Transcript
Speaker: Hello, and welcome to another Edison Executive Interview. I'm joined today by Yepe Obleson, Chief Executive Officer, and Mads Beauregard, Chief Business Officer at Cynact Pharma.
Speaker: Fresh from the Bio International Convention in San Diego, we'll be discussing their key takeaways from the conference, the industry's reaction to resume laban, and what it means for Cynact's partnering strategy.
Speaker: Welcome, both. Thank you. So I'll start with you, Jeppe. um Synact has attended Bio International Convention for several years now.
Speaker: What made this year's conference different and what do you make of the current sentiment and partnering environment across the biotech industry? Well, basically, we had the best bio for forever, I would say. ah There is an industry that is really moving right now.
Speaker: Basically what happens is that the big pharmacy, a lot of their products coming off patent over the next four or five years. So there is definitely a need for new products, and especially in RA, you see a lot of products going that way.
Speaker: ah If you look at the biotech side, then over the last four five years, you have seen that the number of projects coming into clinical development has gone down.
Speaker: So that means that there is a kind of supply and demand that works our way. At the same time, we are coming with fresh Phase 2b data.
Speaker: and We're very proud of those data. We feel very comfortable. that the they are good enough to do a deal. And therefore, it was for sure a very interesting conference with lots of meetings, a lot of interactions and very qualified partners and very qualified discussions at a very high level.
Speaker: Excellent. And turning over to you, Mads, now, Yepe mentioned that you had a number of productive meetings at BIO. What were the different kinds of pharma and biotech companies you were speaking with and did the level of engagement meet your expectations? I know you mentioned that this was the best bio ever, but just would love to learn your thoughts on this.
Speaker: Well, thanks. Thanks for the question. um we We spent a lot of time in building kind of the the ah the schedule for for the meeting in anticipation of the data reading out before the ah the meeting. and And we have seen a very good reception on on acceptance of building our schedules. So we basically had a full program, a full calendar with both um global pharmaceutical companies, yeah the the one the players are very active in in in the space.
Speaker: We have several meetings lined up with with regional players, both from European point of view and and Asian, meaning Japan, South Korea, China, point of view, yeah Latin American, and obviously also the US focused companies.
Speaker: The level of engagement in was stellar. um To Jeb's point, you can definitely tell something is going on. People are getting ready to ah to to act um With our data in hand, we definitely had a good card to to play and in terms of getting on the agenda and have very, very meaningful and conversations.
Speaker: Great. and And if you look at the advanced study data, now there were several positive signals. now Even though it missed the primary endpoint, the ACI 20 and biomarker data was quite encouraging.
Speaker: How were these results received by the pharmaceutical companies you met with and what aspects of the data set resonated most strongly with these companies? so So clearly it was the um the totality of the program in in telling what is needed to have a successful phase-free program.
Speaker: to meet regulatory demands and to meet the demands of uptake, meaning what what physicians would would need and what payers would need. And in that sense, it really is the the ACR response, which hit where we wanted it and fits with novel mechanisms, as seen with the TNF blockers and GAC inhibitors and so forth.
Speaker: um It is the reduction in in systemic inflammation markers, which is very, importantly and kind of validates the ah the mechanism. And then it's the totality of reaching very good results on those markers without suppressing the immune system.
Speaker: I think that element was the key trigger for all our discussions across the board of saying how this is a mechanism that does something different and hits the markers that will work in in rheumatoid arthritis.
Speaker: um and and doing that without the side effects that are usually associated with therapies in this area that is the key excellent and turning back to you lepe from a commercial perspective uh were the discussions mainly centered on rheumatoid arthritis or did companies also recognize rhizomalocon's broader potential across inflammatory diseases for sure an interesting angle and um Basically a lot of focus is on r RA, but with these companies you move quite quickly into other discussions about all ah other programs and other opportunities. The good thing about especially the bigger companies is that they have the strengths, they have the money and the resources to drive ah our our project into into a lot of other indications.
Speaker: So in all these discussions, we are normally discussing three, four, five other programs that could be could be relevant. ah What is the real key factor here is that we need to make sure that in ah in a potential agreement, we are we are paid ah for those indications as well.
Speaker: So that is, of course, a lot on on on the agenda as well. So no, for sure, ah many other opportunities varying a little bit from company to company, but I think we are reasonable dressed for taking the discussion.
Speaker: And as you know, we have some data on other indications as well. We also have some animal day animal data to support that as well. So we think we're in a reasonable good situation to to discuss those with potential partners.
Speaker: And we look forward to hearing more about that. um So ye the next major milestone for Resimiligon is the FDA and the EMA end of phase two meetings. How important were these to your discussions and are they viewed as the next key value in inflection points for CENACT?
Speaker: It's an important point and we have already started a preparation for taking those discussions. The good thing about it is that we are we are very convinced, but our partners in discussion were also quite convinced that we are phase three ready.
Speaker: And that's of course ah an important factor for us. um And therefore, all attention is to to get those meetings established and come out with the right result.
Speaker: But we are quite confident and it was nice to see that the partners share our confidence. So I'll probably direct the next one to you, Mads. How have your discussions at BIO influenced your thinking in terms of the timing or the structure of a potential partnering deal? And what would be an ideal partnership for you?
Speaker: Okay, that that's a little little hard to answer straightforward because um so there there is no deal on you know on before the ink is dry, so to speak. right so So I have to be very careful what the what how to relate to that. um It's very clear the discussions we've had on buyer you know that sets a direction that is is is based on on those structured discussions. From a timing point of view, we definitely want to make sure that that partners are joining us towards the discussion with authorities to design face-free. That's a priority of of of ours. So from a timing point of view, the next 6-12 months, that's really going to focus in on
Speaker: getting the right partners on board, and making sure that we that we join forces in in how to address the authorities and and and then take it from there. But again, is so hard to predict the timing of these these discussions. So so i'm I'm not going to do that at all. um the The perfect opportunity here um you know This caters to both global ah deals that you know that that can can be done in ah in in parallel.
Speaker: We are also open up for discussion for more regional-based deals, meaning that you can do one area in the world to start with and then find another partner for another area of the world and will be the kind kind of coordinating partner in that. So we're open for a lot of various types of of of deals.
Speaker: um I don't think I should, we should probably not go into much more detail at this point in time and and really leave it to the discussions that are ongoing right now. Excellent. and And I'll wrap this up with Yepe. Following the momentum you've seen at Bio, what are the next steps for Synact? And I have to ask you this again, when might investors expect an update on the part-leding discussions?
Speaker: We are moving we're moving now the the different companies into various levels of discussions, ah many of them under CDA already.
Speaker: And then we're going into different processes and due diligence. Quite a few of the companies, they know us from the past, so they can go quite quickly. That's of course good.
Speaker: We would love to update the market as as soon as we have something that is of substance. But there's a little bit of a balance. you know We also need to make sure that we don't give out too much information because potential partners would of course look at Where are they?
Speaker: Where are we? and How is the process going forward? So it's a little bit of a balance. So I hope that during the during the autumn we can give a bit of an update and show that we are progressing.
Speaker: But we also need to make sure that we keep our statistical strengths ah in in those discussions and not reveal too much of where we are. Thank you both for talking to us today and we look forward to hearing more on the progress with Resume Lagon. For our viewers interested to learn more about Cynact, please refer to EdisonGroup.com for our ongoing coverage of the company.
Speaker: Thank you again. Thank you. Take care. Thank you very much.
