by Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe | October 12, 2017 1:01 am
This article first appeared on August 3, 2017. It has been updated slightly.
Nick Hodge[1] takes second place to pretty much nobody when it comes to teasing microcap stocks that he claims will have massive, massive market success and soar to “dizzying heights” … so when I first saw this pitch about a “new FDA[2] mandate” and a machine that can stop every “life-threatening superbug,” I figured it was a repeat.
But nope, this was a new one back in August. To me, at least. And it’s now unchanged as we roll into mid-October, with a particularly aggressive push this week about the “November 1” date by which Nick Hodge thinks this 75-cent stock will start its run to “$5… $10… even $50.”
So what’s he pitching as he tries to corral subscribers for his fairly pricey ($1,299/year) Early Advantage[3]?
The basics are in the top of his ad, which is essentially unchanged since August:
“A new device is emerging that’s promising to…
* Stop every pathogen from e. coli, salmonella, and bird flu… to life-threatening superbugs
* Unleash a $20 billion wave of wealth…
* Send the one tiny 75-cent stock with all the patents on it soaring to dizzying heights…“All starting with a critical technology rollout on November 1”
So here’s the easy part — when someone promises you that a microcap stock is about to put a product into every single restaurant, or every single doctor’s office, or every single home, and that it’s going to happen quickly because of some hot new development… they’re almost certain to be wrong.
You know that, logically — you know that government mandates that focus on one single solution from one single company are exceedingly rare, and that tiny companies don’t become dominant global manufacturers overnight (or over hundreds of nights)… but still, the temptation is there: what if this is the one?
That temptation is what every microcap stock newsletter relies on in its promos — the hope that you’ll find the one company that goes from pennies to billions. And it’s relatively harmless to sniff around at them and daydream, as long as you don’t think of it as real investing or put your retirement[4] or your kids’ college tuition (or the mortgage payment) at risk. So let’s see what stock this is, and see what perspective we can give you… ready?
“A groundbreaking solution has just been developed in a mysterious facility 40 miles east of Silicon Valley.
“You’re looking at the Livermore Lawrence Laboratory, a top-secret military site — home to major inventions like Google Earth and the Human Genome Project…
“Where scientists have just pioneered what could prove to be the lab’s biggest breakthrough EVER.
“A next-generation device that can stop deadly epidemics in their tracks in just one hour.”
We’re shown a little photo of the device, which looks like a fairly standard lab test machine — like you might see on a table in the back room at your doctor’s office. Here’s what Hodge says about it:
“In a matter of minutes, it tells you how clean your water[5] is. How clean your food is.
“If and what kind of bacteria is in it, how dangerous it is, and what to do about it.
“And it does so with undisputed, dead-on accuracy.
“Nothing else is capable of achieving virtually real-time biometric updates like this!
“In fact, it’s so impressive, so powerful, and so one-of-a-kind…
“That the FDA just mandated the testing this device goes into every restaurant supply chain in America…”
Are you getting our free Daily Update
"reveal" emails? If not,
just click here...
And that’s the real crux of the pitch from Hodge — that this little device is going to be forced upon every single restaurant, hospital, school, farm, cruise ship, etc., anywhere that pathogens might spread through food or water.
And the implication, of course, is that the FDA is requiring all these facilities to buy this particular device — by November 1 — and that’s obviously a huge deal for a tiny company. I hope you’re already skeptical about the specifics of that FDA requirement part, but let’s read on to see what else Hodge says:
“‘The Pentagon scientist behind this device just handed investors a massive opportunity …’
“Perhaps the biggest of 2017 or even the next decade.
“In order to fulfill the FDA’s mandate, and to get this device into the public’s hands…
“He founded a tiny company — holding all the patents — that just went IPO[6] earlier this year.
“Since then, its share price already jumped 174%.”
What else? We’re told that this firm is valued “at a mere $20 million.”
And that November 1 will bring “a mandated rollout that will quickly disrupt a $20 billion market… in just a matter of months.”
He also notes that as the business quickly spreads, he thinks bigger companies will jump in with a “fierce buyout war” and drive the price up from the current 75 cents to “$5… $25… and beyond. Just in 2017.”
So that, along with the “there’s no time to waste” phraseology he uses, is the spur: This stock is going up maybe 3,000% this year, better get on it quick! Maybe it’ll be $122 this year, not just $25! Don’t stop to think! Just subscribe to the newsletter! Quick! You’re missing out!!!!
Sorry, got a little over-excited there. Perhaps because of the ridiculous and impossible to prove or disprove assertion from Hodge that “Every single time a technology or invention from Livermore goes to the private sector… It creates hundreds of millions, or even billions in wealth.”
So what’s the stock? This is, sez the Thinkolator, Lexagene Holdings (LGX.V, LXXGF), which is a tiny little company with a market cap of about C$45 million that is, as teased, trying to develop an easy-to-use testing machine aimed at the food safety industry. It was a 75-cent stock back in August… and just last week… though it has now gotten to about $1.15, thanks almost entirely, I’d wager, to this campaign by Nick Hodge.
And yes, in case you’re crossing those t’s and dotting those i’s on the clues, the company did go public within the past year, through a reverse merger on the Venture exchange in Canada[7] (and it started trading on the OTCQB in the US in March)… it is based on scientific work done by the founder, Dr. Jack Regan, who invented this “pathogen detection system” and was previously at Bio-Rad Laboratories doing similar things with blood testing, and at Quantalife and Life Technologies. He did, sez his bio, do his post-doctoral work at Lawrence Livermore on automated testing of pathogens and bio-weapons — and the company has a “strategic relationship” with that lab and a couple defense-related board members.
If you need more, the background graphic of Hodge’s ad looks like it was taken from Lexagene’s website… and the basic pitch made is like an exaggerated version of the company’s investor presentation here[8].
The company does say that they are hoping to address a near-$20 billion market (they say $17.8 billion — that’s the combination of food safety, water quality testing, veterinary diagnostics, and aquaculture testing, and their selling proposition seems to be that their machine will make it easier and faster to do this kind of pathogen testing on site, using any kind of liquids and testing for a couple dozen different pathogens, starting with Salmonella and e. coli.
The presentation is fairly compelling in describing their opportunity — but, well, it’s an investor presentation, they’re supposed to be compelling. I have no idea how their machine will do when it’s in competition with all the other protocols and devices for food safety testing that are out there — it sounds like their machine will be faster and more accurate than some, it’s basically a microfluidics genetic testing machine, from what I can gather, and I don’t know if that’s really a better or more accurate or more cost-effective way of sampling the runoff from your lettuce farm for e. coli (or whatever).
How about that promise that this $20 billion market just lands in their lap on November 1? That’s pretty much hooey. The FDA does have a new food safety and testing regime that’s being gradually phased in — the regulatory implementation of a law that Congress passed back in 2010 to try to clean up the food supply. If you don’t remember, that followed on a few years of near-panic in some industries — there was an e. coli outbreak in 2006 thanks to spinach tainted with manure, then similar outbreaks tied to cheese and dairy products over a couple years, then a big salmonella outbreak in eggs[9]. Congress acted to try to make the food safety and testing regime of the FDA a bit more proactive, requiring more testing and specific safety protocols, and, thanks to the complexity and cost of our national food supply, it has taken a very long time to actually implement those rules (which are still changing). Most of the rules apply first to the largest businesses — huge farms, big food distributors, retailers or restaurant chains, starting early next year, and it rolls downhill to the smaller players in subsequent years. There’s a pretty good rundown of the FSMA and its implementation on the FDA website here[10].
November 1 is not an important regulatory date for this Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), but it could be an important date for Lexagene — sometime in November is when they say they’ll have their prototype finished (the machine is being developed by a contractor, Boston Engineering). The “Pre-Alpha Prototype” was unveiled at a food safety conference in July[11] (you can see the video here[12]), and they’ve not announced any delays since then — from what I can tell they still plan to be testing the prototype(s) in November. This is what they said in their last earnings release[13]:
“In early October, we anticipate progressing onto Phase IV of product development, when we will test the two alpha prototypes to ensure they meet all the pre-defined specifications. By the end of Phase IV, which is scheduled for the end of November, we expect to be able to successfully demonstrate the functionality of our fully integrated sample-to-answer pathogen detection instrument.
“Soon after Phase IV is completed, the Company will be looking to close another financing round to secure sufficient capital to sustain the Company through commercialization.”
That’s probably going to be fairly tight, as of last month they said they had about US$1.6 million in cash, and they have a loss of roughly $1 million over the past six months, so there’s not necessarily a lot of extra cash in there to get them through prototyping and testing if costs are higher than expected or testing these prototypes takes longer than a month.
And, of course, going from a prototype to actually building a machine is going to have a pretty dramatic impact on the cash flow situation, so I would assume that they are really hoping to drive the stock price up into the prototyping news releases so that they can raise a larger chunk of money at a relatively high price. All the more reason to both chat up newsletter writers to try to get attention, and to pay “investor relations” consultants and stock promoters to promote your stock to investors (they have a 9-month paid promotion campaign running with Pinnacle Digest that started back in April[14], for example).
They do have some “financial projection assumptions” in their presentation, which is probably a lot of guesswork since they don’t even have a prototype yet and we have no idea what their commercial production volume might be, assuming it ever becomes a commercial product… but the projections sound compelling — a selling price of $115,000 for the machine and $55 per sample for the disposable cartridge and testing reagents, which could provide a huge gross profit margin at a $40,000 cost of manufacturing the instrument and a $1.50 “cost of goods” per test, so gross profit could be pretty big if they can hit those projections (I have no idea whether those are rational or not) and produce a meaningful volume of machines… though that doesn’t incorporate the meaningful costs of operating the company and selling these machines.
Getting Nick Hodge on board to spread the news seems to have helped the stock a bit already, causing most of the price appreciation after that initial surge in the Spring (the stock shot up sharply in the Spring when they were starting trading and getting more press attention and doing private placements to raise cash, and gradually dwindled in the absence of any real news until Hodge got his hooks into it). I found it particularly notable that their actual unveiling of the “pre-alpha prototype”, at that conference back in July, didn’t have any impact on the stock price… but Nick Hodge’s wild promises have certainly helped the shares so far. Even the fact that Lexagene was profiled on Ed Begley’s Innovations show on Fox Business didn’t have much of an impact on the share price — the company says that their segment aired on August 26th and September 9th… the top-flight detective here at Stock Gumshoe notes that those are Saturdays, and August 28 and September 11, the following trading days, did not bring anything particularly notable for Lexagene (the stock dropped on 8/28 on very high volume, and rose a few percent on 9/11 on low volume). So it’s probably the “you’re going to get rich” promotional blather from Nick Hodge and Pinnacle Digest and perhaps others driving the shares, not just the awareness of this microcap company.
And that can be dangerous — if it’s just an ad campaign of “get rich starting November 1” that is driving the share price up, then you’re putting a lot of weight on that prototype finalization and testing process that Lexagene says they’re in the middle of right now. With ad campaigns like this, you generally end up with a lot of speculators who are excited about the big possible gains on that purported November 1 news, even though the company itself has not said they’ll be announcing anything on that date, and on the spurious allegation that the FDA will be requiring everyone to buy this nonexistent device starting in three weeks.
That means, in my experience, that the bottom can fall out of the stock really quickly as soon as the ads stop bringing in new speculators — that’s not what happens every time, and perhaps sometimes these overhyped little companies do come out with real fundamental news that supports the shares, but when it appears that only newsletter promotions and paid promotions are driving the shares, be mindful that sometimes just the absence of those promotions can be enough to let the shares collapse to their “natural” level in the future.
That’s doubly true if, as the company has already announced, there’s likely to be some substantial capital raise over the next month or two — folks who are speculating on a short-term price movement tend to hate it when the stock sells new shares, usually at a discount to the market price, and the stock can collapse as those short-term folks take their money away and look for the next opportunity.
The best news for the company in the long run would be a successful prototype testing program that goes as expected over the next month or two, and an announcement that they have some tentative orders for this prototype and will therefore be raising capital for manufacturing. Even that would likely bring the shares down if they raise a lot of money for that manufacturing investment, but it would give some reason to begin modeling out a positive future for the company and the product… but that does not seem like it’s going to be a six-week process, even for a tiny company like this.
My assumption, not being an expert on food safety or testing or the development of scientific instruments, is that the process of going from a pre-prototype to meaningful sales is going to be a lot longer than investors would prefer, and cost a lot more money. That leads me to not be particularly interested about a R&D firm like this, even if they seem, to a layman, to have an interesting device — my guess is that if this does eventually turn into a valuable product with real potential, there will be plenty of opportunities to buy it when it has grown up a bit, gotten some real-world exposure and feedback from (or even orders from) potential large customers, and after the marketplace has a chance to embrace or reject the idea of an on-site microfluidics testing machine like the LexaGene LX6.
And they’ll have to raise a lot of money to move the ball further down the field on this, so as you wait for the situation to be “de-risked” there may even be chances to buy it cheaper… but, of course, every now and then there is that exciting penny stock that seems to go up forever and become a real company or get bought out by a large firm, so waiting does always fight the “fear of missing out.” If you do decide to jump aboard, please get some additional perspective beyond Nick Hodge’s sales pitch so you can moderate your expectations accordingly.
So feel free to look into it — research the company, try to understand their competitive position in the emerging on-site testing marketplace, and think about the development timeline and their cash flow, and then let us know with a comment below whether you’d be interested in buying the stock. It’s not sounding compelling for me right now, but it’s your money — what matters is what you think, and how much risk you’re willing to take. We’ve kept the original comments appended from the original version of this article on August 3 as well, so you can see what folks had to say back then. Enjoy!
P.S. We’re compiling reader ratings of investment newsletters — if you’ve ever subscribed to Hodge’s Early Advantage, please click here[15] to let your fellow investors know what you thought.
Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/alternative-energy-speculator/hodges-new-fda-mandate-sends-this-device-into-every-restaurant-in-america/
Copyright ©2024 Stock Gumshoe unless otherwise noted.
A few years ago, I had subscribed to Nick Hodge’s Early Advantage – his marketing pitches were good and he backed up his observations with comments on investments from billionaires who had carefully investigated the pitfalls in penny stocks. It took me a few days to realize what Travis said in his first few lines – that Nick Hodge takes second place to pretty much NOBODY. It was pitiful as I wasted both time & money reading much of what he wrote.
Thanks Travis and others for great insight. I have had my share of pennystock fables with bad endings. This one does not appear to be anything different. Lab testing for pathogens is not new. Any technology for advancing such testing is well known and being worked on by large companies. But the volatility of LXXGF is what traders like and that is what you get with this hype-on, hype-off phase. While entertaining, I’ll stay away for now and be happy for those who are nimble enough to take some profits in either direction.
PLEASE GIVE US AN UPDATE ON rampf THE eQUIORIAN GEOTHERMAL UTILITY
To say that Nick Hodge is a shameless whore would be giving Hodge much too much of the benefit of the doubt. Lies like a rug would be much more accurate. Hodge has been selling well known house hold products for years now, ones we all know the names of because they were such game changers, like the vanadium battery. Didn’t that make your life so much better ! ? Didn’t the vanadium battery change and revolutionize the world, and the way that you live your life ! ? It you are insane to invest and lose all your money, listen to Hodge, but best to catch his stocks early, the only way he succeeds, because later in the game, you’re stock may be worth nothing, as Hodge himself is, worthless. The best favor you could ever do for yourself is to run away from anything that Hodge ever tries to pimp out as quickly as you can. Because it will be a loser soon after you invest, and that is the only promise that you can associate with a Nick Hodge pick that you can really bank on, that you are going to almost certainly lose your money. Save yourself, your sanity, Save your precious money, Dodge Hodge. And avoid any investment he suggests. Hodge has less than Zero credibility, he is a liability, like a thief in the night, a rapidly ticking November 1st time bomb, a leeching relative, a circling vulture, a cancerous liability, the vey reason that people hear the expression, “A Fool and hi are soon parted”. Even better ideas than using Hodge’s advice would be: to play the lotto, or go to Vegas, or best to just give your money away to a worthy charity, than to waste your money on a Nick Hodge pipe dream stock pitch. If you want a real pipe dream, spend your hard earned money on liquor, marijuana, or even on short lasting drugs, like meth amphetamines, crack or oxycodones because at least you still get something out of it, a high, and an addiction. Hodge’s investment will just leave you feeling like a raped empty shell, a lifeless husk, without any potential. Every time, street you buy, and it craters out to nearly nothing, you will look at yourself in the mirror, and think how dumb you were to have invested, and that was obviously a horrible car wreck, too Good to be True story, that you let yourself be taken in on with taking a ride Nick Hodge’s 3-d printed car, that you also of course climbed on board with. Right ? ! The lasting physical and mental effects of looking and being exposed to a ticker symbol of a Nick Hodge investment, long term, is desperation and insanity. Hodge would sell Al Capone syfallus, or sell his own mother, if he has one, false patents, or sell front row concert tickets to the end of days, get you addicted on opiates, get you involved in welfare cheating, knowing that your world was going end; and that the bottom was going to drop out on you, and advertise them all as a virgin pond, once in a lifetime investment opportunities for mega profits. But the only profit there was when Hodge got paid to shill the stock you just bought, and lost money on, buying into Hodge’s false enthusiasm and thieving, potentially criminal, hyperbole. Avoid Hodge at all costs. Dodge Hodge.
OK, I’ll be the one to say it: “But tell us how you really feel about Nick Hodge.”
OK, I’ll be the one to say it: “But tell us how you really feel about Nick Hodge.”
Lose some money with him, did you?
https://shop.pall.com/us/en/food-beverage/wine/qc/microbial-detection-spoilage/genedisc-rapid-microbiology-system-zidh3ltp0sk
For the scientific pros here, what would be better (if successful) about this new device compared to this unit?
I am slightly confused what is the stock id – So what’s the stock? Is it (LGX.V, or LXXGF?!. I would be grateful if somebody could let me know as soon as possible!. Thanks.
LXG.V and LXXGF are two trading symbols for the same stock — .V is for the venture exchange in Canada, where it is listed, LXXGF is the ticker used to trade it over the counter (ie, from broker to broker, not formally on an exchange) in the US.
Whenever you’re interested in buying a stock that has a “home” listing elsewhere, it’s better and safer to buy that stock in the home country if your broker allows you to trade foreign stocks… though for Canadian issues the pricing is at least usually OK because there’s very active arbitrage and, in fact, most of the time when you place an order for LXXGF your broker would fulfill it by buying it in Canada and selling it to you.
Do remember that when it comes to illiquid stocks (small companies that don’t trade many shares each day), it’s far, far easier to buy at a fair price than it is to sell at a fair price.
I don’t particularly like the stock, and the share price is being driven almost entirely by Nick Hodge’s relentless pushing (the company even had to issue press releases in response, effectively saying that nothing in the company has changed and they don’t know why the stock is soaring), but the two tickers represent equal shares of the same company.
Can somebody tell me what is the id of this stock?. Is it LXXGF or is it LXG.V. I would be grateful if somebody could let me know!. Thanks.
Its LXG.V in Canada and LXXGF in the US OTCQX exchange.
Thanks, I’m brand new at this and trying to educate myself as fast as possible. This a tool for my toolbox in making wise choices
i put some money in this 3g,hoping for the best,nick hodge gave me some good marijuana picks,but i did not buy his info on this one,found it alone.should i get out?
I made 100% on Livermore in a week. After Hodge pitches something hard his readers pile into the stock. After a week or so the price sinks. If you get in early on his big pitches you can get in and out with a decent profit. LED is six cents and he predicts it will be 70 cents after earnings.
If you don’t mind elaborating, what company is “LED” and what exchange is it listed on?
Question from a reader came in today:
“Hi Travis,was woundering if you would comment on the news today about lxxgf selling $5,000,0000,Canadian,of units underwritten by Canaccord Genuity.No mention of it on the newsletter,of course its early.Highly respect your opinion.Will be checking tje newsletter for any comments.”
Lexagene did announce that they are raising money, there were some news reports that the company said it was for “international expansion,” but that’s just silly — they don’t even have a prototype yet. It’s to keep the business going, and it’s only $5 million.
That’s not at all a surprise, I noted in the article above that they would need to raise a lot of money to commercialize the device — what is a little surprising is that we’re one day from the end of November (November 30 is their self-imposed deadline to have their prototype completed), and they’re raising money before they announce that this goal has been met.
Which indicates to me either that they have been burning through cash dangerously faster since last quarter (they had $1.2 million in cash as of the end of August), and actually need the money right now for this prototype development… or that they think the news will not be lifting the stock price in the next month (you always want to raise money at the highest stock price possible), which could be either that they fear a “sell the news” event once the prototype is announced as completed, or that they aren’t going to complete the prototype on schedule.
I never owned shares of this one and I haven’t looked all that closely recently, but I’d guess that it’s the latter — and that is just a guess. No surprise that they’re raising money, but I am surprised that they’re raising money a day before they said they would be finishing the prototype, and yet we’ve heard no update on the prototype.
That’s not all that shocking, of course — building things always takes longer than you would expect, and little penny stocks almost always overpromise, particularly when they’re trying to raise money. And that “deadline” has already been quietly squished a bit over the past few months — in July they said that…
“The Company’s next milestone is to complete the building of the alpha prototype by October 2017 and then finish the testing of the prototype by November 2017 to verify that it meets specifications.”
And the last earnings report, which came out on October 27 (with 8/31 financials), included a similar promise:
“The Company is in the last stages of Phase 3 of product development, where we are determining the optimal geometric placement of instrument’s components within its casing and putting the alpha prototype together. We are building two identical instruments. Once the instruments are fully assembled, we will begin Phase 4, which focuses on testing the prototypes to ensure they meet all the technical specification defined at the start of Phase 1. Phase 4 is scheduled to be completed by November 30th, at which point we anticipate being able to successfully demonstrate the functionality of our fully integrated sample-to-answer pathogen detection instrument. We remain on track to meet this significant milestone. ”
This is still a very early-stage company — despite the fact that it has been promoted so aggressively (and they spend more on advertising and promotion than they do on salaries at this point), there is not even an “alpha prototype” yet, let alone a product. Will the product work? Will customers want to buy it? Will it be profitable? Will it catch the eye of a big equipment maker who wants to buy them out? I don’t know.
The “alpha prototype” is apparently now assembled, the press release came out yesterday, on the last day possible to meet their self-imposed deadline, and they seem to believe they can test it over the next four months, develop the next prototype by next Summer, and have it in real-world testing with customers mid-2018 for commercial sale later next year. That seems like a big bite for a product that they’re still scaling down and refining into an “almost commercial” prototype, but it’s certainly not my field and perhaps they’ll be able to meet those deadlines. I don’t know what level of funding they’re going to have to have to get there, the device development and manufacturing are outsourced… I wonder if Nick Hodge will come out pushing this one again when they’re getting ready for that next prototype sometime in the Spring.
Here’s the pertinent part of the press release, FYI
“Over the next four months, LexaGene will conduct a series of experiments to optimize the alpha’s performance and then re-evaluate its design to determine whether additional improvements can be made for the beta prototype. In contrast to the alpha prototype, which is for in-house testing only, the beta prototype is intended to be as close to a commercial system as possible.
“Accordingly, LexaGene will spend a considerable amount of effort on reducing the size and cost of the instrument, taking into consideration ease of manufacturing and service. The Company anticipates sending betas to prospective customers for a free trial period during the summer of 2018 and making only small changes between the beta and commercial system, which is slated for manufacturing and sale by the end of 2018.”
Today’s release updating LexaGene
LexaGene’s Prototype for Better Pathogen Detection Now Capable of Identifying E. coli and StaphFirst-of-its-Kind Technology, Now Generating Data, Aims to Reduce the Incidence of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks
GLOBENEWSWIRE 10:27 AM ET 5/15/2018
BEVERLY, Mass., May 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — With the recent outbreaks associated with romaine lettuce (E. coli) and eggs (Salmonella) in the headlines, LexaGene Holdings Inc.(LXXGF) (the “Company”), a biotechnology company that develops instrumentation for pathogen detection, announced today that its prototype for more effective pathogen detection is now generating data, including the ability to identify E. coli and Staph. The technology was designed for healthcare providers and food safety officers to use at their facilities for pathogen detection and will be able to process six samples at a time – searching for over 22 pathogens – and return results in about one hour.
“Generating data with the prototype is a monumental milestone for the Company, especially given that we are at such a critical moment in society right now with new foodborne illnesses happening so frequently,” said Dr. Jack Regan, LexaGene’s CEO. “We look forward to demonstrating the prototype firsthand so that people can appreciate the impact this technology will have on the food industry. Over the next several months, we will continue to optimize the performance of the instrument and equip it with reagents to detect more diseases such as Salmonella and Listeria. Once we finalize our pathogen-detection panel, we’ll begin processing samples to demonstrate our advantages over standard testing procedures.”
Not only does LexaGene(LXXGF) aim to provide better technology to reduce the chances of shipping contaminated food items, but it anticipates applying this same technology to help doctors diagnose sick patients. Traditionally, healthcare providers collect a sample from a patient and ship it to an offsite laboratory for testing, which takes between two and five days to return a result. In the meantime, the provider often prescribes a treatment without knowing the true cause of the infection, or whether it is resistant to a therapeutic. By contrast, LexaGene’s technology will identify the presence of antibiotic-resistance bacteria, which will empower healthcare providers to treat their patients with more targeted therapies while they are still in the facility.
“The current system for detecting dangerous pathogens is clearly broken,” added Dr. Regan. “We need an easier and less expensive solution to find deadly bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella, whether it is in the food plant or a sick person. LexaGene’s technology will soon be the world’s first easy-to-use, open-access, on-site rapid pathogen detection system that has the potential to change how we prevent and diagnose disease.”
May 15, 2018
I see that they have recently completed a $5 million dollar financing which leads me to believe that there is something much greater here. That combined with there recent new hires and the leasing of a 17,000 square facility in Boston? Alpha is complete and now Beta is next which I will assume will be complete later this year . I also particularly like how well the stock is holding in here through this rocky market.
$lxxgf
LexaGene Receives Purchase Order from a Multinational Biotechnology Company
BEVERLY, Mass. USA – Nov 16, 2020 – LexaGene Holdings, Inc., (TSX-V: LXG; OTCQB: LXXGF) (the “Company”), a molecular diagnostics company that develops fully automated rapid pathogen detection systems, is pleased to announce that it has received a purchase order for a MiQLab™ system from a multinational biotechnology company that generates billions in annual revenue.
MiQLab is the first commercially available open-access multiplex PCR system of its kind. The open-access feature means it is extremely easy for operators to use the automated MiQLab system at their facility to perform customized, highly multiplexed PCR tests. This is highly desirable over the alternative, which is to ship collected samples to a reference laboratory for manual PCR processing by skilled molecular biologists or waiting days for cultures to grow.
The biotechnology company that has provided LexaGene a purchase order is a manufacturer of biologics, vaccines, and chemicals. Many of these biologics are grown in bioreactors that can be thousands of liters in size. During scale-up manufacturing, it is possible to have a bioreactor become contaminated with bacteria. The failure to detect such bacteria during the transfer of the product from a small bioreactor to a large bioreactor can cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars to a million or more dollars.
To help prevent massive product losses late in the manufacturing process, the biotechnology company was looking for an easy to use and reliable sample-to-answer system that could process bioreactor material looking for a variety of different bacteria. One of the slower growing bacteria they are targeting can take as much as two weeks to grow sufficiently to be detectable by traditional plate-based culture methods. LexaGene’s customizable MiQLab system solves this problem by automating a PCR test for this slow growing bacterium. PCR amplifies targeted sequences by > 1 billion-fold to provide much earlier detection than is possible when waiting for culture.
Earlier this fall, the biotechnology company requested an in-house demonstration of LexaGene’s MiQLab. For this demonstration, LexaGene designed a test for the slow growing C. acnes bacteria and combined it with tests already developed for E. coli, Staphylococcus, and Streptococcus. The biotechnology company arrived at LexaGene with representative samples that were taken from a bioreactor. These samples were separately spiked with each of the targeted bacteria. MiQLab successfully detected all four bacteria—even the slowest growing bacteria, proving LexaGene’s sample preparation cartridge successfully handled the complex sample type from the bioreactor and the MiQLab system achieved very strong detection of the targeted bacteria.
Dr. Jack Regan, LexaGene’s CEO and Founder, states, “Years ago, I recognized the life sciences sector lacked automated instrumentation that allows end-users to easily create a customized test. I’m excited to announce that we now have a commercial system available for sale to help solve this problem. It is very gratifying that our first sale will be to a company that wants our technology for open-access use. This is just the beginning. Over the coming weeks and months, we expect to continue to roll out our technology into the open-access market, as well as to the veterinary diagnostics market, and eventually the human clinical diagnostics market.”
$lxxgf
LexaGene Receives Purchase Order for MiQLab from Ethos Discovery
BEVERLY, Mass. USA – Dec 15, 2020 – LexaGene Holdings, Inc., (TSX-V: LXG; OTCQB: LXXGF) (the “Company”), a molecular diagnostics company that develops fully automated rapid pathogen detection systems, is pleased to announce it has received a purchase order for a MiQLab™ system from Ethos Discovery.
Dr. Chand Khanna, DVM, PhD, DACVIM (Onc), DACVP (Hon), the President of Ethos Discovery, comments, “We are very excited to purchase a MiQLab system and look forward to using the validated test panel to quickly diagnose infections. In veterinary health, there are many unmet clinical diagnostic needs where LexaGene’s technology can be of great value.” He continues, “In 2021, we will collaborate with LexaGene on expanding the MiQLab’s capabilities to pursue additional diagnostic innovation in areas that are important for Ethos. We are thrilled to have the first point-of-care molecular diagnostic instrument available to veterinary health professionals and look forward to bringing this technology to Ethos hospitals in the future.”
LexaGene’s MiQLab is designed for use inside veterinary hospitals, where it will be run by veterinarians and clinic staff. The automated system is easy to use and is currently equipped with LexaGene’s Bacterial and AMR Panel capable of screening samples for the 7 most common bacterial pathogens and 13 anti-microbial resistance markers. Rapid, in-hospital identification of pathogens and whether they are resistant to common therapies, is extremely useful for veterinarians in making evidence-based patient care decisions. LexaGene’s MiQLab tests samples using real-time PCR, which is widely regarded as a gold-standard chemistry for its sensitivity and specificity.
Dr. Jack Regan, LexaGene’s CEO and Founder states, “Up until now, veterinarians have had limited options for infectious disease testing. Generally, veterinarians send collected samples to reference laboratories and wait up to 5 days or more to receive the results. This slow turn-around time and delay in proper treatment can be frustrating to many veterinarians and potentially harmful to their patients. With the MiQLab, we are changing veterinary diagnostics. Veterinarians will now have the opportunity to adopt an automated, rapid, in-hospital, reference laboratory quality testing solution so they can deliver world-class care. We are gaining traction by steadily building momentum with MiQLab in the veterinary market and are looking forward to meeting the demand and fulfilling orders in 2021.”