- Alzamend Neuro Inc (NASDAQ:ALZN) announced it had completed the clinical portion of its Phase 2A multiple ascending dose (MAD) study of AL001 in subjects with dementia related to Alzheimer’s.
- This blinded, placebo-controlled trial (AL001-02) was initiated in May 2022 and is designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of AL001 under multiple-dose, steady-state conditions and determine the maximum tolerated dose in patients diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s and healthy subjects.
- Alzamend is also pursuing AL001 for bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Related: Alzamend Neuro Seeks FDA Nod For Dementia Immunotherapy Study
- AL001 is a novel lithium-salicylate-L-proline engineered ionic cocrystal lithium delivery system.
- “We strongly believe that AL001’s patented ionic cocrystal technology could potentially provide clinicians with a major improvement over current lithium-based treatments and may constitute a means of treating over 40 million American suffering from Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder, MDD, and PTSD”, said Stephan Jackman, CEO of Alzamend.
- The company anticipates reporting topline data in June 2023.
- Lithium has been well characterized for safety and is approved/marketed in multiple formulations for bipolar affective disorders.
- AL001 lithium ascending dosing for the MAD cohorts tested incremental fractions of the usual lithium exposure for the treatment of the bipolar affective disorder, with the target lithium dose for Alzheimer’s treatment expected at a level that will not require therapeutic drug monitoring.
- Price Action: ALZN shares closed +13.50% at $0.42 on Tuesday.
Since the start of the regional banking crisis in the United States, $1.2 billion has flowed into the SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE:GLD), a gold-backed ETF that invests in physical metal bars and is managed by World Gold Trust Services, LLC.
GLD's price spiked to a one-year high on Monday to as much as $183.84 per share. Each share of GLD is intended to mirror the price of a tenth of a troy ounce of gold. Gold prices briefly surpassed $2,000/oz on Monday, before retracing to $1,970/oz as of this writing.
As the banking sector was rocked by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Capital and Signature Bank, funds began pouring into GLD beginning on March 13, when $709 million entered the ETF. On March 17, GLD received an additional sizable inflow of roughly $400 million. Year-to-date flows into GLD have now turned positive by $579 million.
SPDR Gold Trust Fund Flows: Periodic daily, weekly, and cumulative year-to-date – Chart: Koyfin
A Safe-Haven Outperforming Both Equities and Bonds
Gold has lately piqued the interest of investors due to a combination of factors, including the banking crisis, expectations of lower Fed interest rates, no-default risk, and its traditional inflation-hedging role.
In the current market environment, gold is emerging as the ideal asset to have in a portfolio, and it recently outperformed both equities and bonds.
GLD is up by about 7% month-to-date compared to Invesco QQQ Trust's (NASDAQ:QQQ) 4.4% gain, iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF's (NYSE:AGG) 2.5% increase, iShares US Treasury Bond ETF's (BATS:GOVT) 2.4% gain, SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust's (NYSE:SPY) flat performance, and iShares Russell 2000 ETF's (NYSE:IWM)'s negative 6.7% return.
Month-to-date performance of GLD, QQQ, AGG, GOVT, SPY and IWM.
After taking into account both the price effect associated with the rise in gold prices and the effect of fund flows, GLD's asset under management (AUM) has increased by $4.19 billion over the last week to reach an overall $58 billion.
Overall, GLD's AUM is still 16% below the peak of $70 billion reached in April 2022 and about 35% below the peak of $84 billion reached in August 2020.
GLD AUM as of March 20, 2023 – Chart: Koyfin
Read more: Is The US Stock Market Riskier Than It Used To Be? A Look At Data From 1960s To Present
Photo: Shutterstock
Elon Musk‘s SpaceX reportedly plans to begin testing its Starlink satellite-to-cell service with T-Mobile this year.
What Happened: SpaceX vice president of Starlink enterprise sales Jonathan Hofeller said that the space company will start testing its Starlink satellite-to-cell network this year, reported CNBC.
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“We’re going to learn a lot by doing — not necessarily by overanalyzing — and getting out there, working with the telcos,” Hofeller said, according to the report.
He added that SpaceX is building six next-generation satellites per day at its lab near Seattle, as well as 1,000s of user terminals daily, the report stated.
Starlink presently has more than 4,000 satellites in orbit and over a million users, a milestone it crossed in December. “Starlink now over 1M user terminals manufactured,” Elon Musk tweeted in September.
“We’re moving rapidly to a world of abundance when it comes to capacity on orbit,” said Hofeller.
Early in February, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said Starlink had a cash-flow positive quarter in 2022 while adding, "This year Starlink will make money."
Earlier this month, Falcon 9 launched 51 Starlink satellites to orbit from California, marking SpaceX’s 15th mission thus far this year. Last week, SpaceX also launched 40 OneWeb satellites to orbit.
SpaceX and T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) announced a technology partnership last August.
Read Next: Splashdown Success: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Returns To Earth After 157 Days In Orbit
BioRestorative Therapies Inc (NASDAQ:BRTX) has entered into an agreement with Bruder Consulting & Venture Group, a full-service strategic advisory, to assist the company in seeking FDA approval for the expanded clinical application of BRTX-100.
BRTX-100 is BioRestorative's lead clinical candidate, a novel cell-based therapeutic engineered to target areas of the body with little blood flow.
BRTX-100 is currently being evaluated in connection with a Phase 2 clinical trial in chronic lumbar disc disease.
The 99-subject trial will evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy of a single dose of BRTX-100, including specific release criteria of 40 million cells intradiscally injected into the nucleus of the lumbar disc.
EXCLUSIVE: BioRestorative To Receive Third US Patent For Metabolic ThermoStem Program.
"Finding the right partner such as BCVG is very meaningful to BioRestorative as they bring a tremendous amount of domain expertise in managing the regulatory pathway for cellular therapies. Additionally, we have the opportunity to leverage this musculoskeletal platform across other indications within the body. BCVG will assist us in choreographing this process, utilizing their deep industry insights and expertise within this sector," said Lance Alstodt, CEO of BioRestorative
Price Action: BRTX shares closed at $3.02 on Friday.