Neurotrope Inc (OTCMKTS:NTRP) Remains A Top Pick Ahead Of Data

Back in December 2016, we looked at Neurotrope Inc (OTCMKTS:NTRP) as part of this coverage. We noted that the company had just taken a hit on the announcing of a private placement, and that (as we see so often in biotech) the market response to these sort of events can warrant a speculative entry ahead of the capital being put to use, and driving growth.We highlighted a key catalyst, the releasing of data from the company's lead trial, as an event to watch, and noted that it was set to hit press at some point late first quarter or early second quarter 2017.Since our coverage, the company reverse split, and post split, has struggled to maintain positive sentiment. This struggle doesn’t affect our thesis, however. Again, we think this represents an opportunity to get in ahead of the data release, and that once the data hits, markets will be rushing to pick up a piece of the action ahead of a pivotal trial initiation.What makes us feel so strongly about this study? The science.Sometimes in biotechnology, and especially at this end of the space, you've got to ignore everything else, and have faith that the science underpinning a particular drug or program of drugs will win out. If the science is sound, more often than not the drug will overcome any extraneous inputs and succeed in getting to market. Not always, of course, but at a far higher proportion that can be said for a company with great management, great capital structure but poor science.And with this one, the science is very strong. Alzheimer's is an incredibly tough condition to treat, and many companies have spent billions on what have turned out to be failed development programs. Most of these, however, have targeted the build up of what's called Tau, and what's called amyloid plaque. Basically, there seems to be a correlation between the build up of these two elements and the severity of the symptoms. That's the logic behind the many (failed) mechanisms of action that have been investigated over the past thirty or more years. More recently, however, some companies are investigating alternative MOAs, and Neurotrope is one such company.It's looking at a protein called PKC. In patients with Alzheimer's, PKC has been shown to correlate with severity, as well as plaque and Tau buildup. The correlation, Neurotrope believes, is rooted in PKC's role in synapse formation. Synapse formation has been shown to correlate with an improvement in the symptoms of many neurodegenerative conditions (mainly animal models). This is a key point – while synapse degradation, and Tau and amyloid buildup, have been shown to correlate with worsening symptoms, only synapse reformation has been shown to correlate with improving symptoms. Neurotrope's lead asset, called Bryostatin, blocks a mutated gene that prevents PKC expression, and activates a gene that promotes PKC expression. In turn, it promotes synaptic formation, and – if the above mentioned correlation is to be trusted – this formation should result in improved symptoms.A host of primary and secondary endpoints are setup to measure and identify any improvement in symptoms in patients treated with Bryostatin when compared to a placebo arm in the ongoing phase II, and it's this data that is set to hit press near term. At the time of our previous coverage (and as mentioned above) end first quarter/early second was highlighted as a target un-blinding and topline period. At the BIO Conference, management just refined this to end April.The thing to takeaway here is that this company is taking a fresh approach to an indication that the industry's biggest names have wasted billions of dollars on, and this is bringing with it a (perhaps reasonable) degree of skepticism. Reasonable, sure, but totally justified – in our opinion, and based on the science, probably not.Cash, as ever, will be an issue going forward. The company needs a raise or a partnership if it's going to fund a phase III. With that said, if the data reads out as positive, we expect Neurotrope to have its pick of the big pharma litter as a partner.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on NTRP, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in NTRP and have not been compensated for this article.