Company description

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 16:13:51 GMT

ElectroCore Inc is a commercial-stage bioelectronic medicine company with a platform for non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation therapy initially focused on neurology and rheumatology. The company's product gammaCore is FDA-cleared for adjunctive use for the preventive treatment of cluster headache and for the acute treatment of pain associated with episodic cluster headache and migraine headache in adult patients.

Reasons For Tracking

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 04:00:00 GMT

ECOR Information Arbitrage Lands The Stock On GeoInvesting’s Reasons For Tracking List

We don’t currently own any shares in $ECOR. However, we wanted to briefly discuss a little Information Arbitrage (wait for it) we recently came across. ECOR Makes and markets the gammaCore medical device:

“gammaCoreTM (nVNS) is the first non-invasive, hand-held medical therapy applied at the neck to treat migraine and cluster headache through the utilization of a mild electrical stimulation to the vagus nerve that passes through the skin. Designed as a portable, easy-to-use technology, gammaCore can be self-administered by patients, as needed, without the potential side effects associated with commonly prescribed drugs. When placed on a patient’s neck over the vagus nerve, gammaCore stimulates the nerve’s afferent fibers, which may lead to a reduction of pain in patients.”

ECOR Completed its IPO in June 2018 at $15 and hit $20 out of the gate. Unfortunately, the stock has been in a tailspin since its IPO after a flawed market approach and insurance carrier issues challenged the business plan (escalating losses and declining revenue). You can learn more about some of these woes during a Q&A session with ECOR’s CEO, Dan Goldberger, that Maj was asked to conduct for a Little Grapevine Virtual Conference Event. You can see the full presentation and Q&A session here.

Goldberger joined ECOR as CEO in October 2019, fresh off his success at medical device company, $KRMD, where he remains on the Board. As interim CEO, Dan was part of the KRMD’s extremely successful board/management team transition that began in 2018.

In addition to the gammaCore’s migraine headache use case, in April 2020 ECOR announced that it has been exploring the use of its device as a respiratory treatment for COVID-19 patients:

“One neurotech firm taking a leading role in this effort is electroCore, Inc., the Basking Ridge, NJ bioelectronic medicine company. The company announced that an investigator-initiated, randomized, controlled clinical trial of nVNS therapy has commenced enrolling COVID-19 patients in Spain. The trial, “Prospective, Randomized, Controlled Study to Evaluate the Effect of Non-Invasive Electrical Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Respiratory Symptoms due to COVID-19 (SAVIOR),” is designed to assess the ability of nVNS to decrease the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients requiring use of a ventilator.”

The stock has made multiple runs from sub $1.00 over $1.00 on this development, but has been unable to hold gains as the focus continues to revert back to the company’s core business, which Golderberger is still in the early stages of repairing.

Well, after hours last Friday, July 10, the stock started another run above $1.00 on news that its gammaCore product is gaining Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. FDA to battle COVID-19.Reuters broke the news after hours on Friday and is also on the FDA’s website:

"There are no FDA approved or cleared devices for this intended use. Early reports of COVID-19 infections demonstrate a high level of aggressive, prolonged inflammation in the airways which will likely result in significant worsening of asthma symptoms in the large asthmatic population. While there are drug treatments available, the gammaCore Sapphire CV may provide benefits to some patients for whom standard drug therapy is unable to meet their needs. FDA has also determined that the available information also indicates that the gammaCore Sapphire CV may be an effective alternative for those who cannot tolerate beta agonists or for those whose

exacerbations cannot be controlled with the limited use associated with standard inhaled treatments. As such, FDA has determined that standard drug therapy alternatives may not always be adequate, as set forth in Section I. In coming to these conclusions, FDA reviewed all available information, including data on the use of the gammaCore Sapphire CV on asthma patients, as well as data regarding the device’s safety in clinical use for other indications. The device was not studied in COVID-19 patients"

Shares closed the July 10 after hours market session at $1.55, up 78%.

We are still in the very early part of our ECOR research process. Due to our success investing in KRMD, we are obviously intrigued that Dan Goldberger is leading the company’s turnaround. But one Information Arbitrage nugget has us extremely excited to follow ECOR closely.

In April 2020, Thomas Patton joined ECOR’s Board of Directors. Recall that Thomas Patton was a key reason that we bought Cas Medical in 2018, which was acquired at a premium in early 2019.

"Our interviews with management and management’s backgrounds can make or break our investment decisions. In the case of CASM, it was the overriding factor in our decision, given that the company is losing money."

Mr. Patton has an impeccable track record of being associated with successful medical device companies as CEO or on the Board of Directors. Our research Indicates that Mr. Patton is 6 for 6 in his involvement with medical device companies. Investors might not realize that Mr. Patton is involved with ECOR, nor may they know about his track record. So, we are definitely going to continue to monitor ECOR's turnaround strategy.

electroCore, Inc. (ECOR) research, news, and more from GeoInvesting

Company description

Reasons For Tracking