The company's principal activities are discovering and developing pharmaceutical products. the company has a near term drug candidate aslera (tm) for which u.s. food and drug administration - fda is reviewing our marketing application. aslera is a potential new treatment for systemic lupus erythematosus (sle or lupus), a disease for which current therapies are not adequate. the company owns over 40 issued u.s. patents. these patents cover our novel drug discovery technologies, aslera, the company's hev and hgv discoveries, immunomodulatory genes and other proprietary technologies. the company also owns international patents in numerous countries that cover similar claims to its u.s. patents.