To OTC Journal Members: 
 

How The Immune System Fights Disease

Our bodies have a miraculous capability. Our Immune System, through a complex network of cells and chemicals, has the ability to identify bad stuff and rapidly recruit an army to attack foreign invaders and kill them.

T-Cells are the circus ring masters. The T-Cells tell other cells what to do when it's time to attack the enemy. When the body detects an enemy, a macrophage inspects it (white blood cells). This is where the diagnosis takes place. The macrophage takes apart the invader, and exposes it to our army of protective cells- almost like a forward scout.

The T Cells then become the ring masters. They identify the nature of the culprit, then recruit the right specialists in our blood chemistry army to attack the invader. The recruiting specialists find antigens or b cells; these specialists attack the invader and kill it.

Special bullets called antibodies are produced by the antigens to kill the invader. This bullets are custom designed for the particular terrorist. Then, they shoot it dead. The Macrophage or white blood cells jump back in and eat the offender. Macrophage is Latin for "Big Eater".

Cancer is a different kind of invader. Here's the problem with cancer- the Macrophage, or the White Blood Cells, don't identify it as hostile. They seem to be blind to cancer, and it's allowed to grow without resistance in the body.

No one is sure why cancer escapes detection. For years the biotech industry has been working on therapies to help the immune system fight cancer more effectively. Many of the current therapies attempt to replace the immune system. Therapies like chemo and radiation kill cancer cells as if they were part of our blood chemistry and do lots of damage to healthy cells as well. These therapies don't target cancer cells the way our blood chemistry does it for other diseases.

In 2002 a scientist at the University of British Columbia came out with an exciting idea. He thought it might be possible to develop a way to "light up" cancer cells so the body's natural immune system could find and destroy them.
 

Enter Tapimmune (OTC BB: TPIV)

In another lifetime- specifically '02 to '03, Tapimmune was known as GeneMax, and the stock was a rocket ship.

Here's a monthly chart going back 8 years. Each bar represents a full month of trading. As you can see, the stock surged to a split adjusted level of nearly $500 per share in 2003- up 5 fold in short order from where it started.

The fuel for this rocket ship- major media exposure. This company's technology somehow found it's way into the highest profile publications in North America- feature articles appeared every where from the NY Times to Popular Mechanics, and the public became enamored of the story.

Dr. Wifred Jeffries- the protégé of a Nobel Prize Winner, discovered a potential therapy for cancer, and dubbed it TAP (Transporter Associated With Antigen Processing). Trials were performed on mice in Blaine, Washington, and Dr. Jeffries received a patent for applying his TAP technology to solid tumors.

Here's what made it interesting. Mice were given lung cancer in a study, and 70% of the mice survived when treated with the TAP therapy. Here's how it works.

Jeffries determined there was a warning being produced by cancer cells, but it was not coming to the surface where it could be identified by our immune system. Jeffries discovered there is a gene that tells the cancer cells to produce the warning, but for some reason it was disabled with cancer.

Jeffries developed a virus that contained a working version of the lazy gene. When the tumors were infected with the Virus, the light turned back on, and the body's immune system was now able to identify the terrorist and kill it.

Here's the simple explanation that I can understand. Our body does not recognize cancer as an invader. The immune system is blind to it. The biotech world has been trying to develop effective drugs designed to enhance the immune system's ability to fight cancer for years with limited success.

Jeffries reasoned the body has the ability to fight cancer, it just needed to identify cancer as an invader. The TAP therapy lights the way for the body's natural immune system, and the early studies on mice had the main stream media buzzing.
 

Fast Forward To Today

The overpriced and over hyped GeneMax fell back to earth and went a bit dormant for about 3 years. The company had cash to continue studies, and plodded forward. The Blaine, WA public company known as GeneMax had licensed the technology that was developed by Dr. Jeffries at the University of British Columbia. Two years ago the technology was purchased from the U of BC, and the current version of the pub co owns it. In addition, the company's name was changed to Tapimmune (TPIV).

Denis Corin has been CEO for the past three years. Formerly of Novartis (NYSE: NVS), Corin is preparing to revive the company and move towards the long process of commercialization of the TAP technology.

Enroute there are a number of catalytic events coming for potential profits for investors at this level. Short term, I believe this stock will get back on investor radar screens from the world of vaccines. If you made money with me on CVM you know what I'm talking about.

Vaccines are now all the rage in biotech land. The swine flu, and other threatened pandemics, has the biotech industry scrambling for solutions.

The TAP technology has applications in the world of vaccines. It can be used to enhance the effectiveness of vaccine therapies. I'm looking for TPIV to engaged in some high profile joint ventures that will be catalytic for the stock.

As the stock starts to gain popularity with investors, I would expect the company to cash back up and move into the lengthy process of human clinical trials for the TAP cancer therapy.

Big Pharma won't like TAP. In certain cancers, TAP has the potential to be a true cure. Here's the harsh reality. Big Pharma does not like cures. Notice there haven't been any major breakthroughs in antibiotics for years? Antibiotics are a one week cure for infection. I'll bet Big Pharma has spends hundreds times the money developing various versions of Lipitor as it has on antibiotics. Why- because you take Lipitor for life. You take an antibiotic for a week.

Lengthy cancer therapies involve many courses of very expensive drugs. A simple "cure" for cancer would take billions out of the pocket of Big Pharma. 

Here's why I like this stock right now. Because it's cheap, and no one wants it today. Seem counter intuitive? If you want to make money in penny stocks, you'll listen to this strategy.

Everybody wants to jump in when the stocks are hot and running, and they always pull back. If you bought OPMG in December at $.18, you know what I'm taking about.

This stock ran to $1.40 in late October on big volume. In November TPIV raised $1 million at $.80. Today, it's in the $.60 range- 33% less than the $1 million investor paid 60 days ago for restricted shares. Volume is down considerably. 

Here's the problem for most investors- you have to be willing to wait for a month or two for the volume and price appreciation to materialize, and then remember to sell and lock in your profit. Most investors chase the hot stocks, then sit there with egg on their faces when the stock falls back down.

Now is the time to accumulate. After the big drubbing, the stock bottomed, and has since been slight uptrend. I called it on OPMG yesterday, and the stock is already up 30% today on increasing volume.

It's clear the market is interested in this stock, and will respond with the right events. When they happen, and everyone wants it, don't forget to sell and take your profitable reward for jumping in when no one was watching. 

$.60 back to $1.20 in the next 60 days is my call. SSL is $.40.

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