Today Rexahn Pharmaceuticals (RNN) announced that it will be attending the BioPharm America 2014 Partnering Conference. This is significant because the previous partnership with Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) for its RX-3117 drug compound emanated from a previous such conference. This conference allows small-cap biotechnology companies to sit down with various pharmaceutical companies looking to partner with innovative drug manufacturers. 

First to understand what RX-3117 is and why a pharmaceutical company would want to form a partnership with this compound we have to understand its value. RX-3117 is a nucleoside analog compound that inhibits both DNA and RNA synthesis.This inhibition of Synthesis blocks the DNA and RNA molecules from combining to form new cancerous cells.

The key point for RX-3117 is not only that it would block both DNA and RNA from synthesizing but the drug compound only targets cancerous cells and leaves healthy cells alone. A lot of biotechnology companies are looking towards new treatments for cancer that avoid the toxicity of current therapies like chemotherapeutic drug compounds. Even though the partnership between Rexahn and Teva didn't work out it does not mean that Rexahn should stop exploring options to partner this drug compound with another big pharmaceutical company. A lot will need to be done to prove the power of the RX-3117 compound, but establishing a partnership will be significant step.

It is in the Rexahn's best interest to partner out the compound. Especially as a company that is in early clinical stage testing and has no other means to generate revenue. If proven successful in clinical trials RX-3117 could be applied to many types of solid tumors and could generate billion of dollars in revenue. RX-3117 is in great shape because the compound is currently in the middle of recruitment of the 4th dose group at (150mg) as the MTD -- meaning maximum tolerated dose patients can sustain without a lot of toxicity -- has yet to be established. This bodes well because the higher the MTD can go the greater the efficacy of the compound during the readout in the future. Rexahn expects the phase 1b trial for RX-3117 enrollment to be completed by Q4 2014 or Q1 2015. Rexahn is also expected to report the phase 2a trial for Archexin by Q4 2014, and final results for Supinoxin phase 1 in Q4 2014. We believe that Rexahn is a nice long term hold, and the entry share price point is attractive at $0.74 per share as well.