Research & Pharmaceuticals: Dr. Paul Averback, CEO And President Of Nymox

Hello and welcome to Zing Talk, where Benzinga brings you the biggest names and brightest minds from Silicon Valley to New York City.

Today we're lucky to have with us Dr. Paul Averback, CEO and President of Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation.

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Benzinga: Could you start off by giving our listeners some background information on Nymox, and how you got started in the pharmaceutical field?

Paul Averback: Nymox has an exciting and promising new treatment, an experimental medicine for enlarged prostate, which we hope is going to make great changes for the unfortunate gentlemen who suffer from enlarged prostate.

Benzinga: Could you talk a little bit about that drug and how it's going to make advances in the medical field?

Paul Averback: There's a tremendous medical need among people that have enlarged prostrate. Men, when they get past the ages of 45-50 years old, at least half of them stat to get an enlarged prostate. By the time they get to 75-85 years old, about 90 percent of men have an enlarged prostate. It's a real nuisance: it disrupts their lives, it makes them have to go to the bathroom all the time, it makes them get up at night from their sleep, and it disrupts their spouses, it disrupts their whole life.

There isn't a good medicine available for this, and the men often end up having to undergo surgery. Nymox has developed an exciting new treatment that is very simple and every safe and seems to do a lot better.

Benzinga: As CEO and President of a company as well as a medical professional, how do you negotiate your dual role both as head of a business, and as a doctor and researcher?

Paul Averback: I think that being a long experienced medical doctor helps a lot. I can put myself in the shoes of the investigators we work with in clinical trials, and I also have very intimate feeling of the medical need for what our product hopefully will address, so I have found that these things go together very nicely.

Benzinga: You've developed some interesting products such as AlzheimAlert, NicAlert, and TobacAlert. Could you tell us a bit about these products, and what role they have played in Nymox's development? How does Nymox make itself a contender in the competitive world of pharmaceuticals- do products such as these play a significant role?

Paul Averback: In addition to the products you've mentioned, we've had products in the past that have been approved-- they are smaller products, and they have diagnostic purposes. Following the history of the company, we've developed expertise over the years. A lot of different projects lead to what we call cross-fertilization, and sometimes interesting things come out of different products. Processes such as these build up scientific expertise, and that always leads to good things.

Benzinga: On Nymox's website, one of your stated focuses is meeting the unmet needs of the aging population. Could you elaborate on that statement?

Paul Averback: The Baby Boomers are getting older, and a lot of issues are popping up for them. An example of this is the enlarged prostate problem. In the past, men didn't live as old as they do now. With living older comes more problems-- if you are a person who suffers from enlarged prostate, it really does disrupt your entire life. Current meds don't work too well, and have sexual side effects. Our new drug works a lot better, without the sexual side effects. We think it's going to be a game changer for people with this problem.

Benzinga: What is your opinion on the current state of health care in America? Do you think the recent health care bill will achieve what the government has promised?

Paul Averback: That's a complex question. I think that one has to avoid the partisan rancor, because there are two sides to every story, and you really have to get into the specific issues that are involved. I think a lot of the issues have been exaggerated by both sides.

Benzinga: Nymox has also been in the news recently for your rising stock value. As someone who doesn't engage in trading of your company's stock, you can give investors listening to our conversation an objective "insider" view of what you think the shares are really worth. Do you think there's room to go higher - and if so do you have an idea of how much?

Paul Averback: I think we're undervalued, though of course every CEO would say that. The comparable values of companies with promising potential blockbusters in late stage development are higher than ours, and I think the market is starting to recognize that we've done a partnership deal with prestigious European company, and the market realized to have a deal like that comes a lot of validation, and they can believer our data more. So, I think there is room for improvement in the price.

Benzinga: And what's interesting is that you've never sold a share of your company, nor have you gone to the public markets to raise capital. Could you shed some light on that?

Paul Averback: I personally own about half the shares of the company, and I've never sold a single share. I'm a strong believer in what we do: we've been on NASDAQ since 1996, and I haven't sold a single share. I think that speaks for itself.

The company does not like to do big dilutions, so we haven't gone to the public market for large amounts of money, and our shareholders appreciate that. We have good long-term investors, and they understand that we don't print paper, as the expression goes.

Benzinga: The discovery of Penicillin, the polio vaccine, stem cell research, etc., are examples of medical breakthroughs that represent game changers in the medical field. What do you foresee as the next advance in the field?

Paul Averback: I think this prostate drug is a good contender because the men who have this problem now, some people think it's over 100 million men, and that's a conservative estimate, these men really have no choice. The available medication is not effective. These men suffer from the loss of their sex life, or have to have surgery.

Our treatment may well affect them so that they don't lose their sex lives, and don't go to surgery. That's a lot of men around the world, and this drug has a lot of potential.

Benzinga: Do you know of any drugs in testing phases that we wouldn't hear about otherwise that you're especially optimistic about?

Paul Averback: Wouldn't want to mention any.

Benzinga: So, what's next for Nymox?

Paul Averback: We've got a very busy plate; people around here are very, very excited about what's going on. We have our pivotal trials to finish, and if they go well, then we apply to the FDA. This drug has also shown potential use in certain types of cancer at higher dosages, so there's a lot of exciting things going on.

Benzinga: We're giving you the loudspeaker now to break any news, draw attention to anything that's not getting sufficient attention in the media, or really just sound off on any issue you care about.

Paul Averback: The most important thing for patients and investors to know is that we have a phase three medicine for a tremendous unmet need, and it's a potential new one-of-a-kind medicine. We're doing everything in our power to move it forward as quickly as we can. It's a very exciting future.

Benzinga: Any ideas for one of those catchy names for it?

Paul Averback: The name will be given by our marketing partner, as soon as we have that we'll be delighted to tell you.

Benzinga: What has been your best and what has been your worst investment?

Paul Averback: Personally, I've only invested in Nymox, so that's my best one, and I hope to say that it's not my worst one.