
AXIM Biotechnologies (AXIM) reported fiscal 2017 full-year results, with CEO Dr. George Anastassov highlighting “solid progress” the company is making on its clinical pipeline, including it getting a mass-market chewing gum to help cancer patients with nausea and vomiting.
The company said it ended the year with $2.1 million in cash, losing 8 cents a share, compared to a loss of 17 cents in fiscal 2016. In addition to the chewing gum, Dr. Anastassov highlighted other achievements the company is working on.
“Our product development partner obtained the licenses to import and work with controlled drugs that are required to continue the development of MedChew Rx® pharmaceutical chewing gum to treat pain and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis (MS),” Anastassov said in a statement. “We achieved encouraging clinical trial results from our phase IIA pilot trial for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) with our CanChew +® 50 mg CBD (cannabidiol) functional, controlled release chewing gum.”
Dr. Anastassov also noted the company received two patent allowances for cannabinoids-based ophthalmic solutions, which are used to treat glaucoma and conjunctival inflammation. It also has filed a new patent for a chewing gum that has a “controlled release of cannabinoids and opioid agonists and antagonists for the treatment of opioid addiction and cannabis dependence.”
“We are committed to innovation, and believe the company is well positioned for further growth given our robust IP portfolio and proprietary CGMP extraction and microencapsulation methods,” Dr. Anastassov added.
Axim now has three patents, one for a chewing gym which has cannabinoids and two others for patnets for ophthalmic solutions. It also has 12 patent applications and 28 national trademarks, covering a wide variety of topics and products for the company.
2017 also saw the the first phase II pilot trial of the company’s CanChew chewing gum, which is used for irritable bowel syndrome. The study, which still has to go to phase III before it can be approved by the FDA, saw a 50 percent higher pain reduction when patients took the drug as opposed to an active placebo.
Over the next 12 to 18 months, Axim said it expects to complete the Phase I-III clincal trials for MedChew, a bioequivalence study of its proprietary chewing gum-based functional delivery system to Marinol, the open-label phase II clinical trial of CanChew and a host of other clinical trials, relating to disesases such as glaucoma, opioid addiction and psoriasis.
It also expects to start proof of concept studies related to cannabis dependence, post-haerpetic neuralgia and a clinical trial on illicit drug-related psychosis.