In a recent interview (http://dtn.fm/j0AJN) with Stock News Now, the CEO of Nutra Pharma Corporation (OTCQB: NPHC), Rik J. Deitsch, talked about his company’s potential and the value locked in its chest of intellectual property rights. He said that, first and foremost, Nutra Pharma is a bio-technology company, with 21 patents on treatments for myasthenia gravis (MG), juvenile multiple sclerosis (MS), adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and pain. Being a bio-tech company is the “blood… the genetics of the company,” he enthused. As he had explained (http://dtn.fm/hy6Oj) earlier, “Instead of looking at us as a biotech with, potentially, multibillion-dollar drugs in the pipeline, analysts are seeing us as a company that sells OTC homeopathic drugs. They’re tying valuation to sales and stock performance. I think they should look at us as a speculative biotech company. In fact, we had a higher market cap before we made a penny of revenue…”
The company has three key patents: one for autoimmune disease, one for pain, and one for antiviral therapeutics. These patents protect different ways of modifying biologics including native cobra venom. (A biologic is produced in a living organism and then extracted for use. A drug is manufactured by combining substances in a chemically-ordered process.) With regard to autoimmune diseases, typically there is one drug for a particular immune disease. However, since Nutra Pharma’s RPI-78M is a modulating agent rather than an immunosuppressive one that shuts off the immune system, it could, theoretically, work against any autoimmune disease. The company has explored RPI-78M’s use in pediatric or juvenile MS, but it believes the drug can also be used against MG, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and type 1 diabetes.
Nutra Pharma has already received orphan status for RPI-78M for the treatment of juvenile (under the age of 16) MS sufferers. It believes it can really improve the lives of MS sufferers by introducing an entirely new way of treating the condition. At present, MS is treated with immunosuppressive drugs that can only slow the progression of the disease. Based on clinical studies of RPI-78M, the company expects RPI-78M may have the potential to not only stop further development of the disease but reverse its symptoms. Deitsch has speculated, “If we can get the drug through Phase I and Phase II trials, we plan to license it to a large pharma partner. We expect it to change the way we treat autoimmune diseases.”
In addition, receiving orphan status for RPI-78M brings a number of bonuses for Nutra Pharma. Not only does orphan status give the company a fast track at the FDA, it gives it the ears of the FDA and rolling review. It gives it access to grants and collaborative research agreements, and, in a relatively recent change, once a company has an approved orphaned drug, it may be able to receive an orphan drug voucher, which allows it to get a second drug approved and still have the benefits of orphan status. That second drug doesn’t have to be for an orphan condition; a company can use it for any drug. Those vouchers are salable assets. According to a report (http://dtn.fm/WCgw9) on the website of the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS), the first rare pediatric disease voucher was given to the pharmaceutical company BioMarin in February 2014 after its rare disease drug Vimizim was granted FDA approval. A few months later, Biomarin announced it had sold its voucher to Sanofi and Regeneron for $67.5 million. Deitsch has said (http://dtn.fm/mzX2T) that in August 2015, another voucher sold for more than $340 million.
Rik Deitsch is a biochemist. He was, at one time, head of product development for a division of Rexall Sundown, where he was involved in the launch of some 50 dietary supplements. He has worked in biochemistry for over 20 years and has written two books: Are You AgeWise: A Guide to Healthy Aging and Invisible Killers: The Truth About Environmental Genocide. From what we’ve heard in this interview, Deitsch is equally at home in the boardroom and in the lab.
For more information on the company, visit www.NutraPharma.com
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