In 2021, I blogged about the incredible Jim Corbett—a man whose life has long fascinated me, not because of his fearlessness, but because of the way he approached danger and complexity. Corbett wasn’t merely a hunter. He was a naturalist and a strategist. He was a reluctant killer of man-eaters, whose primary motivations were the protection of his neighbours, and the conservation of the natural world.

That blogpost, written almost 4 years ago, highlighted three traits I admired in Corbett: Patience, Knowledge, and Nerve. I’d like to revisit his his characteristics, as we get closer to the pivotal step of a New Drug Application for Achieve Life Sciences (ACHV).

Who Was Jim Corbett?

Born in 1875 in colonial India to a large Irish family, Edward James “Jim” Corbett grew up in the foothills of the Himalayas in what is now Uttarakhand. He was raised among the dense jungles and rugged mountains, where he became fluent in local dialects and deeply connected to the Kumaoni people. From a young age, he mastered bushcraft, learned animal behavior, spending much of hid time exploring the hills and valleys of his region.

What made Corbett legendary wasn’t just that he killed man-eating tigers and leopards that terrorized villages—it was how he did it. With humility. With restraint. And with a thorough understanding of his quarry. He often insisted that others—including armed military units—withdraw before he began his hunts. Not out of arrogance, but because he understood the most dangerous thing in the jungle wasn’t a tiger, it was other humans.

He successfully tracked and killed the Champawat Tiger, credited with over 436 human deaths. Later, he became a conservationist, using his fame to advocate for the preservation of Indian wildlife. Today, Jim Corbett National Park, India’s first national park, bears his name.

Corbett’s legacy is one of principles. He didn’t hunt for profit. He refused bounty payments. He hunted because people needed protecting—and he knew he was the one best suited to do it.

In that same spirit, let’s review some of Jim’s attributes – Patience, Knowledge and Nerve – And how they apply to being an investor in Achieve Life Sciences (Nasdaq: ACHV).

Patience: Waiting in the Trees

Corbett was deliberate. He didn’t crash through the jungle hoping to get lucky. He studied his quarry, sometimes for months at a time. He varied his tactics. He understood the risks of his actions. Often, he climbed into trees, watching over kills for days or even weeks. He waited for his moment.

Right now, investors in ACHV are in the tree. The company’s key drug candidate, cytisinicline, is nearing its pivotal moment. The NDA (New Drug Application) is expected to be filed as soon as Q2 2025, with potential FDA approval for smoking cessation in 2H 2026, and vaping shortly after.

Many market participants obsess over short-term catalysts. But real hunters wait. Real hunters focus on when to act, not just how fast.

Corbett understood patience and timing: You don’t set your watch by the jungle. You let the jungle set your watch.

Knowledge: Owning the Terrain

Corbett didn’t just understand the tiger. He understood the entire ecosystem. The hills, the winds, the trails. He particularly understood the local communities, within which he was raised. In some ways he was an outsider – A British citizen born and raised in India – But he deeply connected with the local population and wilderness.

Similarly, ACHV isn’t just another biotech. Achieve Life Sciences is a Seattle-based late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on nicotine addiction—an area that has seen remarkably little innovation over the past two decades. Their sole product, cytisinicline, is a naturally derived alkaloid from the Laburnum tree that binds to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain. It works by reducing the rewarding effects of nicotine and easing withdrawal symptoms.

Cytisinicline has been used in Eastern Europe under the name Tabex for more than 50 years, but has never been approved in the U.S. ACHV aims to change that. Its Phase 3 U.S. trials (ORCA-2 and ORCA-3) showed impressive results: 2-3x higher quit rates than placebo, significantly more effective and with far fewer side effects than Chantix. The side-effect profile is a major differentiator—nausea and neuropsychiatric concerns plagued Pfizer’s now-withdrawn Chantix.

ACHV’s leadership isn’t just blindly charging toward approval. They’ve carefully navigated regulatory demands (including long-term safety data), built a targeted commercialization strategy, and are positioning the product for best-in-class status for smoking cessation—and first-in-class for vaping cessation, a growing and unaddressed crisis with 11 million U.S. adult users.

Like Corbett, they know the terrain. And are experts at what they do.

Nerve: Following the Blood Trail

Few things demand more nerve than stalking a tiger through a jungle after it has killed a child. Corbett would follow blood trails alone, deep into dangerous terrain, knowing full well he could become the next victim.

Buying a small-cap biotech with no revenue, regulatory hurdles ahead, and a market that misunderstands the story? That takes nerve too. Especially when the charts don’t look good and the sentiment is cold.

But here’s the truth: you don’t get Corbett-level results without Corbett-level conviction.

As of Dec 2024, ACHV had ~$34M in cash, no debt, and another ~$64M in potential warrant funding upon NDA acceptance. If approval is secured, and cytisinicline begins to scale, the company could scale very quickly, or be acquired. The addressable market—between smoking, vaping, and possibly COPD-linked indications—is massive. The moat (including a large patent portfolio, botanical supply exclusivity and significant manufacturing barriers) is real.

Most won’t go there. That’s fine. Corbett didn’t need an army. He needed his rifle, his wits, and the courage to go alone.

Final Shot

Corbett waited. He studied. He absorbed every signal until the moment was right. And when it came, he acted with precision.

That’s what ACHV demands. A precise, patient, calculated investor who sees the full picture. It’s a hunt. And like all good hunts, the reward is not just in the outcome—it’s in being the one who saw the trail before others.