Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy: Interim Results for the
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Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd ("Faron" or the "Company")
Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2017
- INTEREST Phase III Traumakine ® trial patient recruitment to complete in Q4 2017 and FDA advice received regarding advancement to BLA
- Traumakine clinical development broadened to include organ protection opportunities
- Clevegen ® advancing towards clinic
TURKU - FINLAND, 6 September 2017 - Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd ("Faron") (LON: FARN), the clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, today announces its unaudited Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2017 (the "Period").
HIGHLIGHTS
Operational (including post period-end)
- Pipeline progress with portfolio of products focused on acute organ traumas, vascular damage and cancer immunotherapy
- Traumakine - lead product in late Phase III with opportunity to become world's only approved ARDS treatment
- Pivotal, pan-European, Phase III INTEREST trial with Faron's lead product Traumakine for the treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome ("ARDS") continues as planned and is expected to complete recruitment of the targeted 300 patients during the fourth quarter of 2017.
- Faron announced plans to initiate a program for compassionate use of Traumakine treatment once the trial is closed to new patients.
- FDA proposal to proceed directly to BLA submission for Traumakine® upon completion of European and Japanese Phase III studies following successful discussions with the Agency as announced 4 September 2017.
- Collaboration was initiated with INC Research/inVentiv Health - a global biopharmaceutical solutions organization with end-to-end clinical development and commercialization capabilities - to develop the pre-launch commercialization strategy for Traumakine.
- Japanese partner Maruishi continues to progress their pivotal Phase III ARDS trial in Japan and has received two IDMC recommendations to continue the trial as planned. Maruishi anticipates completion of recruitment in this 120 patient study during H1 2018.
- Formulation patent granted in Finland and filed in the US and PCT for Faron's IV dose form of interferon-beta.
- First patient enrolled in February in the Phase II INFORAAA clinical trial of Traumakine for the treatment of Multi-Organ Failure (MOF) and mortality prevention of surgically operated Ruptured Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm (RAAA).
- INFORAAA program open at five sites in Finland with three to four more planned in Estonia and Lithuania in the near future; filing in progress to open three to four sites in the UK.
- Clevegen - wholly-owned novel cancer immunotherapy in development
- Preclinical toxicity studies commenced as planned following successful production of technical batches of Clevegen by manufacturing partner Abzena.
- Agreement signed with the University of Birmingham Medical School, UK, to initiate a liver cancer clinical trial program, focused on the protocol design for a Phase I/II trial.
- Initiated protocol design to treat melanoma, pancreas and ovarian cancer with Clevegen and to be submitted to the Finnish regulatory authority, FIMEA, later this year.
Financial
- Raised approximately £5.0 million before expenses through a placing of 1,422,340 Ordinary Shares at an issue price of 350 pence per share in March 2017.
- Cash balances of €10.3 million (2016: €8.9 million) at 30 June 2017 aided by prudent cost control.
- Operating loss of €7.2 million (2016: €3.0 million) for the six months ended 30 June 2017.
- Net assets of €9.5 million (2016: €7.7 million) on 30 June 2017.
Corporate
- Dr Juho Jalkanen was appointed as Vice President of Business Development in April and stepped down from the Board in May.
- Two new Board members, Dr Gregory Brown and Mr John Poulos, with significant global networks, were appointed as Non-Executive Directors in May.
Commenting on the results, Dr Markku Jalkanen, CEO of Faron, said: "Our aim is to build Faron into a global business dedicated to addressing areas of significant unmet need, utilising the opportunities contained within our wholly owned pipeline of novel drug candidates. The Truamakine Phase III INTEREST study for ARDS completed two further independent safety reviews and is approaching completion of recruitment in Q4 2017. We are looking forward to the data readout, which if favourable, will pave the way for our first commercial launch of Traumakine. We were further encouraged by the FDA's recent proposal to allow Traumakine to proceed directly to BLA submission upon completion of the European and Japanese trials and which will likely result in a faster and cheaper route to market in the US in the event of positive data.
"Beyond ARDS, we believe that Traumakine has excellent potential for application in other areas of organ protection. Impairment of endothelial barrier can be a reason for many organ dysfunctions. We are currently exploring its efficacy in addressing Multi-Organ Failure and mortality in patients with surgically operated Ruptured Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm (RAAA) through a Phase II trial.
"We are also pleased to have made substantial progress with our novel cancer immunotherapy candidate Clevegen, which works to remove immune suppression around tumours caused by tumour associated type-2 macrophages (TAM). Following the development of our new TIET platform and the commencement of preclinical toxicity studies we are now preparing to embark upon an extensive clinical program to investigate this promising candidate. In addition to its potential application in oncology, we are excited by Clevegen's potential application in a broader range of indications including chronic infections and vaccination enhancement."
For more information please contact:
Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd Dr Markku Jalkanen, Chief Executive Officer investor.relations@faron.com
Consilium Strategic Communications Mary-Jane Elliott, Chris Welsh, Philippa Gardner, Lindsey Neville Phone: +44 (0)20 3709 5700 E-mail: faron@consilium-comms.com
Westwicke Partners, IR (US) Chris Brinzey Phone: 01 339 970 2843 E-Mail: chris.brinzey@westwicke.com
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP, Nominated Adviser Emma Earl, Tony Rawlinson Phone: +44 207 213 0880
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited, Joint Broker Freddy Crossley, Duncan Monteith (Corporate Finance) Tom Salvesen (Corporate Broking) Phone: +44 207 886 2500
Whitman Howard Limited, Nominated Broker Ranald McGregor-Smith, Francis North Phone: +44 207 659 1234
About Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Faron (AIM:FARN) is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for medical conditions with significant unmet needs. The Company currently has a pipeline focusing on acute organ traumas, vascular damage and cancer immunotherapy. The Company's lead candidate Traumakine, to prevent vascular leakage and organ failures, is currently the only treatment for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) undergoing Phase III clinical trials. There is currently no approved pharmaceutical treatment for ARDS. An additional European Phase II Traumakine trial is underway for the Rupture of Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm ("RAAA"). Faron's second candidate Clevegen is a ground breaking pre-clinical anti-Clever-1 antibody. Clevegen has the ability to switch immune suppression to immune activation in various conditions, with potential across oncology, infectious disease and vaccine development. This novel macrophage-directed immuno-oncology switch called Tumour Immunity Enabling Technology ("TIET") may be used alone or in combination with other immune checkpoint molecules for the treatment of cancer patients. Faron is based in Turku, Finland. Further information is available at www.faron.com
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