Happy New Year!

CardioComm Solutions, Inc. (EKG-TSX.V), a provider of innovative software solutions for information management systems in cardiovascular medicine and telemedicine, issued a letter to shareholders and friends yesterday detailing the company’s progress and goals to date. 

The full letter can be viewed on CardioComm’s website, but here are some of the highlights… 

On Thursday, December 12^th, Merriman Capital, Inc. will host an investor call for Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (PBIO) at 4:30 p.m. EST. Investors and any other interested parties should dial into this call for an update on PBIO’s recent achievements, such as the Company’s record revenue in the third quarter 2013, and forthcoming milestones. A Q&A session will also be available following the call. Pressure BioSciences’ CEO Richard T. Schumacher, Board Chairman Jeffrey N. Peterson, and other board members Mr. Vito Mangiardi, Mr. Kevin Pollack, and Dr. Mickey Urdea will join in the Q&A.  

Conference Call Details

International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCO:OTCQB), a biotechnology company developing novel stem cell-based therapies, announced the development of a new method for the derivation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) that utilizes a novel protein-based reprogramming process. The Company believes that the new method is a safer and more efficient alternative to older iPS reprogramming techniques, and represents a step forward in the ability to use iPS clinically.

AtheroNova Inc. announced today a significant milestone in completing the active treatment portion of its Phase 1 clinical trial with its lead compound, AHRO-001. The objective of the Phase I study is to evaluate AHRO-001’s safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics in volunteers who are healthy. This clinical study is being conducted in Russia with AtheroNova's licensing partner, OOO CardioNova.

The design of the Phase 1 study is to characterize the safety of AHRO-001 through three dose ranges and possible pharmacokinetics, with a planned enrollment of 54 subjects. This multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single and multiple dose escalation, is the first-in-human study of AHRO-001 administered via oral tablet to healthy adult volunteers at sites in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. All subjects have been dosed and received either placebo or AHRO-001 in doses ranging from 18.75 mg/kg to 37.5 mg/kg per day. Top line data is expected to be announced in the first quarter of 2014.

Online media company Local Corporation (LOCM-NASDAQ) reported this morning on new market research commissioned from Borrell Associates. Among its services, Borrell works to gauge ad spending in local markets. The company forecasts that the online pay-per-call ad spending sector (also known as “enhanced directory assistance”) could be worth $8.1 billion by 2018, up from a current value of approximately $1.7 billion. Moreover, business use of this form of online advertising is anticipated to more than double by 2018. As more and more online searches for local goods and services are being performed on mobile devices (as opposed to on the traditional desktop platform), Local Corp. and other industry experts believe that pay-per-call as a mobile lead generation ad model will be key to generating revenue off of mobile consumers.  

So What Could This Mean for Local Corp. (LOCM)?  

One of the newest companies in our coverage universe, Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (PBIO-OTC), holds exciting new technologies for life science research—technologies that could help advance the work being done in tens of thousands of laboratories worldwide. The Company’s pressure cycling technology (PCT) platform, which is able to apply and release high levels of hydrostatic pressure in a safe and controlled manner, aids researchers and scientists by giving them the laboratory equipment needed to improve the processing of samples—which ultimately can lead to higher-quality research in critical fields like testing cancer therapies, creating new vaccines, and even faster and more accurate DNA analysis for things like processing rape kits. As an indication of the competitive advantage in research that Pressure BioSciences’ products can offer, to the Company’s knowledge, PCT has been shown to be the only technology able to completely kill anthrax while still leaving the sample in a testable state.  

Having demonstrated the utility of its equipment through roughly 235 installations in 150 marquee laboratories around the world, the industry is starting to take notice of the small-cap Pressure BioSciences, and with good reason.