According to the World Health Organization, the number of people affected by dementia—an umbrella term covering neurodegenerative diseases and conditions such as Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal disorders—will triple over the next three decades from about 50 million currently to 152 million. Unfortunately, there is an often-overlooked problem associated with dementia: wandering, a problematic and dangerous situation for caregivers and loved ones. While many biotechs and pharmas work on developing new drugs for treating dementia, there is no drug they can concoct to stop a patient from wandering off and losing their way. Fortunately, GTX Corp
A successfully completed mid-stage clinical study is just one piece of news that this little company has announced in what turned out to be an exciting month for GTX Corp and was capped off with a significant milestone commercial launches for the kids market. Specifically, GTX Corp said it will roll out the new GPS Invisabelt designed for toddlers and kids, and has made its GPS SmartSole in trim to fit size small, which the company says is “perfect for big kids and people with small feet.”
“As we continue to partner with the autistic community and help create programs and solutions to fit their needs for small, non-invasive, non-intrusive and affordable assistive technologies, the long-awaited size small GPS SmartSole comes at a perfect time,” said Patrick Bertagna, CEO of GTX Corp in the announcement. “And for those parents that want to keep track of their little ones, the Company also launched Invisabelt, sized to fit as soon as a child starts to walk, until old enough to wear a pair of SmartSoles.”
Clinical Evidence
In mid-June, GTX Corp, a Los Angeles-based company focused on an Internet of Things (IoT) platform in the personal location wearable and wandering assistive technology business, said that research partner George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services completed its Phase II advanced machine learning wandering prediction research. The published study evaluated the potential of using machine learning techniques applied to data from GPS trackers, namely GTX’s SmartSole and GTX’s location-based technology and data, to create individualized models that describe patterns of movement. Once patterns are established, the technology can identify movements that do not follow typical patterns that may correspond to wandering.
The researchers analyzed data from GTX products from 338 elderly people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Models for predicting location achieved varying accuracy, depending on regularity of wearer’s schedule. The mean accuracy of 76% was achieved in predicting where someone may have wondered off.
The patented GPS SmartSole is a non-visible GPS tracking device designed to monitor the location of people afflicted with cognitive memory disorders who have a tendency to get lost or wander. Other applications include use for people at risk of kidnapping, such as children, government employees, journalists and high-level executives.
“As many as 60 percent of those afflicted with dementia will wander and become lost at least once during the progression of the disease, and until now there hasn’t been the ability to predict the movements of these individuals as they are wandering,” said Janusz Wojtusiak, PhD, associate professor and Director of Health Informatics at Mason’s College of Health and Human Services, in a press release on the study.
“Many of those who wander will not even realize they are lost or may hide from those searching for them. So this is truly groundbreaking data that offers the potential to save lives and dramatically reduce the costs of high-resource rescue operations,” added Andrew Carle, Adjunct Professor and Founding Director of the Program in Senior Housing Administration at GMU.
With the data in tow, GTX is now assessing adding the prediction algorithms to its backend monitoring platform. GTX is also looking into developing a low-cost data-collection-only SmartSole that could be used in a wide-scale research programs.
Meanwhile, as the George Mason team continues to work on more advanced predictive techniques, the university has also submitted proposals for additional funding to advance the research to uncover patterns of movement that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease progression.
Showcasing the Technology
GTX took the opportunity to show its SmartSole and BioStride technology at the world-renowned CeBIT 2018 exposition in Hannover Germany June 11-15 on the Telefónica Deutschland stand. GTX has partnered with the Veristride to develop BioStride, an easy to use, wearable (similar in design to SmartSole), at-home solution that uses biomechanical sensors, analytics and algorithms to analyze movement and gait for fall risk assessment.
Recognized as the largest gathering of leading edge technology companies, over 200,000 participants were active at this year’s expo. Telefónica Deutschland is part of Telefónica SA group (TEF), a Spanish multinational broadband and telecommunications provider with operations in Europe, Asia, North, Central and South America, and is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world.
“CeBIT is Europe’s premiere show drawing consumers and business professionals from all over the technology and telecommunications industry, and we are honored that our partner Telefónica Deutschland has decided to showcase two of our products at the center of their stand,” said Andrew Duncan, GTX Corp director of Business development, in a statement about the global exposure at the expo.
Continuing exposure across Europe, the SmartSoles were featured on the main BBC news website. The weekly listenership for this show is 7.6 million, primarily the AB (upper and middle class) audience, which is ideal for SmartSole.
GTX Corp also appeared in The Sun, which has the largest circulation nationally in the UK with 1.5 million readers and has a wide demographic spectrum, similar to that of USA Today in the States, in terms of reader makeup. The article mentions how the NHS could save millions by using the GPS SmartSoles.
In America, the SmartSole and SmartShoe platform were mentioned in the June issue of AARP Magazine.
New Product: 3G Take-Along World Tracker
June was a milestone month for GTX with respect to launching its 3G GPS Take-Along World Tracker, a miniaturized GPS tracking device under 3 inches long and weighing less than 2.7 ounces (think key Fob size). The product comes with the full suite of features available on the GTX monitoring portal and mobile app, where the tracker can be monitored on a map, set up a geozone with notifications when breached and a litany of other functions and reports.
The product, which has functionality globally aside from Korea and Japan, also features a voice module with a built in speaker for calling and an S.O.S. button set up to send a text containing time and location. Applications are broad from monitoring adults, children, shipments, property and other assets.
With an introductory price of $89 and a monthly monitoring service plan starting at $16.31, GTX believes it has the best value GPS tracking device on the market.
Cleaning Up Share Structure
Despite the impressive product portfolio, robust patent estate (85+) double-digit increases in revenues, subscribers, margins and profits and double-digit decreases in expenses and net loss, GTXO commands a market capitalization of just $1.2 million. Management believes this could be due in part to an unattractive price per share and the fact that it is listed on OTC Markets Group’s website as a pinksheet company. To that end, the company is taking steps to rectify the situation.
On June 25, GTX said it is preparing to uplist to the OTCQB marketplace of OTC Markets Group, a level that cannot be qualified for without being fully reporting to the SEC and meeting a minimum price per share. GTXO already provides transparency by regularly making filings with the SEC, so reporting is a non-factor in the uplist plan.
The price per share hurdle will be cleared by effecting a 1-for-75 share consolidation. Based upon 810.97 million shares outstanding currently, that will reduce the share count to about 10.8 million. Adjustment to the price per share will bring the stock price to the area of about 10 cents per share depending on the price the day the split is effective.
Commenting on the upcoming moves, Bertagna said, “This is a long-term plan the company’s board and management have been strategically working on over the past six months in order to make the public side of the business more reflective of the positive milestones and forward progress achieved in recent months, along with positioning the company for the future.”
After a highly productive June to close out a solid first half of 2018, the stage is set for what looks to be an exciting second half of the year at GTX Corp.
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