Bio-Path Inc., a privately held biotechnology company based in Houston, has acquired publicly traded Ogden Golf Co. Corp. through a reverse merger.

The merger was completed Feb. 14, and the newly formed company's common stock now is quoted on the Pink Sheets under the symbol "BPTH."

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center will be a significant shareholder in the company as well as serve as a development partner, Bio-Path said.

The company expects to contract services from the cancer center, including sponsored research and preclinical development through its pharmaceutical development center. Three M.D. Anderson oncologists, Gabriel Lopez-Berestein, Anil Sood and Ana Tari, are founders, shareholders and members of the company's scientific advisory board. Peter Nielsen is the president, CEO, and chairman of the board of directors of the newly reorganized company, Bio-Path Holdings Inc.

Being a public company will "speed our progress on the business development end, including access to public capital markets," he said in a news release.

Founded in May 2007 as a development stage company, Bio-Path has raised about $3.7 million in operating capital through three private financing rounds, according to a Feb. 12 quarterly report filed by Ogden Golf. The Ogden, Utah-based golf retailer terminated its custom golf club-making business due to insufficient revenues and changed its business direction, the 10-QSB filing said.

Bio-Path is working with its partner, M.D. Anderson, to develop three licensed drug delivery compounds, Douglas Morris, vice president of corporate development, told BioWorld Today.

The company's portfolio consists of liposomal siRNA (gene-silencing) and antisense drug products, he said.

The company is seeking to develop a patented, liposomal drug delivery system with two clinical cancer drug candidates ready for the clinic and a third siRNA cancer drug undergoing final preclinical development, the company said.

Through intravenous transfusion, the drug delivery technology provides systemic distribution of nucleic acid drugs throughout the human body, Bio-Path said.

The delivery technology applies to both double stranded (siRNA) and single stranded (antisense) nucleic acid drugs. The technology has the potential for use in cancer and other diseases with well-characterized targets, the company said.

Nielsen said the company's business model focuses on developing clinical drug candidates through Phase IIa clinical trials, when clinical proof of concept in humans can be established.

At that point, he said the company expects to be able to license final clinical development and commercialization with a pharmaceutical partner.