Here's Where The Next Major Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc (OTCMKTS:CNBX) Catalyst Is Comig From

Last month, Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc (OTCMKTS:CNBX) management put out a release noting the unusual volume of shares that were being traded in its stock, and reported that the company was aware of the volume spike, and that it believed it was a result of increased market interest in the liquid biopsy commercialization run that was set to start early March, and not rooted in any sort of promotional activity.The company filed an S-3 on March 21, and in the statement gave a little more detail as to some potential timelines to watch as far as catalysts are concerned. Here's what we learned, and what we're watching as a result.This company is a biotechnology company that is working to develop a sort of 360 degree spectrum of care for cancer patients. It has three main areas of focus that combine to create this all encompassing approach – palliative care (so treatments that address the symptoms of cancer, and the side effects of treatment, but don't address the underlying cancer), anti-cancer therapies (so treatments that do focus on the underlying cancer) and cancer diagnostics.The palliative care is the most advanced in terms of going from concept to shelves, but the anti cancer and the diagnostics sides of the equation are likely going to account for the lion's share of any value increase long term. Essentially, the company is trying to develop a diagnostics platform that physicians can use to test a cancer patient, and then use it to recommend a tailored, cannabis based therapy. The end goal, of course, is to have these recommendations be Cannabics' drugs.So, the cancer diagnostics element is what management referred to its its note on increased volume. Biopsies from ten patients have formed the basis of an initial rollout of the technology this month, and this is something we're waiting for an update on any day. Cannabics expects to expand this program into the US and Europe before the end of this year (it's currently based in Israel, which is extremely accommodative to cannabis based medicine development), and according to the recent filing, we're going to see some clinical data from the program during March 2018. That's a twelve-month wait, but with any luck we'll see some degree of interim insight as the initial (and then the global) rollout matures.The same is true of the anti cancer therapies. These are preclinical right now, and they are being developed in conjunction with the diagnostic platform. As such, and as confirmed by management, we're not going to get any top line data from these preclinical investigations until March next year.Again, we may see some degree of interim reporting, but it's going to be March (if the company meets its target) before we get any definitive insight into whether the anti-cancer assets work, and if so, how they combine with the diagnostics platform as a cancer therapy suite.Which brings us to palliative. We said above that the cancer diagnostics and the anti cancer agents are going to account for the lion's share of long term value, but short term, it's all about the palliative assets. The company is currently engaged in a clinical study in Israel to determine the efficacy of some proprietary cannabis based capsules as a treatment to improve appetite and stem weight-loss in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. These are common, and debilitating, side effects of chemo, and there's strong legacy evidence to suggest that cannabis can ease both. It's not been administered in the 5mg pill form that Cannabics is trying to develop before, however, and this trial represents the company's first foray into the clinic in this space. The clinical study is registered at clinicatrials.gov here, with the Israel location registered as an acceptable study site for a US investigation.Why is this of note now?Because in its latest filing, Cannabics has said that it's going to get data in hand by July 2017. That's going to be the next major catalyst to hot press, and if it comes out as indicative of efficacy for the asset in question, then the recent volume spike, and run in PPS, is going to be looked upon as negligible in comparison.As ever, there's risk here, and as usual, it's primarily rooted in dilution. The S-3 we've linked to is a shelf for a 7.9 million issue, and we are expecting some near term financing.That said, if the numbers hit press as positive come July, and looking longer term, if we get some indication of a successful cohesion between the diagnostics and anti cancer platforms, the dilution shouldn’t matter too much.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on CNBX, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in CNBX and have not been compensated for this article.