OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals Inc (OTCMKTS:OBMP) is offering investors an interesting opportunity as the stock takes a break from its rip-roaring first quarter trend. That said, market participants may want to take a close look now rather than be overly patient because this company has a ton of catalysts working in its favor right now, and likely several more big ones coming up the pipe.
The most recent announcement out of the company hit a little over a week ago, and consisted of the announcement that its contract manufacturing organization has begun formulation work on tretinoin (also known as all-trans retinoic acid, or ATRA) at its state-of-the-art, cGMP-compliant facility in Colombia. According to the release, “Tretinoin is an oral drug for the treatment of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL). OncBioMune has acquired commercialization rights for tretinoin throughout Mexico, Central America and Latin America from the leading South American CMO.”
OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals Inc (OTCMKTS:OBMP) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that develops cancer immunotherapy products. The company has proprietary rights to a breast and prostate patent vaccine; and a process for the growth of cancer cells and targeted chemotherapies. Its lead product is ProscaVax that is in the planning stage of a Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of prostate cancer.
It’s important to keep in mind that OBMP could be interesting as an easy fit for a few different names as far as a take-out candidate.
Just starting with those in the space who have shown a clear interest in development or acquisition of assets that offer potential for market share in the prostate cancer segment, one can easily point to the likes of Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN), Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INO), Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation (NASDAQ:NYMX).
The company also has a portfolio of targeted therapies. OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Focus on Near Term Sales
As noted above, the company just got started through its CMO with formulation work for tretinoin. We would point out that, currently, there is no product on the Mexican market that targets APL – which the company tells us is an extremely aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia.
If OBMP management is able to get formulation and distribution in place for that market, then it could end up as a cornerstone player in the Mexican market with its tretinoin asset. When it picked up rights to the drug a couple months ago, the point was to put in the stable a horse that could have a near-term positive impact on revenues. That takes pressure off shareholders in terms of dilution risk, and frees up management to focus on operations rather than pitch desks and fund raising.
The company’s recent press release also goes on to note that, “Formulation work will be followed by stability studies, with expectations for commercialization of tretinoin under the OncBioMune brand across Mexico, Central America and Latin America in 2018. APL is characterized by too many immature blood-forming cells in the blood and bone marrow, leading to a shortage of healthy white and red blood cells and platelets. In addition to a patient facing an increased risk to bleeding and forming blood clots, persons with APL often cope with pain in the affected area, exhaustion, loss of appetite and weight loss. While APL can be diagnosed at any age, it is most common in middle-aged adults. Fortunately, APL is one of the most curable types of leukemia in developed countries, with tretinoin commonly prescribed as part of a therapeutic regimen. However, little therapeutic progress has been made in developing countries to deliver a measurable benefit with respect to complete hematological remission and disease-free survival, as is highly possible with tretinoin in the treatment protocol.”
As we noted in our prior update on OBMP, the tretinoin strategy isn’t the only puzzle piece targeting near-term revenue growth.
For example, we saw the completion of the acquisition of Vitel Laboratorios S.A. de C.V., establishing OncBioMune Mexico S.A. de C.V. as a wholly-owned Mexico City-based subsidiary of OncBioMune as it integrates Vitel’s operations into a component of the Company. The acquisition transitioned OncBioMune into a revenue-generating company with two recently commercialized drugs and a portfolio of others either already licensed or in negotiations for licensing or acquisition.
Sales in Mexico from September 16, 2016 to April 17, 2017 for Bekunis for constipation and Cirkused for stress were approximately US$350,000, exceeding projections for US$155,000 initially forecast for the first seven months at product launch during the third quarter of 2016. The Company anticipates that sales efforts will continue to accelerate and anticipates combined sales in the range of US$750,000 to US$850,000 for the products in 2017.
Those assets will likely have an impact on the top line that should begin to show up in financial reports for the company over the near term. Market participants unaware of this coming impact risk missing the boat on what could become an awfully interesting opportunity in the works.
