Veteran BusinessWeek investment columnist, Gene Marcial, writes today that Access Pharmaceuticals, maker of an FDA-approved treatment for Oral Mucositis, could be an attractive takeover target.

"As major pharmaceuticals seek companies with a pipeline of promising drugs to augment their own depleting inventories, some pros bet that one target will be Access Pharmaceuticals (ACCP), now at 2.85 a share," Marcial writes in his Inside Wall Street column.

The columnist cites a securities analyst with Griffin Securities, Keith Markey, as estimating that Access Pharma's MuGard treatment for oral mucositis is by itself worth more than the total current market value of Access.  MuGard is already on sale in Europe and Access plans to begin manufacturing the treatment before the end of the year in the United States.  The FDA approved MuGard in 2007.

Two other cancer drugs in development by Access, Prolindac and Thiarabine, make the company even more attractive, Marcial notes.