 Exponential martingale of a pure birth process

For a pure birth process with fixed initial state and finite statewise rates, the jump-count compensator gives $dM=(e^{\theta }-1)M_{-}[dN-\lambda (X_{-})dt]$, so $M$ is a local martingale up to explosion. If $\lambda \le C$, a rate-$C$ Poisson candidate clock with accepted jumps of probability $\lambda (X_{-})/C$ prevents explosion and dominates the jump count. Its finite exponential moments dominate every stopped $M$ on each finite horizon, upgrading the local martingale to a true martingale. A random initial state requires $\mathbb{E}{e}^{\theta X_0}<\infty$; uniformly bounded rates do not supply this missing initial integrability.