BioInvents The focus is on identifying and developing novel, first-in-class immunomodulatory antibodies for the treatment of cancer. These drug candidates have completely new and unique mechanisms of action with the ability to strengthen, stimulate or activate the body's immune system to fight cancer. To date, the company has developed several drug candidates that are currently undergoing clinical development both as monotherapy and in combination with standard treatments. The company's lead products, BI-1206 and BI-1808, are being tested in Phase I/IIa studies for the treatment of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and solid tumors, and three other products are being tested in early clinical studies. For example, BT-001, BI-1607 and BI-1910 are being developed and are potential treatments for various types of cancer.
Six projects in own clinical development and six out-licensed projects in clinical phase
The company has strong partnerships with players in both the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, which contributes to rapid and robust clinical development. Over the years, the company has had partnerships with international players such as Pfizer, Bayer, Merck, Daiichi Sankyo and Mitsubishi Tanabe PharmaCurrently, BioInvent has collaborations with pharmaceutical companies such as MSD, Exelixis, ALMOST and Transgene. for the clinical programs that are run in-house. In addition, an external portfolio of six clinical programs is run by licensees.
The latest agreement was signed in July 2022 with the American company ExelixisBioInvent received an upfront payment of USD 25 million in exchange for the rights to select targets identified with BioInvent's proprietary FIRST. platform and n-CoDeRlibrary. In September 2023, BioInvent reached a milestone in the research collaboration with Exelixis, resulting in a payment of USD 1 million to BioInvent. Read more here.
Comments from the CEO
To learn more about the progress in 2023, and to gain insight into his expectations for next year, BioStock contacted the company's CEO. Martin Welschof.
Martin, what were the most important goals reached by BioInvent this year?
– This year we made unprecedented progress with one of our lead candidates based on our exciting TNFR2 proprietary platform. Our first-in-class anti-TNFR2 antibody BI-1808 showed single agent efficacy in Phase I and moved into Phase II clinical development. Demonstrating single agent activity was a huge milestone for a drug candidate with a novel mechanism of action that was fully discovered and developed by BioInvent. BI-1910, our second anti-TNFR2 agent that works through a different mechanism of action entered Phase 1 studies. In addition, we presented positive data for our second anti-FcγRIIB antibody, BI-1607.
BioInvent is currently valued below cash. What, according to you, does this imply regarding the valuation of the company's stock?
- Growth and investment in the entire sector has been hampered by the geopolitical and financial uncertainties. BioInvent as all other similar companies is experiencing this market paradox. Unfortunately, market valuation discrepancies are common due to the current investment climate. A recovery in the global economy is likely to trigger a return to spending growth in the healthcare sector. Clearly, the high unmet medical need and the huge potential are still there, and we are confident that savvy investors will recognize the huge value proposition.
Six clinical projects are currently outlicensed and run by other companies. What would you say regarding the long-term financial potential of these projects?
- These partnerships are designed to provide value once the product reaches the market when BioInvent will get a percentage of the sales from each product. Additionally, the collaborations give BioInvent milestone payments throughout the ongoing clinical development program.
Finally, what value triggers do you envision BioInvent will have communicated this time next year, and how could they contribute to the company's overall value?
– By year end we hope to have more mature clinical data on both our lead programs, BI-1206 and BI-1808. This could serve as a basis for some exciting outlicensing opportunities. We also expect a broad set of earlier clinical data since we now have five candidates in six ongoing trials.