Some investors spend a lifetime scouring the stock market for a diamond in the rough with explosive potential and never find it.

But such an opportunity may exist today in the biotechnology market.

The dream investment is one that has yet to be discovered by the masses and institutional investors, boasts massive upside potential and is focused on minimizing traditional industry risk – the company is Resverlogix.

Resverlogix, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol RVX, has yet to garner the attention of other name Alberta biotech companies, but its portfolio of technologies has been drawing rave reviews and tremendous interest from pharmaceutical companies.

This Calgary-based drug discovery and development company is already being wooed by pharmaceutical companies for licensing agreements, which makes it an extraordinary opportunity.

Lab assistants Megan Patrick, left, and Josee Dufresne at the Resverlogix lab in Calgary.

Here are some of the highlights that set Resverlogix apart from most other biotech companies:

* Resverlogix is positioned within the two biggest biotech drug markets – cholesterol and cancer – and its cholesterol technology is focused on the hot, rapidly growing market of that sector known as Reverse Cholesterol Transport.

* Resverlogix has a business model that is designed to minimize shareholder risk. It will not become a fully integrated bio-pharmaceutical company, thus eliminating the expensive upfront development costs that have proven detrimental to other startup companies. Resverlogix plans to decrease risk by adopting a conservative licensing strategy of developing technologies to the beginning of human phase trials, at which point licensing partners will be pursued.

* Resverlogix boasts respected and proven leadership. The company was co-founded by chief executive officer Donald McCaffrey, the president of the BioFuture Conference; and Dr. Norman Wong, from the University of Calgary. The company recently announced the appointment of a new chairman in former University of Calgary president Dr. William Cochrane, lauded by McCaffrey for “unsurpassed knowledge of the Canadian biotechnology industry.”

* Resverlogix technologies have been embraced by a team of brilliant medical authorities in endocrinology, oncology and cardiovascular diseases. The company’s scientific advisory board reads like a who’s who of medical sciences, led by University of Calgary professor Dr. Wong, one of the inventors of the patent-pending technologies of the company; Dr. Patrick Lee, whose discoveries of the reovirus technology for cancer therapeutics is the basis of successful research in oncology; Dr. Lawrence Chan of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine, recipient of a MERIT Award from the National Institute of Health; Dr. Jacques Genest Jr., director of cardiology at McGill University; Dr. Victor Ling, vice-president of research at the B.C. Cancer Agency; and Dr. J. Hans van de Sande, vice-dean of medicine at the University of Calgary.

The Resverlogix team includes CFO Hiran Perera, front, and, from left, Dr. William Cochrane, chairman of the board, Dr. Patrick Lee, scientific adviser, Dr. Norman Wong, co-founder, and Donald McCaffrey, president and CEO.

Few biotechnology companies are backed by a team of experts comparable to that at Resverlogix.

The company’s cholesterol technology – being further developed at the Alastair Ross Technology Centre in Calgary – involves the management of cholesterol through the expression of ‘Apo A1,’ an important factor in Reverse Cholesterol Transport.

“Analysts for another large U.S. biotech company have described Apo A1 assay technology as the Holy Grail of the cholesterol market,” explains McCaffrey. "We’re currently working on signing our first licensing partner. There is huge licensing potential here as we can do multiple licensing of our cholesterol technologies.”

McCaffrey estimates the cost of developing each of the company’s two technologies through to pre-clinical trials at $3 million.

“Our potential licensing fees, very conservatively, could be $15 million US,” says McCaffrey. “In addition, we still would be able to collect milestone payments and royalties.

“Most biotech companies try to capture a market from the research and development stage to the end of human clinical trials. By licensing out our technology at an early stage, a new popular trend of biotechnology companies, we eliminate all the risk in the last five to eight years of development.

“It’s also very palatable to investors that we’re not just in your average drug markets. We’re in the top two markets. We believe the shares of this company are grossly undervalued for a company that has a cancer technology that is comparable to other leading Canadian technologies, and also has a significant cholesterol technology that is in the path of where the cardiovascular disease market is moving.”

McCaffrey is confident that Resverlogix will graduate to the TSX senior stock exchange next year, bolstering its profile and exposure.

Resverlogix is currently completing a private placement round and a prospectus offering will also take place prior to the year’s end.

Investors interested in a rare, early stage investment opportunity are urged to access additional investor information at www.resverlogix.com, or e-mail Resverlogix at don@resverlogix.com or phone 403-254-9252.