contribution of individual projects), to manage program projects with core competencies, and to establish collaborations outside CUNY (national and international)

Felicitex Therapeutics is a drug discovery company at the forefront of one of the most promising areas in oncology –quiescent (sleeping) cancer cells. We are developing treatments and diagnostic assays to improve the effectiveness and long-term outcomes of treatments for the deadliest and most therapy resistant cancers: pancreatic, colorectal, non-small cell lung, and ovarian.

Recently, it has become accepted in the scientific community that populations of malignant cells are not homogenous, they have hierarchy.  Some of the cancer cells divide rapidly but some do not, some of the cancer cells are sleeping. They are in the quiescent state. This is especially true of solid tumors in which the cells in the outer layers are proliferating, but the inner volume comprises a large proportion of quiescent cells, frequently as a result of inadequate nutrient supply and oxygen deprivation (hypoxia). Hypoxic regions have long been known to be resistant to chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Tumor hypoxia, as a target for chemotherapy, is currently an active area of research.

Moreover, when cancer cells are under stress from either chemotherapy, anti-angiogenesis therapy, specific targeted treatment, or radiation, cancer cells often go to “sleep”, or use quiescent as a niche to hide.  After the completion of treatment, these cells can acquire resistance to the current treatment, begin growing and cause cancer recurrence. This process is called pharmacological quiescence.

The Private Company Access team leverages Citigroup’s strength and expertise in Institutional Sales and Trading to assist emerging growth companies with their investor relations objectives.
• Institutional investors are increasingly looking for access to emerging growth companies for direct investments, as well as to better understand looming risks to the public companies they own
• Growth-oriented companies are staying private longer, but need access to capital from institutional-type sources