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135. Bull, Bear & Beyond – SynAct Pharma executive interview
5 Plays2 months ago
In this interview, we speak with Jeppe Øvlesen, CEO, and Dr Thomas Jonassen, CSO of SynAct Pharma to discuss the company’s lead asset resomelagon, its unique mechanism of action and its broad applicability across inflammatory indications. Jeppe and Thomas also outline the ongoing Phase IIb trial, ADVANCE, evaluating resomelagon as a first-line treatment in rheumatoid arthritis in combination with the standard of care treatment methotrexate and SynAct’s plans for the asset. Jeppe and Thomas discuss the company’s operating performance and strong cash runway, providing headroom well past near-term catalysts, most importantly the ADVANCE trial top-line results, which are expected by end-Q126.
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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 27/10/2025 and reposted as a podcast
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Transcript
Introduction of Synact Pharma Leadership
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another executive interview at Edison. I'm Jyoti Prakash, healthcare care analyst at the Edison Group. We are joined today by Yipa Avlessan and Dr. Thomas Yunassan, CEO and CSO of Synact Pharma, a clinical stage biotech developing first-in-class therapies for inflammation across both chronic and acute settings.
00:00:30
Speaker
Thank you both for joining us today. Thank you.
Founding History and Experience
00:00:36
Speaker
Yepo, Thomas, you both have extensive experience in life sciences.
00:00:41
Speaker
For those less familiar, would you briefly introduce yourself and tell us what drew you to Synact? Yeah, Jepke Ultlund is my name and I'm the CEO of the company. and We actually started out way back in 2000, where we did our first biotech company together.
00:01:00
Speaker
The company was called Action Pharma and we managed to sell the lead asset to AppV back in 2013.
00:01:11
Speaker
And then we got the idea basically the day after to do another company and that became Sundar Pharma. Sunaat basically hit it off ah where we did a lot of the preclinical work and then we managed to do a public listing of the company on a smaller stock exchange in Sweden in 2016 and then had a relatively good journey on the stock mind being a public listing company.
00:01:39
Speaker
Did an uplist to NASDAQ main market in 2022.
00:01:45
Speaker
And yes, a nice journey. So we have been together for more than 25 years, knowing each other quite well.
Novel Compound: Rezo Milligon
00:01:54
Speaker
Yeah, and my name is Thomas Jonas. I'm a medical doctor, educated from the University of Copenhagen. I'm also an associate professor in cardiovascular yeah pharmacology at the University of Copenhagen and visiting professor in Immune Pharmacology at William Harden Research Institute in London, the Institute under next to Barts, the London School Medicine.
00:02:17
Speaker
and the the The Ashen Pharma was a company that we set up together with some of my other scientific colleagues and with some success to become common all way from the design of the molecule to based two studies where after we sold it to Adli. And you could say that Synac Pharma is pretty much the a similar way of addressing the development of of compounds that we are very focused on a compound called RAS-A-Mellagon or also in the literature called AP 1189 that we have taken all the way from design of the molecule and now we are in clinical phase 2.
00:03:00
Speaker
And I'm in CSO and and and have been running the development programs in these five companies and additional other companies that we have set up during the years.
Rezo Milligon and Rheumatoid Arthritis
00:03:12
Speaker
Your lead candidate, Rezo Milligon, is targeting inflammation with a unique mechanism mechanism of action. Can you tell us a bit more about this compound and how does it work?
00:03:25
Speaker
Resumelodal is a novel way of addressing inflammatory diseases by treating the compound, compound because the compound compared to most other compounds you've addressed to inflammatory diseases or autoimmune diseases, ah I think you you could say that all compounds today that are used in the clinic, there is a risk to induce immunosuppression simply by reducing the inflammatory system to a level where there is is increased risk of of infections.
00:03:50
Speaker
The way we address this is, you could call, a novel way of doing it, a new approach for inflammatory diseases that we call resolution therapy. And that means that we, instead of suppressing the immune system or trying to block specific pathway, we'd rather aim to have a new set point in the inflammatory response and thereby reduce the risk for this for the for them immune suppression and thereby infections, but at the same time, it benefits from the from the body's ability to handle inflammation.
00:04:24
Speaker
Rizomelagon is targeting rheumatoid arthritis as a lead program and is currently being evaluated in a phase two B study, ADVANCE. Where's the unmet need in this space and how is ADVANCE designed to address this?
00:04:39
Speaker
I think the answer to that is that like I always touch it here in in in the previous answer. that that most compounds today reduce the inflammatory system to a level where there is associated with side effect profile, with an unwanted side effect profile. So our compound from mode of action where it modulates an underlying active inflammation, especially in early stage of inflammations or in exacerbations of existing inflammation means that we in rheumatoid crisis can go in as first line, meaning that we very early in the disease collective development can come in with a compound that's well tolerated and thereby make a difference with patients, ah reducing the need for glucose quits, which are a major problem in daily clinic as they are served with a lot of side effects. And also potentially you could say
00:05:32
Speaker
delay the need for the more advanced and expensive single-line treatments. that well That's a goal that, or the track we are following right now in the ongoing advanced study, which is phase two-based study. And the other part of it is that you could say that every time you have exacerbation in your existing disease,
00:05:51
Speaker
um with a sharp increase in symptoms that is driven by activation of the immune system, our compound would fit into that. So you could say, first line, very early, and doing flas and then in 10 years' time, I believe, you have a further understanding of rheumatoid tritis that would most likely tritis treated even earlier. And there, we know before we have the symptoms that some of these inflammatory cells that we are specifically targeting is activated. So there is possibility to even apply a brand new new approach for the disease, but that will be for the future.
Exploring Dual Development Programs
00:06:28
Speaker
We have discussed Resumelagon and your work in rheumatoid arthritis, but Synact is far from a single program story. What else are you working on?
00:06:39
Speaker
I think what would be fair to say is that we that we have decided to make a dual development program. From from from this approach of resolution ah therapy, it fits into autoimmune inflammatory diseases where you could say that our front-runner program is lumbar trisosis.
00:06:58
Speaker
But it also fits very, very well into what we saw under the pandemic. that virus are associated, virus infections are associated with induction of a hyperinfluoratory condition in the body. That was what was so devastating with COVID-19. We have shown in patients that our compound has the ability to moderate this hyper-inflammatory state and get patients faster out of hospital. And we are now following that pass, you could say, in other viral infections. We are working together with with sites in in in third but world countries to to address dengue, which is a major problem, in in for example, in Brazil. It's ah it's a virus that you so socalled eye alpha virus that you get it by infections by injections from
00:07:51
Speaker
Also, and very importantly, if it that respiratory infections that lead patients to go to the hospital, that is not over with COVID. We have more than half a million cases in US every year that is hospitalized with influenza. And many of of them would probably benefit for a compound that could modulate the hyperinflammatory response that is associated with that and gives prolonged did a prolonged disease and increased risk for more more complicated disease. So that is our second path that we are following in parallel will be with the rheumatoid arthritis.
Financial Backing and Future Strategies
00:08:30
Speaker
Talking about the company's operating performance, you recently presented your second quarter 2025 results. Can you touch on some of the key takeaways from the results?
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah, we have experienced strong support from our retail investors during the year. And that has enabled us to conclude a couple of financing rounds without applying the usual discount that you see in the market right now.
00:08:57
Speaker
And we are very happy about that. are very pleased that we have managed to do so. And that has put us into a situation where we are well financed into 2027.
00:09:10
Speaker
And we are quite happy about that that situation. and We have also seen a nice ah share price development and also an increased liquidity in in the share.
00:09:22
Speaker
Thanks to a strong song support from 16,000 shareholders.
00:09:27
Speaker
ah In addition to this, we are also exploring different kinds of the soft money options. And of course, the dual strategy that Jamilson mentioned, including dengue and infectious diseases, fits that that that strategy quite well.
00:09:44
Speaker
So we hope that we will be able to see some success on the soft money side during the next 12 months. So that is sort of the the key takeaway from the QAQ, I would say.
Investor Highlights and Future Prospects
00:09:58
Speaker
To wrap up, what are some of the key catalysts that investors should watch out for in the next 12 to 18 months from the NACT? Well, there is sort of three or four areas which is sort of the main focus of SYNAD for the next 12 or 18 months going forward.
00:10:13
Speaker
The first one is of course to make sure that we meet the deadlines on on our RIA study. and We are, as as mentioned in in Phase 2B, we expect that we will be able to complete the recruitment in in q fall and then enable us to come out with data, top line data in Q1 next year.
00:10:37
Speaker
So that is that is, of course, our main task right now and where the where a lot of the focus goes on. Then the dual strategy of getting projects up and running in dengue, infectious diseases and and viral infections as well ah is another important part.
00:10:58
Speaker
We expect that we will get the studies up and running within not long and that will enable us to produce data during 26 and hopefully be able to produce those as well.
00:11:10
Speaker
and Another track that is so very important for us is to make sure that we are in the limelight of business development.
00:11:21
Speaker
We have spent a lot of effort into into that area and just recently strengthened the team with the recruitment of our new CBO, Maspy Aragon.
00:11:32
Speaker
And it's it's nice for us as a small company to see that there is a strong traction, a strong interest from both big pharma and from from big biotech.
00:11:44
Speaker
So we feel very comfortable that there's a good interest for what we do. And obviously, to see if we can explore the opportunity for doing a deal during 26 is a high priority for us.
00:11:57
Speaker
Yep.
Closing Remarks & Future Directions
00:11:58
Speaker
Thomas, thank you for talking to us today. Exciting times ahead for Synact. For audience keen to learn more about Synact, please refer to the company website and keep an eye on edisongroup.com for our upcoming initiation report on the company.
00:12:13
Speaker
Thank you again. Thank you. Thank you.