Editors’ Note

Anthony Hayes began his tenure as CEO by overseeing AIkido’s transformation from a biotechnology company into a diversified corporate entity, committed to advancing innovation by participating in the development of new technologies across several sectors. An attorney and former partner of an Am Law 100 firm, Hayes previously co-founded and was managing member of JaNSOME IP Management LLC, an intellectual property monetization firm. JaNSOME provided consulting and advisory services to individuals and companies on best practices for monetization of the asset class. President George W. Bush gave Hayes special recognition for creating the Wills for Heroes program, a national 501(c)(3), in response to the September 11 attacks (willsforheroes.com). Other honors include IAM IP Personality of 2013, American Board of Trial Advocates Young Lawyer of the Year and “20 Under 40” in Columbia, South Carolina. Hayes earned a BA degree in economics from Mary Washington College and a JD from Tulane University Law School.

Company Brief

AIkido Pharma Inc. (aikidopharma.com) is a biotechnology development company working to develop a diverse portfolio of early and mid-stage small-molecule anti-cancer therapeutics. The AIkido Pharma Inc. platform contains patented technology from leading universities and researchers and seeks to develop innovative drugs through strong partnerships with world-renowned institutions, such as The University of Texas and University of Maryland Baltimore. Its diverse pipeline of therapeutics includes therapies for prostate cancer and pancreatic cancer, and anti-viral therapies effective against multile viruses including SARS-CoV-2. AIkido Pharma’s prostate and pancreatic treatments have shown positive preclinical results.

Will you highlight the history and heritage of AIkido Pharma and how the company has evolved?

AIkido Pharma was first incorporated in 1967. Over its long history, the company has been involved in many interesting projects. One project I’ve always found particularly interesting from a historical perspective is the role the company played in the Mars Viking Mission. The original founder of the company invented a life detection experiment to place aboard NASA’s Mars Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers. The experiment involved using radiation-laced nutrients to determine the presence of microbial life in Martian soil samples. Over the years, the company has continued in the field of technological development, working to create and support the development of several diverse products, such as artificial sweeteners, encrypted messaging, electronic scooters, and now, promising pharmaceuticals.

In 2019, we decided to pivot and focus on pharmaceutical development. Through licensing deals with leading universities such as the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Maryland Baltimore, the company has acquired a diverse portfolio of small-molecule anti-cancer and anti-viral therapeutics. Over the last three years, the company has evolved from a small, publicly traded Nasdaq company to an entity with over $100 million dollars in assets, strategically invested in several sectors around the world.

How did AIkido Pharma adapt its business to address the challenges caused by the pandemic and how proud are you to see the resilience of your workforce during this unprecedented time?

AIkido was operating virtually well before the pandemic and ensuing lockdown. It was clear to me many years ago that it is far better to employ the best people, regardless of location, than it is to hire a lesser qualified person who is conveniently located. That’s even more true now that working virtually has become so simple and widely utilized and accepted. Well before the pandemic, AIkido’s internal general counsel was in Texas and our accounting was based in California. Our current R&D activities are based in South Carolina and Maryland. This model has not only brought us what I consider to be the best people, but has also helped to maintain lower overhead for many years.

In addition, I was in New York City the week before the historic lockdown and it was clear to me that the pandemic was going to have a significant impact on the country. As we have seen, it has also created opportunities for pharma companies to develop promising therapeutics to treat COVID. Soon after the lockdown, we secured patented technology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore that was focused on the treatment of COVID and other viral diseases. The announcement of this news significantly increased the value of AIkido stock, allowing the company to raise over $100 million dollars. Our R&D on this antiviral treatment is continuing with the lead scientists in Maryland and we continue to achieve promising results.

Will you highlight AIkido Pharma’s portfolio?

AIkido is a diversified pharmaceutical development company, and we are excited about our current pipeline portfolio, upcoming milestones and pending catalysts. This past quarter showcased our monetization strategy and was exemplified by a 600 percent ROI liquidity event in DatChat which went public over the summer. Additionally, we actively invested in several exciting high-growth industries such as electric vehicles and tele-health. We continue to actively pursue additional high-growth interests with near-term monetization events to help enhance shareholder value. We are pleased to announce our recent investments in the Cannabis and innovative sports industries that have strong growth potential. We are also working diligently to grow our drug platform through additional licensing efforts and are currently working on partnerships with academic institutions and private enterprise to find, fund and advance new drug compounds that can be brought to commercialization. We continue to maintain an extremely low cash burn and note that our valuation does not currently reflect the value of our assets. With our strong balance sheet, we have pulled our registration statement and we look forward to continued shareholder value creation.

How do you balance the short-term, quarter-to-quarter pressures with making the long-term investments needed to secure AIkido Pharma’s future growth?

Balancing short-term pressures with the long-term strategy is one of the most challenging aspects of the job. The drug development process is slow and does not lend itself to quarterly updates, which Nasdaq stockholders understandably want. To balance these contrasting needs, we have implemented a diversified strategy with our primary focus on drug development and reporting on drug development news when it is available. In addition, to generate shareholder value and to achieve positive results on a quarterly basis, we have set aside a small portion of our assets for the acquisition of short-term, synergistic opportunities. More specifically, we seek investments in technology companies that we believe will reach their monetization point in 6-9 months, like Kerna Health, a fast growth tele-health business with recurring revenue and large contract backlog with possible liquidity via an IPO event in 2022. We hope that this strategy will build both short-term and long-term shareholder growth.

What are your key priorities for AIkido Pharma as you look to the future?

Our top priority is to progress the development of our existing portfolio of drugs while maintaining our cash burn rate at the lowest level possible. We also constantly seek to acquire and develop additional assets that have a predicted value inflection point as soon as possible. New assets would ideally fit in with our existing assets, but the quality and stage of the asset is more important than having an ideal fit with our existing portfolio. Whether the assets come from industry or academia, we believe that success is more probable if we partner in the ongoing development of an asset with the individuals responsible for the existence and development up to the time we buy it. We think there is a much greater potential for success with the continued involvement of scientists with “skin in the game” and a strong desire to see the drug succeed. For example, when we acquired the antiviral drug portfolio from UMB, we partnered in the continued research and development with the actual scientists who invented the drug, the experts on the drug who have a strong interest in furthering progress on it. One important aspect of this model is that development continues seamlessly, which saves a lot of time. Another one of our priorities is to utilize a smaller portion of our large cash reservoir to invest in technologies that have a high degree of return on investment in the near future, ideally within months. Our goal with these opportunities is to provide value to our shareholders and positive results on a regular basis. Whether we acquire an asset for development or invest in a promising technology, our main priority is always to achieve a monetization event from the asset in the shortest amount of time to maximize shareholder value.