Validation indeed for Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals
“…We have had 6 or 7 offers of finance. We are not for sale. The exit strategy is for HEMO to move into Clinical Trials. We are not a one trick pony. We may Partner with a Big Player…”
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals was born out of a son’s love for his father.
Co-founder and chief executive Vladislav Sandler witnessed how his father was tortured by the cocktail of chemotherapeutic agents preparing him for a bone marrow transplant (BMT). The medical intention was to condition; the outcome was weakness and pain.
Pre-transplant treatments are notoriously toxic, and to combat this Vladislav began his quest to transform the treatment of blood cancers and develop an antibody code-named CDX which has the potential to completely reinvent BMT conditioning.
His research showed that the system had potential for multiple applications including autoimmune conditions.
The company is tireless successfully progressing in its development of its CDX antibody candidate and its HEMO-CAR-T product candidate. It has also carried out considerable pre-clinical work on the development of its cell therapy platform (CBR Platform) as a novel means to allow the programming of immune cells to target both viral infections including COVID-19 and certain types of cancer.
The only obstacle holding the company back from achieving clinical proof of concept was the funding required to get the initiatives to and through clinical trial stages. That hurdle has been overcome with a convertible loan note financing facility with Mint Capital Limited for up to £60 million. Those funds are helping convert the company from a Pure R&D enterprise to a clinical stage biopharmaceutical. Yesterday, the company issued an RNS to announce that it has received a conversion notice from Mint Capital Advisors Ltd in respect of £650,000 in principal amount of the Convertible Loan Notes issued by the Company on 3 February 2021. 13,000,000 shares were issued, and by the looks of the late print after hours last night, 13,000,000 had been sold. The company also stated “The Company does not have any immediate plans for further drawdowns from the Convertible Notes Facility” in yesterdays RNS. This Convertible seems to to be the only monkey on the back of the company which Vladislav acknowledges and discusses in the interview. The share price has slid from 15p late last summer to around 6p today.
So is there an opportunity here and is it onwards and upwards for HEMO.L?
Here, Vladislav tells Sarah Lowther about the company’s ‘humanised mice,’ validation achieved with the collaboration agreement with Johnson and Johnson, its pathway to clinical stage trials and why only then will the company consider itself an acquisition target that gives the highest possible returns for shareholders.
Click here to read SP Angel’s coverage note for the company
The author was remunerated but does not hold shares in the company
