Insider Buying At Arno Therapeutics Inc (OTCMKTS:ARNI)

One of the best ways to judge whether or not a small cap biotech can make it or not is if insiders are buying or selling the stock. In the case of Arno Therapeutics Inc (OTCMKTS:ARNI), there's plenty of insider buying going on. Recent filings indicate insider David M. Tanen bought 362,015 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $0.35 per share, with a total value of $126,705.25.Furthermore, VP Alexander A. Zukiwski purchased 144,806 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $0.35 per share, for a total transaction of $50,682.10.The biggest purchase came from Chairman Arie Belldegrun. He bought 2,162,347 shares of Arno Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $0.35 per share, with a total value of $756,821.45.In addition to insiders buying the stock, some big-time outside investors are also betting on ARNI. The most recent financing resulted in gross proceeds to the company of approximately $7.4 million, which includes approximately $2.1 million through the automatic conversion of convertible promissory notes issued by the company in October 2015. The financing was led by the Company’s existing investors, including affiliates of Chairman, Arie Belldegrun, MD, OPKO Health, Inc., Soros Fund Management, LLC, Commercial Street Capital LLC, Pontifax, Bonderman Family Limited Partnership, Perceptive Advisors LLC and Auriga Capital Management.

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The Company intends to use the proceeds from this financing to fund its ongoing clinical development of onapristone, its lead product candidate, and for general corporate purposes. ARNI is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on the development of therapeutics for cancer and other life threatening diseases. Arno has exclusive worldwide rights to develop and market three innovative product candidates. These compounds are in clinical or preclinical development as product candidates to treat hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, as well as infectious diseases.Arno continues to advance its clinical development program of onapristone and has two ongoing, parallel trials. Arno is currently enrolling patients in the second stage of a Phase I/II trial of onapristone in men with advanced, castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC); the phase 2 aspect of the study is in combination with abiraterone acetate. In addition, the Company continues to actively screen and enroll patients in a Phase II trial of onapristone in women with recurrent or metastatic endometrioid tumors who have received no more than one prior chemotherapy and no prior hormone therapy.Onapristone has the potential to be the first approved anti-progestin for oncology indications and provide chemotherapy-sparing treatment to cancer patients who express a specific biomarker, as detected by a companion diagnostic under development. Onapristone is an oral, anti-progestin hormone blocker that has been shown in previous clinical trials to have anti-tumor activity in patients with breast cancer. Onapristone appears to have a unique ability to block the activation of the progesterone receptor, which is believed to be a mechanism that may inhibit the growth of breast, endometrial and other tumors. The activated form of the progesterone receptor (APR) has the potential to function as a biomarker of anti-progestin activity.ARNI also beefed up its board and advisory team. Jay Moorin has been appointed to its Board of Directors. Mr. Moorin is a founding Managing Partner of ProQuest Management, LLC, which currently manages approximately $1 billion in four healthcare venture capital funds. Mr. Moorin has vast senior management experience in the biotech, investment banking and pharmaceutical industries. Currently Mr. Moorin serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eagle Pharmaceuticals, is a Board Member of Mevion Medical Systems and a Trustee for the Equinox Fund Management Company. Mr. Moorin also participated as an investor in the Company’s current private placement.Furthermore, Stuart Holden, MD, Clinical Professor of Urology, Spielberg Family Chair in Urologic Oncology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and Medical Director at the Prostate Cancer Foundation, has also agreed to Chair the Arno Onapristone Prostate Cancer Scientific Advisory Board. In addition, with OPKO Health's participation in this capital raise, Mitch Steiner, MD will replace Steve Rubin as OPKO Health, Inc.’s Board Observer on the Arno Board of Directors. Dr. Steiner is currently President OPKO Urology at OPKO Health, Inc. and has vast experience in prostate cancer treatment and drug development.

We Have A Monster Pick Coming Soon!

Billionaires George Soros, Dr. Frost, and David Bonderman did not get to where they are by being stupid. They are all invested in ARNI and most recently at $.35 per share. To us, we think there's tremendous upside on ARNI with minimal downside risk. Most likely, ARNI will be taken over by Dr. Philip Frost’s OPKO Health, Inc which was been granted the first right of negotiation to acquire ARNI for a period of 45 days of a takeover attempt by another company. We think 2016 could be a big year for ARNI. We will be updating Insider Financial on ARNI as soon as more details emerge. Make sure you are signed up to get the latest.

Disclosure: We have no position in ARNI either long or short. We have not been compensated for this article.