ZEN Graphene up 40% on test update

ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. [ZEN-TSXV; ZENYF-OTC] shares gained almost 40% in active trading Tuesday December 29 after the company released more test results on a potential graphene-based antibiotic, antiviral and antifungal compound.

Previous test results from the University Health Network/Mount Sinai Hospital Department of Microbiology in Toronto, Ontario, showed that this patent pending formulation could be a medical breakthrough in the treatment of numerous human-contracted pathogens, including upper and lower respiratory tract infections – where COVID-19 is a major contributor – as well as drug-resistant organisms.

Testing was conducted by Dr. Tony Mazzulli, a microbiologist-in-chief and infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital.

ZEN Graphene is an emerging graphene technology company with a large source of graphite that is available at its Albany deposit in northeastern Ontario.

On Tuesday, ZEN CEO Greg Fenton said the company continues to receive extremely encouraging results related to its graphene-based biocidal solutions. The most significant of these being that preliminary cytotoxicity results for ZEN’s potential antibiotic compound show no apparent negative impacts on animals dosed with a concentration many thousand times higher than that found to be effective in testing recently completed at Mount Sinai hospital. Phase 2 testing results are expected in January.

When trading in ZEN resumed at around 10:00 am. (EDT) Tuesday, the shares jumped 39% or $1.01 to $3.56 on volume of 1.82 million. Shares were previously trading in a 52-week range of $2.55 and 26 cents. That leaves the company with a market cap of over $301.2 million based on about 85 million shares outstanding.

The shares rallied after the company said it has successfully completed Phase 1 of the range finding study where animals were first dosed at 1,000 mg/kg of graphene compound with no apparent negative impacts. Based on the initial results, a second set of animals was given a dose of 2,000 mg/kg. All animals at both dose levels survived and appeared normal during the post observation period.

Meanwhile, the company said it has also received results from the latest round of testing of its proprietary, graphene-based coating formulation at Western University’s ImPaKT facility Biosafety Level 3 laboratory in London Ontario.

Testing demonstrated that polypropylene mask material, treated with ZEN’s coating was still 98% effective affective against COVID-19 at 108 days. While more testing needs to be completed to better understand changes in efficacy over time, the company said it is extremely encouraged by these results.