Protagenic Therapeutics Merges With Phytanix Bio In All-Stock Deal: Retail Turns Extremely Bullish

Shares of Protagenic Therapeutics, Inc. (PTIX) jumped 244% on Monday morning after the company announced its merger with private pharmaceutical firm Phytanix Bio Inc.

Protagenic said the two companies have entered into a definitive share exchange agreement, under which they will combine in an all-stock transaction.

The combined entity will be called Phytanix, Inc., and will bring together the two companies’ pipelines focused on stress-related and central nervous system (CNS) disorders. While Protagenic makes peptides for stress-related disorders, Phytanix Bio specializes in developing medicines manufactured from cannabinoids and "cannabinoid-like" molecules.

The combined entity will have five preclinical assets and one clinical-stage asset, Protagenic added.

Protagenic executive chairman Garo H. Armen noted that the combination aligns two pipelines with complementary assets and expertise to develop drugs in neuropsychiatry, CNS, and other disorders.

Protagenic said that post-combination, pre-financing ownership will be approximately 35% for the company's pre-combination stockholders and approximately 65% for Phytanix Bio stockholders on a fully diluted basis.

Protagenic had announced a 1-for-14 reverse stock split of its issued and outstanding common stock earlier this month to bring the company into compliance with the minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on Nasdaq.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Protagenic jumped from ‘neutral’ to ‘extremely bullish’ over the past 24 hours while message volume jumped from ‘high’ to ‘extremely high’ levels.

A Stocktwits user believes the stock could rally further toward $15.

PTIX stock gained over 43% this year but is down by about 48% over the past 12 months.

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