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2. Bull, Bear & Beyond – IRLAB Therapeutics: executive interview
6 Plays1 year ago
"IRLAB Therapeutics (OMX: IRLAB-A) is a Sweden-based biopharma company focused on the development of novel treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, with a particular focus on Parkinson’s disease (PD). The company has a highly active pipeline, with assets spanning all stages of clinical development, from preclinical programmes through to its lead asset, mesdopetam, which is Phase III-ready.
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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’
Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit.
About Edison:
Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.
Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/
Original interview published on 23/09/2024 and reposted as a podcast"
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Yeah.
Introduction to Christina and UrLab
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello, I'm Sue Romanoff and today we're speaking with the recently appointed CEO of UrLab, which is a Swedish biotech with late stage and preclinical assets in Parkinson's disease.
00:00:19
Speaker
Welcome, Christina. Thank you so much. so So you have an amazing pharma background. it'd be really great if you could share a little bit of that with us and then also let us know what drew you to UrLab.
Christina's Experience in Drug Development
00:00:34
Speaker
So yes, of course. So I've been working with drug development more than 30 years and I've been both working for the big pharma companies and for smaller bio pharma companies as well.
00:00:45
Speaker
um And I have been part of of drug development working pre-clinically, but also in clinical phases and being responsible for marketed product as well. So I can have quite a broad background and have plenty of yeah experience from regulatory authorities, interactions, and also ah business development and and licensing deals sitting on the both sides of table, so to say.
Unmet Medical Needs in Neuroscience
00:01:12
Speaker
so ah But I've spent a number of years working working in the neuroscience field, primarily working with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.
00:01:21
Speaker
So um during this this year, I've had got a very good understanding of the huge unmet medical need in this area. However, it's also very complex and challenging to develop um great drugs in this field. And here comes iLab in. This is what I've seen, that is an amazing company really. First of all, with the platform that the company has, which has generated five candidates in in this ah world leading portfolio, I would say, in Parkinson's disease.
00:01:56
Speaker
And then I think the team behind the company is really fantastic.
UrLab's Team and Legacy
00:02:04
Speaker
It's a talented and a dedicated team and that has been working together for a very long time. And they were really, really on board already at the time with Arvid Karlsson in his lab. Arvid Karlsson who got the Nobel Prize many years ago.
00:02:18
Speaker
So now I'm really looking forward, heading up IOLAB and lead the company through this exciting journey. um where we are going now to, to from here now, move in and and go into and market these products. And we will do that through um ah partnering activities.
00:02:38
Speaker
And then eventually we will get this on the market. So that's going to be great, both for for patients, with people with suffering from Parkinson's disease, but it will also increase the value for the company and the shareholders.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, no, I totally agree. it's ah It's a very exciting space and it's very complex. I'm i'm really excited on the work that you're doing. ah So you you will also have a um so you have a strong discovery platform and it's really endorsed by the progression of your three leading assets that are in clinic. Could you could you um highlight what the key differentiators are from your peers?
AI and Machine Learning in Drug Development
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, I would say that that this um unique platform is really the differentiator here because with the knowledge, all the data generated for more than 1000 candidates and and molecules that put in this in this database, and with machine learning and AI-based analysis, um the the candidates are selected. and Our own calculations, when we have looked into peers there, how they have been doing, we can see that we have a probability with more than three times better success rate, bringing our candidates from candidate drag into later stage of clinical programs.
00:04:05
Speaker
and And maybe you can kind of highlight your three assets as well.
Leading Drug Candidates at UrLab
00:04:09
Speaker
ah You have Mesopotam, Pirpamet, and then IRL 757.
00:04:14
Speaker
Yes, if we start with mestopetan, which is a candidate that is developed for levodopa dyskinesia. This is something that many ah individuals with Parkinson's disease suffer from when they have been treated for for some time with levodopa. And this candidate is phase three ready now.
00:04:37
Speaker
um So we are currently preparing to go in in in in clinical phase three. d ah We are are having regulatory interactions and then we are ah working to find a partner to to do the phase three program here.
00:04:54
Speaker
um So then we have the second candidate, which is Peripimat. And that candidate is developed for, ah for um I would say, falls and for instability. This is something that... um probably 45% of all individuals with Parkinson's disease, they they suffer from this. um So it's a lot of people um and it's a very big market, of course. So it's important for us to take this further. And and this is really um ah a new indication. Nothing is ah available or in in development for for this specific indication. So that's very important.
00:05:37
Speaker
um And here we have an ongoing study in phase two right now and that we're looking forward to get results from. And then the third clinical candidate, it's 757. And that's a candidate to be developed for apathy. And that could be both in Parkinson's and in Alzheimer's disease.
00:06:00
Speaker
This candidate has just entered phase one in a phase one first in human
Collaborations and Funding
00:06:08
Speaker
study. And we are really proud because this first study has been financed by Michael J. Fox Foundation.
00:06:16
Speaker
um And then in addition to this, we have a recently a collaboration that we have started with MSRD Otsuka, a Japanese company, and they are going to ah finance and fund all the development up to ah proof of principle.
00:06:34
Speaker
um So it's quite amazing that already for this candidate that we have funding all the way through up to proof of concept. Yeah, and and besides your clinical stage assets, you have a very active preclinical oh um platform,
Preclinical Developments and Future Prospects
00:06:51
Speaker
right? I mean, in addition to the the ISP discovery platform.
00:06:55
Speaker
could could you ah Could you speak to these? Yes, but what we have here is really, and I should have said that already from the beginning, all these candidates are actually unique in the way that they are first in class. They are new um sort of new mechanism. um So it's it's really good so and unique.
00:07:18
Speaker
And the first preclinical candidate here that we are talking about is 940. two And the target indication here is um targeting,
00:07:29
Speaker
no ah I would say, cognitive flat function in all different types of neurological disorders, which is quite broad. ah So, and we know that about 12% of all ah individuals above 65% experience this type of cognitive dysfunction.
00:07:50
Speaker
So it's going to be a very big market here too. And then we have 1117, the last but not least one, because this we think has a huge opportunity here to be a new generation of Parkinson treatments.
00:08:07
Speaker
And like Livudupa, which is the golden stutter right now, this has the same kind of mechanism. D1, D2 receptor agonist, but without any name side effects.
00:08:21
Speaker
um And side effects is very, very common and a very common complication with levodopa. So we believe that as you in front of us, that we can develop this one to be really the the the basic treatment for most of the people, individuals diagnosed with Parkinson in the future.
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's a lot.
Milestones and Future Directions
00:08:44
Speaker
So maybe maybe um for investors, it will be helpful to know what what the next milestones and catalyst will be for the next 12 to 18 months.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yes, george it's it's very exciting because we do have a number of upcoming key milestones and value adding um activities now, both for for for the company and for its shareholders. So if we start with Mestopiton, we are currently having ongoing interactions with the regulatory authorities in Europe.
00:09:18
Speaker
Earlier this year, we had a very good and successful meeting with the FDA yeah about the phase three program. And we do this similar way here with ah Europe. So we can have a studies that will be um that will really be, ah I would say, successful um and meet the all the requirements in both regions, in the US and in Europe.
00:09:43
Speaker
And then for peripimat, we have ah we in September now, we are doing a going to complete um the recruitment. um And when we have all the patients in the trial, then we can expect to get ah results from this phase 2b study sometime first half of 2025.
00:10:05
Speaker
which is very exciting. So hopefully then we will have two candidates ready to start phase three. And then we have 757. We have the ongoing first in human, the clinical study. um And we are planning to have the study completed by end of the year and then to start a proof of principle study next year.
00:10:29
Speaker
um And then for the two preclinical assets, we are pairing both of them to go into first in human study, first in man clinical studies. um the who ah or The plan is to go there um first half of 2025.
00:10:45
Speaker
So you can see it's it's a lot of things happening in iLab right now and it's really exciting time. Yeah, it's it's a really exciting time. So i appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.
00:10:57
Speaker
Thank you all for joining us here today. If you'd like to learn more about UrLab, please refer to edisongroup.com. Thank you.