ITEM 1. DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

 

This Form 10-KSB (including the information incorporated by reference) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to the uncertainties associated with research and development activities, clinical trials, our ability to raise capital, the timing of and our ability to achieve regulatory approvals, dependence on others to market our licensed products, collaborations, future cash flow, the timing and receipt of licensing and milestone revenues, the future success of our marketed products and products in development, our sales projections, and the sales projections of our licensing partners, our ability to achieve licensing milestones and other risks described below as well as those discussed elsewhere in this 10-KSB, documents incorporated by reference and other documents and reports that we file periodically with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements include, without limitation, statements relating to our ability to continue as a going concern, anticipated payments to be received from Uluru, anticipated product approvals and timing thereof, product opportunities, clinical trials and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) applications, as well as our drug development strategy, our clinical development organization, expectations regarding our rate of technological developments and competition, our plan not to establish an internal marketing organization, our expectations regarding minimizing development risk and developing and introducing technology, the size of our targeted markets, the terms of future licensing arrangements, our ability to secure additional financing for our operations and our expected cash burn rate. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “could,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of such terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including the risks outlined under “Risk Factors,” that may cause our or our industry’s actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels or activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

 

Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of filing this Form 10-KSB to conform such statements to actual results.

 

Business

 

Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Access” or the “Company”) is a Delaware corporation. We are an emerging biopharmaceutical company developing products for use in the treatment of cancer, the supportive care of cancer, and other disease states. Our product for the management of oral mucositis, MuGard™, has received marketing clearance by the FDA as a device. Our lead clinical development program for the drug candidate ProLindac™ (formerly known as AP5346) is in Phase II clinical testing. Access also has advanced drug delivery technologies including Cobalamin™-mediated oral drug delivery and targeted delivery.

 

Together with our subsidiaries, we have proprietary patents or rights to one technology approved for marketing and three drug delivery technology platforms:

•     MuGard™ (mucoadhesive liquid technology),

•      synthetic polymer targeted delivery,

•      Cobalamin-mediated oral delivery,

•      Cobalamin-mediated targeted delivery.

 

Products

 

We have used our drug delivery technologies to develop the following products and product candidates:

 

(1)   For more information, see “Government Regulation” for description of clinical stages.

 

(2)   Licensed from the School of Pharmacy, The University of London. Subject to a 1% royalty and milestone payments on sales.

 

(3)   Clinical studies being conducted in Europe and US.

 

Approved Products

MuGard™ - Mucoadhesive Liquid Technology (MLT)

 

Mucositis is a debilitating condition involving extensive inflammation of mouth tissue that annually affects an estimated 400,000 cancer patients in the United States undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Any treatment that would accelerate healing and/or diminish the rate of appearance of mucositis would have a significant beneficial impact on the quality of life of these patients and may allow for more aggressive chemotherapy. We believe the potential addressable market for a mucositis product could be over $1 billion world-wide.

 

Access’ MuGard™ is a viscous polymer solution which provides a coating for the oral cavity. MuGard™ is dispensed in a ready to use form. A multi-site, randomized clinical study was performed in the United States testing MuGard™ and MuGard™ containing an anti-inflammatory drug to determine the effect of these products on the prevention and treatment of mucositis. The data from this trial indicated that the patients using MuGard™ displayed a lower incidence of mucositis than is typically seen in the studied population with no additional benefit from the drug.

The data were retrospectively compared with two historical patient databases to evaluate the potential advantages MuGard™ may represent in the prevention, treatment and management of mucositis. The patient evaluation was conducted using the oral mucositis assessment scale, which qualifies the disease severity on a scale of 0-5. Key highlights of the comparison with the historical patient databases are as follows:

 

•      the average severity of the disease was reduced by approximately 40%;

•      the maximum intensity of the mucositis was approximately 35% lower; and

•      the median peak intensity was approximately 50% lower.

 

These data confirmed that fact that MuGard™ could represent an important advancement in the management and prevention of mucositis. On September 20, 2006, we announced that we had submitted a Premarket Notification 510(k) application to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing the Company’s intent to market MuGard™. On December 13, 2006, we announced that we had received marketing clearance for MuGard™

 

 

from FDA for the indication of the management of oral wounds including mucositis, aphthous ulcers and traumatic ulcers.

Access is currently seeking marketing partners to market MuGard™ in the United States and in other territories worldwide.

Products in Development Status

 

ProLindac™ (Polymer Platinate, AP5346) DACH Platinum

 

Chemotherapy, surgery and radiation are the major components in the clinical management of cancer patients. Chemotherapy serves as the primary therapy for some solid tumors and metastases and is increasingly used as an adjunct to radiation and surgery to improve their effectiveness. For chemotherapeutic agents to be effective in treating cancer patients, however, the agent must reach the target cells in effective quantities with minimal toxicity in normal tissues.

 

The current optimal strategy for chemotherapy involves exposing patients to the most intensive cytotoxic regimens they can tolerate and clinicians attempt to design a combination of chemotherapeutic drugs, a dosing schedule and a method of administration to increase the probability that cancerous cells will be destroyed while minimizing the harm to healthy cells. Notwithstanding clinicians’ efforts, most current chemotherapeutic drugs have significant shortcomings that limit the efficacy of chemotherapy. For example, certain cancers are inherently unresponsive to chemotherapeutic agents. Alternatively, other cancers may initially respond, but subgroups of cancer cells acquire resistance to the drug during the course of therapy and the resistant cells may survive and cause a relapse. Serious toxicity, including bone marrow suppression, renal toxicity, neuropathy, or irreversible cardiotoxicity, are some of the limitations of current anti-cancer drugs that can prevent their administration in curative doses.

 

Oxaliplatin, a formulation of DACH platinum, is a chemotherapeutic which was initially approved in France and in Europe in 1999 for the treatment of colorectal cancer. It is now also being marketed in the United States and is generating worldwide sales in excess of $2 billion annually. Carboplatin and Cisplatin, two other approved platinum chemotherapy drugs, are not indicated for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Oxaliplatin, in combination with 5-flurouracil and folinic acid (known as the FOLFOX regime) is indicated for the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in Europe and the U.S. The colorectal cancer market is a significant opportunity as there are over 940,000 reported new cases annually worldwide, increasing at a rate of approximately three percent per year, and 500,000 deaths.

 

Currently, platinum compounds are one of the largest selling categories of chemotherapeutic agents, with annual sales in excess of $3 .0 billion. As is the case with all chemotherapeutic drugs, the use of such compounds is associated with serious systemic side effects. The drug development goal therefore is to enhance delivery of the active drug to the tumor and minimize the amount of active drug affecting normal organs in the body.

 

Utilizing a biocompatible water-soluble polymer HPMA as a drug carrier, Access’ drug candidate ProLindac™, links DACH platinum to a polymer in a manner which permits the selective release of active drug to the tumor by several mechanisms, including taking advantage of the differential pH in tumor tissue compared to healthy tissue. The polymer also capitalizes on the biological differences in the permeability of blood vessels at tumor sites versus normal tissue. In this way, tumor selective delivery and platinum release is achieved. The ability of ProLindac™ to inhibit tumor growth has been evaluated in more than ten preclinical models. Compared with the marketed product oxaliplatin, ProLindac™ showed either marked superiority or superiority in most of these models. Preclinical studies of the delivery of platinum to tumors in an animal model have shown that, compared with oxaliplatin at equitoxic doses, ProLindac™ delivers in excess of 16 times more platinum to the tumor. An analysis of tumor DNA, which is the main target for anti-cancer platinum agents, has shown that ProLindac™   delivers approximately 14 times more platinum to tumor DNA than oxaliplatin. Results from preclinical efficacy studies conducted in the B16 and other tumor models have also shown that ProLindac™ is superior to oxaliplatin in inhibiting the growth of tumors. An extensive preclinical package has been developed supporting the development of ProLindac™.

 

In 2005 we completed a Phase I multi-center clinical study conducted in Europe, which enrolled 26 patients. The study was reported at the AACR-NCI-EORTC conference in Philadelphia in November 2005.  The European trial was designed to identify the maximum tolerated dose, dose limiting toxicities, the pharmacokinetics

 

of the platinum in plasma and the possible anti-tumor activity of ProLindac ^TM . The open-label, non-randomized, dose-escalation Phase I study was performed at two European centers. ProLindac ^TM was administered as an intravenous infusion over one hour, once a week on days 1, 8 and 15 of each 28-day cycle to patients with solid progressive tumors. We obtained results in 26 patients with a broad cross-section of tumor types, with doses ranging from 80-1,280 mg Pt/m ² .

 

Of the 26 patients, 10 were not evaluable for tumor response, principally due to withdrawal from the study prior to completing the required cycle. Of the 16 evaluable patients, 2 demonstrated a partial response, 1 experienced a partial response based on a biomarker and 4 experienced stable disease. One of the patients who attained a partial response had a melanoma with lung metastasis; a CT scan revealed a tumor decrease of greater than 50%. The other patient who responded had ovarian cancer; she had a reduction in lymph node metastasis and remission of a liver metastasis. The patient who experienced a partial response based on a biomarker was an ovarian cancer patient for whom CA-125 levels returned to normal. Also of note, a patient with cisplatin resistant cervical cancer showed a short lasting significant reduction in lung metastasis after 3 doses. However, due to toxicity, the patient could not be retreated to determine whether the partial response could be maintained.

We have commenced a European Phase II ProLindac™ trial in ovarian cancer patients who have relapsed after first line platinum therapy. The primary aim of the study is to the determine the response rate of ProLindac ^TM monotherapy in this patient population. The response rates for other platinum compounds in this indication are well known, and will be used for comparison.

We have provided ProLindac ^TM to the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego to conduct a Phase II clinical study in patients with head and neck cancer under a physician-sponsored IND. The primary aim of the study is to demonstrate the ability of the tumor-targeting polymer system to deliver more platinum to tumors than can be attained with oxaliplatin, the approved DACH platinum compound.

The company has submitted an IND application to the US Food and Drug Administration, and has received clearance from the agency to proceed with a Phase I clinical study of ProLindac in combination with fluorouracil and leucovorin. The study is designed to evaluate the safety of the ProLindac in combination with two standard drugs used to treat colorectal cancer and to establish a safe dose for Phase II clinical studies of this combination in colorectal cancer. The company is currently evaluating whether clinical development of ProLindac in this indication might proceed more rapidly by utilizing an alternative clinical strategy and/or conducting studies in the US and/or elsewhere in the world.

Research Projects, Products and Products in Development

 

Drug Development Strategy

 

A part of our integrated drug development strategy is to form alliances with centers of excellence in order to obtain alternative lead compounds while minimizing the overall cost of research. The Company does not spend significant resources on fundamental biological research but rather focuses on its chemistry expertise and clinical development. For example, certain of our polymer platinate technology has resulted in part from a research collaboration with The School of Pharmacy, University of London.

 

Our strategy is to focus on our polymer therapeutic program for the treatment of cancer while continuing to develop technologies such as MuGard™ and Cobalamin-mediated oral drug delivery which could provide us with a revenue stream in the short term through commercialization or outlicensing to fund our longer-term polymer development program. To reduce financial risk and equity financing requirements, we are directing our resources to the preclinical and early clinical phases of development. Where the size of the necessary clinical studies and cost associated with the later clinical development phases are significant, we plan to co-develop with or to outlicense to marketing partners our therapeutic product candidates. By forming strategic alliances with pharmaceutical and/or biotech companies, we believe that our technology can be more rapidly developed and successfully introduced into the marketplace.

 

We will continue to evaluate the most cost-effective methods to advance our programs. We will contract certain research and development, manufacturing and manufacturing scaleup, certain preclinical testing and product production to research organizations, contract manufacturers and strategic partners. As appropriate to achieve cost

 

savings and accelerate our development programs, we will expand our internal core capabilities and infrastructure in the areas of chemistry, formulation, analytical methods development, clinical development, biology and project management to maximize product opportunities in a timely manner.  

 

Process

We begin the product development effort by screening and formulating potential product candidates, selecting an optimal active component, developing a formulation, and developing the processes and analytical methods. Pilot stability, toxicity and efficacy testing are conducted prior to advancing the product candidate into formal preclinical development.  Specialized skills are required to produce these product candidates utilizing our technology. We have a limited core internal development capability with significant experience in developing these formulations, but also depend upon the skills and expertise of our contractors.

 

Once the product candidate has been successfully screened in pilot testing, our scientists, together with external consultants, assist in designing and performing the necessary preclinical efficacy, pharmacokinetic and toxicology studies required for IND submission. External investigators and scaleup manufacturing facilities are selected in conjunction with our consultants. The initial Phase I and Phase II studies are conducted by institutions and investigators supervised and monitored by our employees and contract research organizations. We do not plan to have an extensive clinical development organization as we plan to have the advance phases of this process conducted by a development partner. Should we conduct Phase III clinical studies we expect to engage a contract research organization to perform this work.

 

We contract with third party contract research organizations to complete our large clinical trials and for data management of all of our clinical trials. Generally, we manage the smaller Phase I and II trials ourselves. Currently, we have one Phase II trial in process and two Phase II trials planned for this year subject to preliminary findings in other trials and our ability to fund such trials.

 

With all of our product development candidates, we cannot assure you that the results of the in vitro or animal studies are or will be indicative of the results that will be obtained if and when these product candidates are tested in humans. We cannot assure you that any of these projects will be successfully completed or that regulatory approval of any product will be obtained.

 

We expended approximately $2,053,000, $2,783,000 and $2,335,000 on research and development during the years 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively .

Scientific Background

 

The ultimate criteria for effective drug delivery is to control and optimize the localized release of the drug at the target site and rapidly clear the non-targeted fraction. Conventional drug delivery systems such as controlled release, sustained release, transdermal systems and others are designed for delivering active product into the systemic circulation over time with the objective of improving patient compliance. These systems do not address the biologically relevant issues such as site targeting, localized release and clearance of drug. The major factors that impact the achievement of this ultimate drug delivery goal are the physical characteristics of the drug and the biological characteristics of the disease target sites. The physical characteristics of the drug affect solubility in biological systems, its biodistribution throughout the body, and its interactions with the intended pharmacological target sites and undesired areas of toxicity. The biological characteristics of the diseased area impact the ability of the drug to selectively interact with the intended target site to allow the drug to express the desired pharmacological activity.

 

We believe our drug delivery technologies are differentiated from conventional drug delivery systems in that they seek to apply a disease-specific approach to improve the drug delivery process with formulations to significantly enhance the therapeutic efficacy and reduce toxicity of a broad spectrum of products.

 

Core Drug Delivery Technology Platforms

 

Our current drug delivery technology platforms for use in cancer chemotherapy are:

 

•      Synthetic Polymer Targeted Drug Delivery Technology;

•      Cobalamin-Mediated Oral Delivery Technology; and

 

•      Cobalamin-Mediated Targeted Delivery Technology.

 

 Each of these platforms is discussed below:

 

Synthetic Polymer Targeted Drug Delivery Technology

 

In collaboration with The School of Pharmacy, University of London, we have developed a synthetic polymer technology, which utilizes hydroxypropylmethacrylamide with platinum, designed to exploit enhanced permeability and retention, or EPR, at tumor sites to selectively accumulate drug and control drug release. This technology is employed in our lead clinical program, ProLindac™. Many solid tumors possess vasculature that is hyperpermeable, or leaky, to macromolecules. In addition to this enhanced permeability, tumors usually lack effective lymphatic and/or capillary drainage. Consequently, tumors selectively accumulate circulating macromolecules, including, for example, up to 10% of an intravenous dose in mice. This effect has been termed EPR, and is thought to constitute the mechanism of action of styrene-maleic/anhydride-neocarzinostatin, or SMANCS, which is in regular clinical use in Japan for the treatment of hepatoma. These polymers take advantage of endothelial permeability as the drug carrying polymers are trapped in tumors and then taken up by tumor cells. Linkages between the polymer and drug can be designed to be cleaved extracellularly or intracellularly. Utilizing the principles of prodrugs, the drug is essentially inert while attached to the polymer, but is released inside the tumor mass while polymer/drug not delivered to tumors is renally cleared from the body. For example, ProLindac is attached to a pH-sensitive linker which releases the platinum cytotoxic agent much faster in the low pH environments found typically outside of tumor cells and within specific compartments inside of tumor cells. Data generated in animal studies have shown that the polymer/drug complexes are far less toxic than free drug alone and that greater efficacy can be achieved. Thus, these polymer complexes have demonstrated significant improvement in the therapeutic index of anti-cancer drugs, including, for example, platinum.

 

Cobalamin-Mediated Oral Delivery Technology

 

Oral delivery is the preferred method of administration of drugs where either long-term or daily use (or both) is required. However many therapeutics, including peptide and protein drugs, are poorly absorbed when given orally. With more and more peptide and protein based biopharmaceuticals entering the market, there is an increasing need to develop an effective oral delivery system for them, as well as for long-standing injected drugs such as insulin.

 

The difficulty in administering proteins orally is their susceptibility to degradation by digestive enzymes, their inability to cross the intestinal wall and their rapid excretion by the body. Over the years, many different methodologies for making protein drugs available orally have been attempted. Most of the oral protein delivery technologies involve protecting the protein degradation in the intestine. More recently, strategies have been developed that involve attaching the protein or peptide to a molecule that transports the protein across the gut wall. However, the field of oral drug delivery of proteins and peptides has yet to achieve successful commercialization of a product (although positive results have been achieved in early clinical trials for some products under development).

 

Many pharmaceutically active compounds such as proteins, peptides and cytotoxic agents cannot be administered orally due to their instability in the gastrointestinal tract or their inability to be absorbed and transferred to the bloodstream. A technology that would allow many of these actives to be taken orally would greatly enhance their acceptance and value. Several technologies for the protection of sensitive actives in the gastro-intestinal tract and/or enhancement of gastro-intestinal absorption have been explored and many have failed.

 

Our proprietary technology for oral drug delivery utilizes the body’s natural vitamin B12 (VB12) transport system in the gut. The absorption of VB12 in the intestine occurs by way of a receptor-mediated endocytosis. Initially, VB12

 

binds to intrinsic factor (IF) in the small intestine, and the VB12-IF complex then binds to the IF receptor on the surface of the intestine. Receptor-mediated endocytosis then allows the transport of VB12 across the gut wall. After binding to another VB12-binding protein, transcobalamin II (TcII), VB12 is transferred to the bloodstream.

 

Our scientists discovered that Cobalamin (analogs of VB12) will still be transported by this process even when drugs, macromolecules, or nanoparticles are coupled to the Cobalamin. Thus Cobalamin serves as a carrier to transfer these materials from the intestinal lumen to the bloodstream. For drugs and macromolecules that are stable in the gastro-intestinal tract, the drug or macromolecule can be coupled directly (or via a linker) to Cobalamin. If the capacity of the Cobalamin transport system is inadequate to provide an effective blood concentration of the active, transport can be amplified by attaching many molecules of the drug to a polymer, to that Cobalamin is also attached. A further option, especially for drugs and macromolecules that are unstable in the intestine, is to formulate the drug in a nanoparticle which is then coated with Cobalamin. Once in the bloodstream, the active is released by diffusion and/or erosion of the nanoparticle. Utilization of nanoparticles also serves to ‘amplify’ delivery by transporting many molecules at one time due to the inherently large nanoparticle volume compared with the size of the drug.

 

Our proprietary position in this technology involves the conjugation of Cobalamin and/or folic acid and/or biotin (or their analogs) to a polymer to which is also attached the drug to be delivered, or attached to a nanoparticle in which the drug is incorporated. Since many molecules of the drug are attached to a single polymer strand, or are incorporated in a single nanoparticle, disease targeting is amplified compared to simpler conjugates involving one molecule of the vitamin with one drug molecule. However, in situations when such a simple conjugate might be preferred, our patents also encompass these Cobalamin-drug conjugates.

Cobalamin-Mediated Targeted Delivery Technology

 

Most drugs are effective only when they reach a certain minimum concentration in the region of disease, yet are well distributed throughout the body contributing to undesirable side effects. It is therefore advantageous to alter the natural biodistribution of a drug to have it more localized where it is needed. Our Cobalamin-mediated targeted delivery technology utilizes the fact that in many diseases where there is rapid growth and/or cell division, the demand for certain vitamins increases. By coupling the drug to a vitamin analog, the analog serves as a carrier to increase the amount of drug at the disease site relative to its normal distribution.

 

One application of this technology is in tumor targeting. The use of cytotoxic drugs is one of the most common methods for treating a variety of malignancies including solid and non-solid tumors. The drawbacks of chemotherapeutic treatments, which include tumor resistance, cancer relapse and toxicity from severe damage to healthy tissues, has fuelled a scientific quest for novel treatments that are specifically targeted to malignant cells thus reducing damage to collateral tissues.

 

The design of targeted therapies involves exploitation of the difference between the structure and function of normal cells compared with malignant cells. Differences include the increased levels of surface molecules on cancer cells, which makes them more sensitive to treatment regimes that target surface molecules and differences in blood supply within and around tumor cells compared with normal cells.

 

Two basic types of targeting approaches are utilized, passive tumor targeting and active tumor targeting.

  

•

passive tumor targeting involves transporting anti-cancer agents through the bloodstream to tumor cells using a “carrier” molecule. Many different carrier molecules, which can take a variety of forms (micelles, nanoparticles, liposomes and polymers), are being investigated as each provides advantages such as specificity and protection of the anti-cancer drug from degradation due to their structure, size (molecular weights) and particular interactions with tumor cells. Our polymer platinate program is a passive tumor targeting technology.

•

active tumor targeting involves attaching an additional fragment to the anticancer drug and the carrier molecule to create a new “targeted” agent that will actively seek a complementary surface molecule to which it binds (preferentially located on the exterior of the tumor cells). The theory is that the targeting of the anti-cancer agent through active means to the affected cells should allow more of the anti-cancer drug to enter the tumor cell, thus amplifying the response to the treatment and reducing the toxic effect on bystander, normal tissue.

 

Examples of active targeting fragments include antibodies, growth factors and vitamins. Our scientists have specifically focused on using Cobalamin compounds (analogs of vitamin B12), but we have also used and have certain intellectual property protection for the use of folate and biotin which may more effectively target anti-cancer drugs to solid tumors.

 

It has been known for some time that vitamin B12 and folic acid are essential for tumor growth and as a result, receptors for these vitamins are up-regulated in certain tumors. Vitamin B12 receptor over-expression occurs in breast, lung, leukemic cells, lymphoma cells, bone, thyroid, colon, prostate and brain cancers and some other tumor lines, while folate receptor over-expression occurs in breast, lung, ovarian, endometrial, renal, colon, brain and cancers of myeloid hemotopoietic cells and methotrexate-sensitive tumors.

Other Key Developments

 

On March 30, 2007, Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Access") and SCO Capital Partners LLC and affiliates ("SCO") agreed to extend the maturity date of an aggregate of $6,000,000 of 7.5% convertible notes to April 27, 2007 from March 31, 2007.

 

On February 21, 2007 we announced we had entered into a non-binding letter of intent to acquire Somanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Pursuant to the terms of the non-binding letter of intent, upon consummation of the acquisition, Somanta’s preferred and common shareholders would receive an aggregate of 1.5 million shares of Access’ common shares which would represent approximately 13% of the combined company assuming the conversion of Access’ existing convertible debt under existing terms of conversion. The closing of the transaction is subject to numerous conditions including the execution of a definitive Merger Agreement, receipt of necessary approvals as well as completion of our due diligence investigation. There can be no assurance that the transaction will be consummated or if consummated, that it will be on the terms described herein.

We have upcoming maturity dates on our convertible notes. The $6 million of Senior Convertible notes are due March 31, 2007 plus accrued interest; and the approximately $4.0 million of convertible notes which are due April 28, 2007 including interest; and capitalized interest of $880,000. We are currently negotiating with the debt holders to convert their debt to equity or to extend the terms of their due dates.

All shares and per share information reflect a one for five reverse stock split effected June 5, 2006.

On December 8, 2006 we amended our 2005 Asset Sale Agreement with Uluru, Inc. Access received from Uluru an upfront payment of $4.9 million, will receive an additional $350,000 on April 8, 2007 and in the future could receive potential milestones of up to $4.8 million based on Uluru sales. The amendment agreement included the anniversary payment due October 12, 2006, the early payment of the two year anniversary payment, and a payment in satisfaction of certain future milestones. Access also transferred to Uluru certain patent applications that Access had previously licensed to Uluru under the 2005 License Agreement. Under a new agreement, Access has acquired a license from Uluru to utilize the nanoparticle aggregate technology contained in the transferred patent applications for subcutaneous, intramuscular, intra-peritoneal and intra-tumoral drug delivery. Additionally, one future milestone was increased by $125,000.

On December 6, 2006, we entered into a note and warrant purchase agreement pursuant to which we sold and issued an aggregate of $500,000 of 7.5% convertible notes due April 27, 2007 and warrants to purchase 386,364 shares of common stock of Access. Net proceeds to Access were $450,000. The notes and warrants were sold in a private placement to a group of accredited investors led by SCO Capital Partners LLC (“SCO”) and affiliates.

On October 24, 2006, we entered into a note and warrant purchase agreement pursuant to which we sold and issued an aggregate of $500,000 of 7.5% convertible notes due April 27, 2007 and warrants to purchase 386,364 shares of common stock of Access. Net proceeds to Access were $450,000. The notes and warrants were sold in a private placement to a group of accredited investors led by SCO and affiliates.

On February 16, 2006, we entered into a note and warrant purchase agreement pursuant to which we sold and issued an aggregate of $5,000,000 of 7.5% convertible notes due April 27, 2007 and warrants to purchase an aggregate of 3,863,634 shares of common stock of Access. Net proceeds to Access were $4.5 million. The notes and warrants were sold in a private placement to a group of accredited investors led by SCO and affiliates.

All the secured notes mature on March 31, 2007, are convertible into Access common stock at a fixed conversion rate of $1.10 per share, bear interest of 7.5% per annum and are secured by substantially all of the assets of Access.

 

Each note may be converted at the option of the noteholder or Access under certain circumstances as set forth in the notes.

  

Each noteholder received a warrant to purchase a number of shares of common stock of Access equal to 75% of the total number shares of Access common stock into which such holder’s note is convertible.  Each warrant has an exercise price of $1.32 per share and is exercisable at any time prior to February 16, 2012 or October 24, 2012 or December 6, 2012, as the case may be. In the event SCO and its affiliates were to convert all of their notes and exercise all of their warrants, they would own approximately 74.1% of the voting securities of Access. Access may be required to pay in cash, up to 2% per month, as defined, as liquidated damages for failure to file a registration statement timely as required by an investor rights agreement.

 

In connection with the sale and issuance of notes and warrants, Access entered into an investors rights agreement whereby it granted SCO the right to designate two individuals to serve on the Board of Directors of Access while the notes are outstanding, and also granted registration rights with respect to the shares of common stock of Access underlying the notes and warrants. SCO designated Jeffrey B. Davis and Mark J. Alvino to the Board of Directors, and on March 13, 2006 Messrs, Davis and Alvino were appointed to the Board of Directors.

On October 12, 2005, we sold our oral/topical care business unit to Uluru, Inc, a private Delaware corporation, for up to $18.8 million to focus on our technologies in oncology and oral drug delivery. The products and technologies sold to Uluru included amlexanox 5% paste (marketed under the trade names Aphthasol® and Aptheal®), OraDisc ^TM , Zindaclin® and Residerm® and all of our assets related to these products. In addition, we sold to Uluru our nanoparticle hydrogel aggregate technology which could be used for applications such as local drug delivery and tissue filler in dental and soft tissue applications. We received a license from Uluru for certain applications of the technology. The CEO of Uluru is Kerry P. Gray, the former CEO of the Company. In conjunction with the sale transaction, we received a fairness opinion from a nationally recognized investment banking firm.

At the closing of the agreement we received $8.7 million. In addition, due to the Amended Asset Sale Agreement in December 2006, we received $4.9 million and an obligation to receive from Uluru $350,000 on April 8, 2007 for the first and second anniversary payments and settlement of certain milestones. We recorded $550,000 less $173,000 tax expense as revenue from the discontinued operations in 2006.

We were incorporated in Wyoming in 1974 as Chemex Corporation, and in 1983 we changed our name to Chemex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. We changed our state of incorporation from Wyoming to Delaware on June 30, 1989. In 1996 we merged with Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a private Texas corporation, and changed our name to Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Our principal executive office is located at 2600 Stemmons Freeway, Suite 176, Dallas, Texas 75207; our telephone number is (214) 905-5100.

Patents

We believe that the value of technology both to us and to our potential corporate partners is established and enhanced by our broad intellectual property positions. Consequently, we have already been issued and seek to obtain additional U.S. and foreign patent protection for products under development and for new discoveries. Patent applications are filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and, when appropriate, with the Paris Convention's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Countries (most major countries in Western Europe and the Far East) for our inventions and prospective products.

One U.S. patent has issued and one U.S. patent application and two European patent applications are under review for our mucoadhesive liquid technology. Our patent applications cover a range of products utilizing our mucoadhesive liquid technology for the management of the various phases of mucositis.

Three U.S. patents and two European patents have issued and one U.S. patent and two European patent applications are pending for polymer platinum compounds. The two patents and patent applications are the result in part of our collaboration with The School of Pharmacy, University of London, from which the technology has been licensed and include a synthetic polymer, hydroxypropylmethacrylamide incorporating platinates, that can be used to exploit enhanced permeability and retention in tumors and control drug release. The patents and patent applications include a pharmaceutical composition for use in tumor treatment comprising a polymer-platinum compound through linkages that are designed to be cleaved under selected conditions to yield a platinum which is selectively released at

 

a tumor site. The patents and patent applications also include methods for improving the pharmaceutical properties of platinum compounds.

We have three patented Cobalamin-mediated targeted therapeutic technologies:

-	folate conjugates of polymer therapeutics, to enhance tumor delivery by targeting folate receptors, which are upregulated in certain tumor types with two U.S. and two European patent applications;

-	the use of vitamin B12 to target the transcobalamin II receptor which is upregulated in numerous diseases including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, certain neurological and autoimmune disorders with two U.S. patents and three U.S. and four European patent applications; and

-	oral delivery of a wide variety of molecules which cannot otherwise be orally administered, utilizing the active transport mechanism which transports vitamin B12 into the systemic circulation with six U.S. patents and two European patents and one U.S. and one European patent application.

Our patents for the following technologies expire in the years and during the date ranges indicated below:

·	Mucoadhesive technology in 2021,

·	ProLindac™ in 2021,

·	Cobalamin mediated technology between 2007 and 2019

In addition to issued patents, we have a number of pending patent applications. If issued, the patents underlying theses applications could extend the patent life of our technologies beyond the dates listed above.

We have a strategy of maintaining an ongoing line of patent continuation applications for each major category of patentable carrier and delivery technology. By this approach, we are extending the intellectual property protection of our basic targeting technology and initial agents to cover additional specific carriers and agents, some of which are anticipated to carry the priority dates of the original applications.

Government Regulation

We are subject to extensive regulation by the federal government, principally by the FDA, and, to a lesser extent, by other federal and state agencies as well as comparable agencies in foreign countries where registration of products will be pursued. Although a number of our formulations incorporate extensively tested drug substances, because the resulting formulations make claims of enhanced efficacy and/or improved side effect profiles, they are expected to be classified as new drugs by the FDA.

The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and other federal, state and foreign statutes and regulations govern the testing, manufacturing, safety, labeling, storage, shipping and record keeping of our products. The FDA has the authority to approve or not approve new drug applications and inspect research, clinical and manufacturing records and facilities.

Among the requirements for drug approval and testing is that the prospective manufacturer's facilities and methods conform to the FDA's Code of Good Manufacturing Practices regulations, which establish the minimum requirements for methods to be used in, and the facilities or controls to be used during, the production process. Such facilities are subject to ongoing FDA inspection to insure compliance.

The steps required before a pharmaceutical product may be produced and marketed in the U.S. include preclinical tests, the filing of an IND with the FDA, which must become effective pursuant to FDA regulations before human clinical trials may commence, numerous phases of clinical testing and the FDA approval of a New Drug Application (“NDA”) prior to commercial sale.

Preclinical tests are conducted in the laboratory, usually involving animals, to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the potential product. The results of preclinical tests are submitted as part of the IND application and are fully reviewed by the FDA prior to granting the sponsor permission to commence clinical trials in humans. All trials are conducted under International Conference on Harmonization, or ICH, good clinical practice guidelines. All investigator sites and sponsor facilities are subject to FDA inspection to insure compliance. Clinical trials typically involve a three-phase process. Phase I, the initial clinical evaluations, consists of administering the drug and testing for safety

 

The process of forming the requisite testing, data collection, analysis and compilation of an IND and an NDA is labor intensive and costly and may take a protracted time period. In some cases, tests may have to be redone or new tests instituted to comply with FDA requests. Review by the FDA may also take considerable time and there is no guarantee that an NDA will be approved. Therefore, we cannot estimate with any certainty the length of the approval cycle.

We are also governed by other federal, state and local laws of general applicability, such as laws regulating working conditions, employment practices, as well as environmental protection.

Competition

The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry is characterized by intense competition, rapid product development and technological change. Competition is intense among manufacturers of prescription pharmaceuticals and other product areas where we may develop and market products in the future. Most of our potential competitors are large, well established pharmaceutical, chemical or healthcare companies with considerably greater financial, marketing, sales and technical resources than are available to us. Additionally, many of our potential competitors have research and development capabilities that may allow such competitors to develop new or improved products that may compete with our product lines. Our potential products could be rendered obsolete or made uneconomical by the development of new products to treat the conditions to be addressed by our developments, technological advances affecting the cost of production, or marketing or pricing actions by one or more of our potential competitors. Our business, financial condition and results of operation could be materially adversely affected by any one or more of such developments. We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors or that competition will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Academic institutions, governmental agencies and other public and private research organizations are also conducting research activities and seeking patent protection and may commercialize products on their own or with the assistance of major health care companies in areas where we are developing product candidates. We are aware of certain development projects for products to treat or prevent certain diseases targeted by us, the existence of these potential products or other products or treatments of which we are not aware, or products or treatments that may be developed in the future, may adversely affect the marketability of products developed by us.

Our principal competitors in the polymer area are Cell Therapeutics, Daiichi, Enzon, Polytherics Ltd, and Inhale which are developing alternate drugs in combination with polymers. We believe we are the only company conducting clinical studies in the polymer drug delivery of platinum compounds. We believe that the principal current competitors to our polymer targeting technology fall into two categories: monoclonal antibodies and liposomes. We believe that our technology potentially represents a significant advance over these older technologies because our technology provides a system with a favorable pharmacokinetic profile.

A number of companies are developing or may in the future engage in the development of products competitive with the Access polymer delivery system. Several companies are working on targeted monoclonal antibody therapy including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Centocor (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), GlaxoSmithKline, Imclone and Xoma. Currently, liposomal formulations being developed by Gilead Sciences and Alza Corporation (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), are the major competing intravenous drug delivery formulations that deliver similar drug substances.

In the area of advanced drug delivery, which is the focus of our early stage research and development activities, a number of companies are developing or evaluating enhanced drug delivery systems. We expect that technological developments will occur at a rapid rate and that competition is likely to intensify as various alternative delivery system technologies achieve similar if not identical advantages.

Even if our products are fully developed and receive required regulatory approval, of which there can be no assurance, we believe that our products can only compete successfully if marketed by a company having expertise and a strong presence in the therapeutic area. Consequently, we do not currently plan to establish an internal marketing organization. By forming strategic alliances with major and regional pharmaceutical companies, management believes that our development risks should be minimized and that the technology potentially could be more rapidly developed and successfully introduced into the marketplace.

Employees

As of March 30, 2007, we had nine full time employees, four of whom have advanced scientific degrees. We have never experienced employment-related work stoppages and consider that we maintain good relations with our personnel. In addition, to complement our internal expertise, we have contracts with scientific consultants, contract research organizations and university research laboratories that specialize in various aspects of drug development including clinical development, regulatory affairs, toxicology, process scale-up and preclinical testing.

Web Availability

We make available free of charge through our web site, www.accesspharma.com , our annual reports on Form 10-KSB and other reports required under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports are filed with, or furnished to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). These documents are also available through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov certain of our corporate governance policies, including the charters for the Board of Directors’ audit, compensation and nominating and corporate governance committees and our code of ethics, corporate governance guidelines and whistleblower policy. We will provide to any person without charge, upon request, a copy of any of the foregoing materials. Any such request must be made in writing to Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 2600 Stemmons Freeway, Suite 176, Dallas, TX 75207 attn: Investor Relations.

RISK FACTORS

Without obtaining adequate capital funding, we may not be able to continue as a going concern.

The report of our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 contained a fourth explanatory paragraph to reflect its significant doubt about our ability to continue a going concern as a result of our history of losses and our liquidity position, as discussed herein and in this Form 10-KSB. If we are unable to obtain adequate capital funding in the future, we may not be able to continue as a going concern, which would have an adverse effect on our business and operations, and investors’ investment in us may decline.

We have experienced a history of losses, we expect to incur future losses and we may be unable to obtain necessary additional capital to fund operations in the future.

We have recorded minimal revenue to date and we have incurred a cumulative operating loss of approximately $77.7 million through December 31, 2006. Net losses for the years ended 2006, 2005 and 2004 were $12,874,000, $1,700,000 and $10,238,000, respectively. Our losses have resulted principally from costs incurred in research and development activities related to our efforts to develop clinical drug candidates and from the associated administrative costs. We expect to incur additional operating losses over the next several years. We also expect cumulative losses to increase if we expand research and development efforts and preclinical and clinical trials. Our net cash burn rate for the twelve months of 2006 was approximately $550,000 per month. We project our net cash burn rate for the next seven months to be approximately $750,000 per month. Capital expenditures are forecasted to be minor for the next seven months.

We require substantial capital for our development programs and operating expenses, to pursue regulatory clearances and to prosecute and defend our intellectual property rights. We believe that our existing capital resources, interest income, product sales, royalties and revenue from possible licensing agreements and collaborative agreements will be sufficient to fund our currently expected operating expenses and capital requirements for seven months (other than debt and interest obligations including the approximately $6 million of Senior Convertible notes due April 27, 2007 plus accrued interest; and approximately $4.0 million of convertible notes which are required to

 

be repaid April 28, 2007 plus accrued interest; and capitalized interest of $880,000 due September 13, 2007). We will need to raise substantial additional capital to support our ongoing operations and debt obligations.

If we do raise additional funds by issuing equity securities, further dilution to existing stockholders would result and future investors may be granted rights superior to those of existing stockholders. If adequate funds are not available to us through additional equity offerings, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate one or more of our research and development programs or to obtain funds by entering into arrangements with collaborative partners or others that require us to issue additional equity securities or to relinquish rights to certain technologies or drug candidates that we would not otherwise issue or relinquish in order to continue independent operations. As a result of our history of losses and our liquidity position, our auditors have issued an audit report expressing significant doubt about our ability to remain a going concern.

We do not have operating revenue and we may never attain profitability.

 

To date, we have funded our operations primarily through private sales of common stock and convertible notes. Contract research payments and licensing fees from corporate alliances and mergers have also provided funding for our operations. Our ability to achieve significant revenue or profitability depends upon our ability to successfully complete the development of drug candidates, to develop and obtain patent protection and regulatory approvals for our drug candidates and to manufacture and commercialize the resulting drugs. We sold our only revenue producing assets to Uluru, Inc. in October 2005. We are not expecting any revenues in the short-term from our other assets. Furthermore, we may not be able to ever successfully identify, develop, commercialize, patent, manufacture, obtain required regulatory approvals and market any additional products. Moreover, even if we do identify, develop, commercialize, patent, manufacture, and obtain required regulatory approvals to market additional products, we may not generate revenues or royalties from commercial sales of these products for a significant number of years, if at all. Therefore, our proposed operations are subject to all the risks inherent in the establishment of a new business enterprise. In the next few years, our revenues may be limited to minimal product sales and royalties, any amounts that we receive under strategic partnerships and research or drug development collaborations that we may establish and, as a result, we may be unable to achieve or maintain profitability in the future or to achieve significant revenues in order to fund our operations.

We may not be able to pay our debt and other obligations and our assets may be seized as a result.

We may not generate the cash flow required to pay our liabilities as they become due. Our outstanding debt includes $6 million of Senior Convertible notes due April 27, 2007, and approximately $4.0 million of our Convertible Subordinated Notes due April 28, 2007 and $5.5 million is due in September 2010. We also have capitalized interest of $880,000 plus interest due the Company otherwise it will be due September 13, 2007.

If our cash flow is inadequate to meet these obligations, we will default on the notes. Any default on the notes could allow our note holders to foreclose upon our assets, force us into bankruptcy or our secured note holders could foreclose on the escrow and pledge of our shares and sell the shares on the open market, which is likely to cause a significant drop in the price of our stock. We may be unable to repay or repurchase or restructure the convertible subordinated notes due in March 2007, April 2007 and September 2010 and be forced into bankruptcy. In the event of a default, the holders of our secured convertible notes have the right to foreclose on substantially all of our assets, which could force us to curtail or cease our business operations.

The holders of our Convertible Notes may require us to repurchase or prepay all of the outstanding Convertible Notes under certain circumstances. We may not have sufficient cash reserves to repurchase the Convertible Notes at such time, which would cause an event of default under the Convertible Notes and may force us to declare bankruptcy.

We may not successfully commercialize our drug candidates.

Our drug candidates are subject to the risks of failure inherent in the development of pharmaceutical products based on new technologies and our failure to develop safe, commercially viable drugs would severely limit our ability to become profitable or to achieve significant revenues. We may be unable to successfully commercialize our drug candidates because:

 

·	some or all of our drug candidates may be found to be unsafe or ineffective or otherwise fail to meet applicable regulatory standards or receive necessary regulatory clearances;

·	our drug candidates, if safe and effective, may be too difficult to develop into commercially viable drugs;

·	it may be difficult to manufacture or market our drug candidates on a large scale;

·	proprietary rights of third parties may preclude us from marketing our drug candidates; and

·	third parties may market superior or equivalent drugs.

The success of our research and development activities, upon which we primarily focus, is uncertain.

Our primary focus is on our research and development activities and the commercialization of compounds covered by proprietary biopharmaceutical patents and patent applications. Research and development activities, by their nature, preclude definitive statements as to the time required and costs involved in reaching certain objectives. Actual research and development costs, therefore, could exceed budgeted amounts and estimated time frames may require extension. Cost overruns, unanticipated regulatory delays or demands, unexpected adverse side effects or insufficient therapeutic efficacy will prevent or substantially slow our research and development effort and our business could ultimately suffer. We anticipate that we will remain principally engaged in research and development activities for an indeterminate, but substantial, period of time.

We may be unable to successfully develop, market, or commercialize our products or our product candidates without establishing new relationships and maintaining current relationships.

Our strategy for the research, development and commercialization of our potential pharmaceutical products may require us to enter into various arrangements with corporate and academic collaborators, licensors, licensees and others, in addition to our existing relationships with other parties. Specifically, we may seek to joint venture, sublicense or enter other marketing arrangements with parties that have an established marketing capability or we may choose to pursue the commercialization of such products on our own. We may, however, be unable to establish such additional collaborative arrangements, license agreements, or marketing agreements as we may deem necessary to develop, commercialize and market our potential pharmaceutical products on acceptable terms. Furthermore, if we maintain and establish arrangements or relationships with third parties, our business may depend upon the successful performance by these third parties of their responsibilities under those arrangements and relationships.

Our ability to successfully commercialize, and market our product candidates could be limited if a number of these existing relationships were terminated.

Furthermore, our strategy with respect to our polymer platinate program is to enter into a licensing agreement with a pharmaceutical company pursuant to which the further costs of developing a product would be shared with our licensing partner. Although we have had discussions with potential licensing partners with respect to our polymer platinate program, to date we have not entered into any licensing arrangement. We may be unable to execute our licensing strategy for polymer platinate.

We may be unable to successfully manufacture our products and our product candidates in clinical quantities or for commercial purposes without the assistance of contract manufacturers, which may be difficult for us to obtain and maintain.

We have limited experience in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products in clinical quantities or for commercial purposes and we may not be able to manufacture any new pharmaceutical products that we may develop. As a result, we have established, and in the future intend to establish arrangements with contract manufacturers to supply sufficient quantities of products to conduct clinical trials and for the manufacture, packaging, labeling and distribution of finished pharmaceutical products if any of our potential products are approved for commercialization. If we are unable to contract for a sufficient supply of our potential pharmaceutical products on acceptable terms, our preclinical and human clinical testing schedule may be delayed, resulting in the delay of our clinical programs and submission of product candidates for regulatory approval, which could cause our business to suffer. Our business could suffer if there are delays or difficulties in establishing relationships with manufacturers to produce, package, label and distribute our finished pharmaceutical or other medical products, if any, market introduction and subsequent sales of such products. Moreover, contract manufacturers that we may use must adhere to current Good Manufacturing Practices, as required by the FDA. In this regard, the FDA will not issue a pre-market approval or product and establishment licenses, where applicable, to a manufacturing facility for the products until the

 

manufacturing facility passes a pre-approval plant inspection. If we are unable to obtain or retain third party manufacturing on commercially acceptable terms, we may not be able to commercialize our products as planned. Our potential dependence upon third parties for the manufacture of our products may adversely affect our ability to generate profits or acceptable profit margins and our ability to develop and deliver such products on a timely and competitive basis.

 

ProLindac™ is manufactured by third parties for our Phase I/II clinical trials. Manufacturing is ongoing for the current clinical trials. Certain manufacturing steps are conducted by the Company to enable significant cost savings to be realized.

We are subject to extensive governmental regulation which increases our cost of doing business and may affect our ability to commercialize any new products that we may develop.

The FDA and comparable agencies in foreign countries impose substantial requirements upon the introduction of pharmaceutical products through lengthy and detailed laboratory, preclinical and clinical testing procedures and other costly and time-consuming procedures to establish their safety and efficacy. All of our drugs and drug candidates require receipt and maintenance of governmental approvals for commercialization. Preclinical and clinical trials and manufacturing of our drug candidates will be subject to the rigorous testing and approval processes of the FDA and corresponding foreign regulatory authorities. Satisfaction of these requirements typically takes a significant number of years and can vary substantially based upon the type, complexity and novelty of the product. The status of our principal products is as follows:

·	A mucoadhesive liquid technology product, MuGard™, has received marketing approval by the FDA.

·	ProLindac™ is currently in a Phase II trial in Europe and a Phase II trial in the US.

·	ProLindac™ has been approved for an additional Phase I trial in the US by the FDA.

·	Cobalamin™ mediated delivery technology is currently in the pre-clinical phase.

Due to the time consuming and uncertain nature of the drug candidate development process and the governmental approval process described above, we cannot assure you when we, independently or with our collaborative partners, might submit a NDA, for FDA or other regulatory review.

Government regulation also affects the manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products. Government regulations may delay marketing of our potential drugs for a considerable or indefinite period of time, impose costly procedural requirements upon our activities and furnish a competitive advantage to larger companies or companies more experienced in regulatory affairs. Delays in obtaining governmental regulatory approval could adversely affect our marketing as well as our ability to generate significant revenues from commercial sales. Our drug candidates may not receive FDA or other regulatory approvals on a timely basis or at all. Moreover, if regulatory approval of a drug candidate is granted, such approval may impose limitations on the indicated use for which such drug may be marketed. Even if we obtain initial regulatory approvals for our drug candidates, Access, our drugs and our manufacturing facilities would be subject to continual review and periodic inspection, and later discovery of previously unknown problems with a drug, manufacturer or facility may result in restrictions on the marketing or manufacture of such drug, including withdrawal of the drug from the market. The FDA and other regulatory authorities stringently apply regulatory standards and failure to comply with regulatory standards can, among other things, result in fines, denial or withdrawal of regulatory approvals, product recalls or seizures, operating restrictions and criminal prosecution.

The uncertainty associated with preclinical and clinical testing may affect our ability to successfully commercialize new products.

Before we can obtain regulatory approvals for the commercial sale of any of our potential drugs, the drug candidates will be subject to extensive preclinical and clinical trials to demonstrate their safety and efficacy in humans. Preclinical or clinical trials of any of our future drug candidates may not demonstrate the safety and efficacy of such drug candidates at all or to the extent necessary to obtain regulatory approvals. In this regard, for example, adverse side effects can occur during the clinical testing of a new drug on humans which may delay ultimate FDA approval or even lead us to terminate our efforts to develop the drug for commercial use. Companies in the biotechnology industry have suffered significant setbacks in advanced clinical trials, even after demonstrating promising results in

 

earlier trials. In particular, polymer platinate has taken longer to progress through clinical trials than originally planned. This extra time has not been related to concerns of the formulations but rather due to the lengthy regulatory process. The failure to adequately demonstrate the safety and efficacy of a drug candidate under development could delay or prevent regulatory approval of the drug candidate. A delay or failure to receive regulatory approval for any of our drug candidates could prevent us from successfully commercializing such candidates and we could incur substantial additional expenses in our attempts to further develop such candidates and obtain future regulatory approval.

We may incur substantial product liability expenses due to the use or misuse of our products for which we may be unable to obtain insurance coverage.

Our business exposes us to potential liability risks that are inherent in the testing, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products. These risks will expand with respect to our drug candidates, if any, that receive regulatory approval for commercial sale and we may face substantial liability for damages in the event of adverse side effects or product defects identified with any of our products that are used in clinical tests or marketed to the public. We generally procure product liability insurance for drug candidates that are undergoing human clinical trials. Product liability insurance for the biotechnology industry is generally expensive, if available at all, and as a result, we may be unable to obtain insurance coverage at acceptable costs or in a sufficient amount in the future, if at all. We may be unable to satisfy any claims for which we may be held liable as a result of the use or misuse of products which we have developed, manufactured or sold and any such product liability claim could adversely affect our business, operating results or financial condition.

We may incur significant liabilities if we fail to comply with stringent environmental regulations or if we did not comply with these regulations in the past.

Our research and development processes involve the controlled use of hazardous materials. We are subject to a variety of federal, state and local governmental laws and regulations related to the use, manufacture, storage, handling and disposal of such material and certain waste products. Although we believe that our activities and our safety procedures for storing, using, handling and disposing of such materials comply with the standards prescribed by such laws and regulations, the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials cannot be completely eliminated. In the event of such accident, we could be held liable for any damages that result and any such liability could exceed our resources.

Intense competition may limit our ability to successfully develop and market commercial products.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are intensely competitive and subject to rapid and significant technological change. Our competitors in the United States and elsewhere are numerous and include, among others, major multinational pharmaceutical and chemical companies, specialized biotechnology firms and universities and other research institutions.

 

The following products may compete with polymer platinate:

 

•

Cisplatin, marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb, the originator of the drug, and several generic manufacturers;

•

Carboplatin, marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb in the US; and

•

Oxaliplatin, marketed exclusively by Sanofi-Aventis.

 

The following companies are working on therapies and formulations that may be competitive with our polymer platinate:

 

•

Antigenics and Regulon are developing liposomal platinum formulations;

•

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals and GPC Biotech is developing oral platinum formulations;

•

Poniard Pharmaceuticals is developing both iv and oral platinum formulations;

•

Nanocarrier and Debio are developing micellar nanoparticle platinum formulations; and

•

American Pharmaceutical Partners, Cell Therapeutics, Daiichi, and Enzon are developing alternate drugs in combination with polymers and other drug delivery systems.

 

Companies working on therapies and formulations that may be competitive with our vitamin mediated drug delivery system are Bristol-Myers Squibb, Centocor (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Endocyte, GlaxoSmithKline, Imclone and Xoma which are developing targeted monoclonal antibody therapy.

 

Amgen, Carrington Laboratories, CuraGen Corporation, Cytogen Corporation, Endo Pharmaceuticals, , MGI Pharma, Nuvelo, Inc. and OSI Pharmaceuticals are developing products to treat mucositis that may compete with our mucoadhesive liquid technology.

 

BioDelivery Sciences International, Biovail Corporation, Cellgate, CIMA Labs, Inc., Cytogen Corporation, Depomed Inc., Emisphere Technologies, Inc., Eurand, Flamel Technologies, Nobex and Xenoport are developing products which compete with our oral drug delivery system.

Many of these competitors have and employ greater financial and other resources, including larger research and development, marketing and manufacturing organizations. As a result, our competitors may successfully develop technologies and drugs that are more effective or less costly than any that we are developing or which would render our technology and future products obsolete and noncompetitive.

In addition, some of our competitors have greater experience than we do in conducting preclinical and clinical trials and obtaining FDA and other regulatory approvals. Accordingly, our competitors may succeed in obtaining FDA or other regulatory approvals for drug candidates more rapidly than we do. Companies that complete clinical trials, obtain required regulatory agency approvals and commence commercial sale of their drugs before their competitors may achieve a significant competitive advantage. Drugs resulting from our research and development efforts or from our joint efforts with collaborative partners therefore may not be commercially competitive with our competitors' existing products or products under development.

Our ability to successfully develop and commercialize our drug candidates will substantially depend upon the availability of reimbursement funds for the costs of the resulting drugs and related treatments.

The successful commercialization of, and the interest of potential collaborative partners to invest in the development of our drug candidates, may depend substantially upon reimbursement of the costs of the resulting drugs and related treatments at acceptable levels from government authorities, private health insurers and other organizations, including health maintenance organizations, or HMOs. Limited reimbursement for the cost of any drugs that we develop may reduce the demand for, or price of such drugs, which would hamper our ability to obtain collaborative partners to commercialize our drugs, or to obtain a sufficient financial return on our own manufacture and commercialization of any future drugs.

The market may not accept any pharmaceutical products that we successfully develop.

The drugs that we are attempting to develop may compete with a number of well-established drugs manufactured and marketed by major pharmaceutical companies. The degree of market acceptance of any drugs developed by us will depend on a number of factors, including the establishment and demonstration of the clinical efficacy and safety of our drug candidates, the potential advantage of our drug candidates over existing therapies and the reimbursement policies of government and third-party payers. Physicians, patients or the medical community in general may not accept or use any drugs that we may develop independently or with our collaborative partners and if they do not, our business could suffer.

Trends toward managed health care and downward price pressures on medical products and services may limit our ability to profitably sell any drugs that we may develop.

Lower prices for pharmaceutical products may result from:

 

·	third-party payers' increasing challenges to the prices charged for medical products and services;

 

·	the trend toward managed health care in the United States and the concurrent growth of HMOs and similar organizations that can control or significantly influence the purchase of healthcare services and products; and

 

·	legislative proposals to reform healthcare or reduce government insurance programs.

The cost containment measures that healthcare providers are instituting, including practice protocols and guidelines and clinical pathways, and the effect of any healthcare reform, could limit our ability to profitably sell any drugs that we may successfully develop. Moreover, any future legislation or regulation, if any, relating to the healthcare industry or third-party coverage and reimbursement, may cause our business to suffer.

We may not be successful in protecting our intellectual property and proprietary rights.

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to obtain U.S. and foreign patent protection for our drug candidates and processes, preserve our trade secrets and operate our business without infringing the proprietary rights of third parties. Legal standards relating to the validity of patents covering pharmaceutical and biotechnological inventions and the scope of claims made under such patents are still developing and there is no consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in biotechnology patents. The patent position of a biotechnology firm is highly uncertain and involves complex legal and factual questions. We cannot assure you that any existing or future patents issued to, or licensed by, us will not subsequently be challenged, infringed upon, invalidated or circumvented by others. As a result, although we, together with our subsidiaries, are either the owner or licensee to 13 U.S. patents and to 9 U.S. patent applications now pending, and 4 European patents and 12 European patent applications, we cannot assure you that any additional patents will issue from any of the patent applications owned by, or licensed to, us. Furthermore, any rights that we may have under issued patents may not provide us with significant protection against competitive products or otherwise be commercially viable.

Our patents for the following technologies expire in the years and during the date ranges indicated below:

·	Mucoadhesive technology in 2021,

·	ProLindac™ in 2021,

·	Cobalamin mediated technology between 2007 and 2019

In addition to issued patents, we have a number of pending patent applications. If issued, the patents underlying theses applications could extend the patent life of our technologies beyond the dates listed above.

Patents may have been granted to third parties or may be granted covering products or processes that are necessary or useful to the development of our drug candidates. If our drug candidates or processes are found to infringe upon the patents or otherwise impermissibly utilize the intellectual property of others, our development, manufacture and sale of such drug candidates could be severely restricted or prohibited. In such event, we may be required to obtain licenses from third parties to utilize the patents or proprietary rights of others. We cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain such licenses on acceptable terms, if at all. If we become involved in litigation regarding our intellectual property rights or the intellectual property rights of others, the potential cost of such litigation, regardless of the strength of our legal position, and the potential damages that we could be required to pay could be substantial.

Our business could suffer if we lose the services of, or fail to attract, key personnel.

We are highly dependent upon the efforts of our senior management and scientific team, including our President and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen R. Seiler. The loss of the services of one or more of these individuals could delay or prevent the achievement of our research, development, marketing, or product commercialization objectives. While we have employment agreements with Stephen R. Seiler, David P. Nowotnik, PhD our Senior Vice President Research and Development, and Stephen B. Thompson, our Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, their employment may be terminated by them or us at any time. Mr. Seiler’s, Dr. Nowotnik's and Mr. Thompson’s agreements expire within one year and are extendable each year on the anniversary date. We do not have employment contracts with our other key personnel. We do not maintain any "key-man" insurance policies on any of our key employees and we do not intend to obtain such insurance. In addition, due to the specialized scientific nature of our business, we are highly dependent upon our ability to attract and retain qualified scientific and technical personnel. In view of the stage of our development and our research and development programs, we have restricted our hiring to research scientists and a small administrative staff and we have made only limited investments in manufacturing, production, sales or regulatory compliance resources. There is intense competition among major pharmaceutical and chemical companies, specialized biotechnology firms and universities and other research institutions for qualified personnel in the areas of our activities, however, and we may be unsuccessful in attracting and retaining these personnel.

An investment in our common stock may be less attractive because it is not traded on a recognized public market.

Our common stock has traded on the OTC Bulletin Board, or OTCBB since June 5, 2006. From February 1, 2006 until June 5, 2006 we traded on the “Pink Sheets” after our common stock was de-listed from trading on AMEX. The OTCBB and Pink Sheets are viewed by most investors as a less desirable, and less liquid, marketplace. As a result, an investor may find it more difficult to purchase, dispose of or obtain accurate quotations as to the value of our common stock.

Our common stock is subject to Rules 15g-1 through 15g-9 under the Exchange Act, which imposes certain sales practice requirements on broker-dealers who sell our common stock to persons other than established customers and "accredited investors" (as defined in Rule 501(c) of the Securities Act). For transactions covered by this rule, a broker-dealer must make a special suitability determination for the purchaser and have received the purchaser's written consent to the transaction prior to the sale. This rule adversely affects the ability of broker-dealers to sell our common stock and purchasers of our common stock to sell their shares of our common stock.

Additionally, our common stock is subject to SEC regulations applicable to "penny stock." Penny stock includes any non-NASDAQ equity security that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions. The regulations require that prior to any non-exempt buy/sell transaction in a penny stock, a disclosure schedule proscribed by the SEC relating to the penny stock market must be delivered by a broker-dealer to the purchaser of such penny stock. This disclosure must include the amount of commissions payable to both the broker-dealer and the registered representative and current price quotations for our common stock. The regulations also require that monthly statements be sent to holders of penny stock that disclose recent price information for the penny stock and information of the limited market for penny stocks. These requirements adversely affect the market liquidity of our common stock.

Ownership of our shares is concentrated in the hands of a few investors which could limit the ability of our other stockholders to influence the direction of the company.

SCO Capital Partners LLC, Larry N. Feinberg (Oracle Partners LP, Oracle Institutional Partners LP and Oracle Investment Management Inc.), and Jeffrey B. Davis each beneficially owned approximately 74.1%, 26.4%, and 14.9%, respectively, of our common stock as of December 31, 2006. Accordingly, they collectively may have the ability to significantly influence or determine the election of all of our directors or the outcome of most corporate actions requiring stockholder approval. They may exercise this ability in a manner that advances their best interests and not necessarily those of our other stockholders.

Provisions of our charter documents could discourage an acquisition of our company that would benefit our stockholders and may have the effect of entrenching, and making it difficult to remove, management .

Provisions of our Certificate of Incorporation, By-laws and Stockholders Rights Plan may make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of the Company, even if a change in control would benefit our stockholders. In particular, shares of our preferred stock may be issued in the future without further stockholder approval and upon such terms and conditions, and having such rights, privileges and preferences, as our Board of Directors may determine, including, for example, rights to convert into our common stock. The rights of the holders of our common stock will be subject to, and may be adversely affected by, the rights of the holders of any of our preferred stock that may be issued in the future. The issuance of our preferred stock, while providing desirable flexibility in connection with possible acquisitions and other corporate purposes, could have the effect of making it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us. This could limit the price that certain investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock and discourage these investors from acquiring a majority of our common stock. Further, the existence of these corporate governance provisions could have the effect of entrenching management and making it more difficult to change our management.

Substantial sales of our common stock could lower our stock price.

The market price for our common stock could drop as a result of sales of a large number of our presently outstanding shares or shares that we may issue or be obligated to issue in the future . All of the 3,535,358 shares of

 

our common stock that are outstanding as of March 30, 2007, are unrestricted and freely tradable or tradable pursuant to a resale registration statement or under Rule 144 of the Securities Act or are covered by a registration rights agreement.

Failure to achieve and maintain effective internal controls could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Effective internal controls are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports. If we cannot provide reliable financial reports, our operating results could be harmed. All internal control systems, no matter how well designed, have inherent limitations. Therefore, even those systems determined to be effective can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to financial statement preparation and presentation.

While we continue to evaluate and improve our internal controls, we cannot be certain that these measures will ensure that we implement and maintain adequate controls over our financial processes and reporting in the future. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations.

Failure to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment could cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a material adverse effect on our stock price.