Sunshine Biopharma (OTCMKTS:SBFM) Rising On Patent Acquisitions

Sunshine Biopharma (OTCMKTS:SBFM) is attracting a lot of interest in the penny stock biotech space. The company is following in the footsteps of other hot biotech names by locking up intellectual property rights to potential blockbuster drugs.SBFM has acquired all of the remaining rights, title and interest in and to all worldwide patents for the Company's Adva-27a anticancer compound. The Patent Purchase Agreement provides SBFM with direct ownership of all issued and pending Adva-27a related patents, which include all rights to this intellectual property worldwide. Prior, SBFM had ownership of only the U.S. patent. The purchase price paid by SBFM for these patent rights was $12,822,499, which will be paid pursuant to the terms of a secured promissory note, with quarterly payments of principal and interest due through December 2020.This is pretty big news for SBFM and its shareholders. Shares took off on the news as buyers rushed in and shorts were caught off guard. Over 65 million shares were traded on the news.

Where Is SBFM Heading Next?

Sign Up Below To Find Out!

Adva-27a is SBFM's lead anticancer compound, a Topoisomerase II inhibitor, small molecule that has recently been shown to be effective at killing Pancreatic Cancer cells, Multidrug Resistant Breast Cancer cells, Small-Cell Lung Cancer cells and Uterine Sarcoma cells (Published in ANTICANCER RESEARCH, Volume 32, Pages 4423-4432, October 2012). Adva-27a is currently in the IND-Enabling stage of development. The original U.S. patent covering Adva-27a was issued on August 7, 2012 under U.S. patent number 8,236,935. The Company is planning Phase I clinical trials of Adva-27a for Pancreatic Cancer and in parallel Multidrug Resistant Breast Cancer to be conducted at McGill University's Jewish General Hospital in Montreal (Canada).

In October, SBFM had acquired just the US rights to the drug. Obviously the company is pretty excited about Adva-27a and its potential.

We Have A Monster Pick Coming Soon!

Don't Miss Out!

Sign Up Below!

Part of the decision to acquire the rights has to do with the company seeing the acquisition as more favorable to SBFM than its previous licensing agreement. According to the company:

We believe the financial terms of the Purchase Agreement are more favorable to us than under the License Agreement. Our obligations under the License Agreement required us to pay Advanomics a perpetual annual license fee of $360,000 and reimburse Advanomics for all research and development expenses incurred by Advanomics in connection with Adva-27a, the Licensed Material (as defined in the License Agreement). The Purchase Agreement terminates the License Agreement and all obligations thereunder and provides for purchase of the Patent for twelve (12) consecutive annual payments of $360,000 starting in 2016.

If we look at the $12.8 million being paid for the rights and then look at SBFM's current market cap of just $1.94 million, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there's big potential with SBFM shares. Furthermore, the deal was done with Advanomics, which owns 23% of SBFM. Obviously, Advanomics sees the value in having the IP in the public company versus retaining it all for themselves. This is good news for SBFM shareholders.

Of course, it all really comes down to the efficacy of Adva-27a. So far, what we're seeing is positive. According to NCBI:

BACKGROUND/AIM:

Multidrug resistance poses a serious challenge in cancer therapy. To address this problem, we designed and synthesized Adva-27a, a novel non-ester GEM-difluorinated C-glycoside derivative of podophyllotoxin.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Adva-27a activity was evaluated in a variety of assays including inhibition of topoisomerase IIα, cytotoxic activity in drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cancer cell lines, metabolic stability in human liver microsomes and pharmacokinetic properties in rats.

RESULTS:

Adva-27a exhibited dose-dependent human topoisomerase IIα inhibitory activity and dose-dependent growth inhibitory activity in several drug-sensitive and two multidrug-resistant cancer cell lines. In the multidrug-resistant cell lines, MCF-7/MDR (breast cancer) and H69AR (small-cell lung cancer), Adva-27a was significantly more potent than etoposide. The metabolic stability of Adva-27a in human liver microsomes and its pharmacokinetic properties in rats were better than those of etoposide.

CONCLUSION:

Our studies have identified Adva-27a as a novel topoisomerase II inhibitor with superior cytotoxic activity against multidrug-resistant human cancer cells and more desirable pharmacokinetic properties than etoposide.

Overall, SBFM is one name that we need to keep an eye. For the latest update on SBFM, enter your email in the box below and get the latest alert on SBFM and all of our other hot stock picks.Disclosure: We own no shares of SBFM and have not been compensated for this article.