TM Editors' Note: This article discusses a penny stock/microcap. Such stocks are easily manipulated; do your own careful due diligence.

On Thursday RXi Pharmaceuticals (RXII) announced that it had received a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office -- USPTO -- for a patent that covers RXi's technology sd-rxRNA along with Connective Tissue Growth Factor -- CTGF. The patent even makes notice RXi's main drug pipeline candidate of RXI-109 which targets dermal scarring, and is not expected to expire until 2029. 

The President and CEO of RXi, Dr. Geert Cauwenbergh, had this to say about the patent: 

"This issue notification from the USPTO further strengthens RXi's Intellectual Property position in the area of dermal scarring," said Dr. Geert Cauwenbergh, President and CEO of RXi Pharmaceuticals. He added that, "From our ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial, we have already reported preliminary results indicating that the use of RXI-109 after scar revision surgery had a visible, beneficial effect on the suppression of hypertrophic scarring, at three months following revision surgery.This patent enhances our ability to broadly protect our proprietary technology, including our anti-fibrotic compounds for the treatment of dermal scarring, reinforcing the potential for future commercial and business development opportunities."

This means to protect the company's proprietary technology platform, which it can use to create partnerships with. As mentioned above the company has already shown that RXIi-109 has had a positive clinical effect 3 months after a patient has done scar revision surgery. 

The prior day the company had a conference call that announced earnings and provided a business update on programs in the pipeline. The main thing to take note of from the update would be that there is a big potential for many catalysts approaching in the 2nd half of 2016. These catalysts are: 

1. RXI-109-1402 Phase 2study in hypertrophic scars expected to report early results in 2nd half of 2016 for cohorts 3 and 4 
2. RXI-109-1501 study in retinal scarring of age-related macular degeneration expected to report preliminary phase 1/2 data on safety, and partial efficacy 
3. Phase 2 study for Sampcyprone treating patients with Warts. The study is expected to enroll completely by the 2nd half of 2016, with preliminary results out by the end of 2016 
4. Human testing to begin for one of the two cosmetology targets the company is targeting. The company expects to start testing it on humans by the end of 2016
5. Potential pharmaceutical partnerships in 2016

The CEO has stated that developing a partnership with a pharmaceutical company is a big corporate goal for Rxi in 2016. The CEO even stated in the earnings press released that: 

" In addition, business development contacts and interactions with other pharmaceutical and biotech companies have more than tripled in the past 6 months as compared to the previous 6-month period. As you can see from our progress in the last several months, our team continues to be very dedicated to continuing this momentum through 2016."

The fact that interest from other biotech companies to work with RXi has tripled over the last 6 months compared to period before that bodes well for a partnership deal to potentially be closed sometime in 2016. RXi has a lot of catalysts approaching in the 2nd half of 2016, which is why the company is a great long-term hold.