In its quest to develop new cancer therapies to improve patients' lives, Evaxion Biotech the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for the development of targeted immunotherapy development, including precision cancer vaccines and vaccines targeting infectious diseases.
The company's technology is based on AI-Immunology – Evaxion's proprietary AI platform for target discovery and development. Thanks to this platform, Evaxion has already discovered several therapeutic targets, two of which are cancer vaccine candidates in clinical development, EVX-01 and EVX-02.
The outward face of Evaxion's new business strategy
Evaxion's AI platforms have matured significantly over the past 15 years. To better leverage the strong foundation in AI technology and accelerate Evaxion's development, the company's board of directors took Christian Kanstrup as new CEO in September. His appointment is specifically aimed at accelerating Evaxion's strategic development and the execution of business opportunities.
We have already gotten a glimpse of Evaxion's new business strategy. Yesterday, the company released its Q3 results, and with the report came a clear picture of a refined strategy focused on value creation for the company. According to Kanstrup, the core of the new strategy lies in the AI immunology platform, which has the potential to generate new targets every 24 hours and is easy to adapt to a partner's needs. He also mentions that value creation is based on three main pillars: targets, pipeline and responders.
An example of the new strategic plan came in September when Evaxion established two major partnerships around the AI-Immunology platform, which specifically aims to develop vaccines against infectious diseases. Read more about this here.
Directed new share issue raises USD 5,3 million
With the new business vision comes a new financing strategy. In the Q3 report, Evaxion announced a Private Placement financing of USD 5,3 million with participation from both existing and new shareholders. The largest new shareholder is MSD Global Health Innovation Fund (MSD GHI), Merck & Co.'s venture capital company, which accounts for approximately 25 percent of the total issue amount. All members of Evaxion's management and board of directors are also participating in the directed new share issue.
Insights from Evaxion's CEO
BioStock contacted Evaxion's CEO to better understand his vision for Evaxion, including the company's financing strategy.
Christian, you have been CEO at Evaxion for three months. How would you summarize this transitory phase for you and for the company?
- It has been a truly exciting time, I am very impressed by the people, our platform and the opportunities we have ahead. Its also been busy as we have been working on refining our strategy, getting the private placement done as well as advancing our business development discussions at the same time. However, when you feel and see all things aligning it is worth every effort.
With the unveiling of the refined business strategy, you talk about value realization via targets, pipeline and responders. Could you expand on that and give us some examples?
- Yes, I would be pleased to give you some insights here and I am happy to say we have already seen significant process within each of these three areas: Two partnerships announced within Targets and encouraging initial EVX-01 Phase 2 data showcase significant progress in our Pipeline. Within Responders, we have obtained proof-of-principle for our checkpoint inhibitor responder model.
Regarding the Private Placement, how significant is it to have MSD Global Health Innovation Fund as a major shareholder?
– Having a new long-term cornerstone investor like MSD GHI onboard is of course of significant value to us and a major milestone in the history of Evaxion. MSD is a leader in oncology and infectious diseases and having MSD GHI on board opens a world of new opportunities. We are looking very much forward to be working with the experienced team of MSD GHI.
What does this Private Placement mean for Evaxion's long-term financing strategy?
It is a key part in our long-term financing strategy. As you know it is our ambition to be able to fund our 2024 cash burn (without financing activities) with business development income but as any business development income is uncertain, we need to create the needed cash flexibility. This Private Placement is an important part of creating such flexibility.
Finally, what can we expect from Evaxion in 2024?
- 2024 will be the first year in the Evaxion history where we generate business development income equal to our cash burn, which is a significant milestone. Its also the first time we have a significant corporate investor like MSD GHI on the cap table. Furthermore, we have a very exciting set of milestones coming up as you see below.
- EVX-B1 – Conclusion of final MTA study with a potential partner, Q1, 2024
- AI-Immunology™ – Launch of EDEN™ model 5.0, mid-2024
- EVX-B2 mRNA – Preclinical proof-of-principle obtained, Q3-2024
- EVX-01 – Phase 2 one-year readout, Q3, 2024
- EVX-B3 – Conclusion of target discovery and validation work in collaboration with leading pharma, H2, 2024
- Precision ERV cancer vaccines – Preclinical proof-of-concept obtained, H2, 2024