Dr Boreham’s Crucible Small Caps article 17 July 2023Very...

Dr Boreham’s Crucible Small Caps article 17 July 2023
Very interesting article about Car-T cell valuations written just before we acquired the licence for allogeneic (off the shelf) CD19 CAR T cell therapy - azer-cel.on 16 August 2023, our upfront licence payment appears cheap compared to other deals mentioned under Hits and misses. Also interesting history on Paul Hopper regarding his previous roles with Arovella and also Mann Beef substantial holding 6.4% in Arovella.

Strategic partnership with Imugene CF33-CD19 Oncarlytic virus and Arovella ALA-101 invariant natural killer T-cells, or iNKT.
". … and solid cancersArovella also has a joint program with the ASX-listed Imugene, which combines ALA-101 with Imugene’s Oncarlytics therapy (more formally known as CF33-CD19).This effort is relevant for solid cancers which – unlike blood cancers – do not exhibit the CD19 marker.As Dr Baker says the Oncarlytic virus infects the cancer cells and forces them to express CD19. “Our iNKT cells will come along like heat-seeking missiles and find and destroy them,” Dr Baker says.The Imugene therapy also aims to kill the tumour cells. So, like Harpic Flushmatic dual action cistern blocks, there is a two-fold efficacy by combining both therapies.This collaboration is in proof-of-study, in-vitro stage, with animal data expected in the second half of 2023".

"Hits and misses
Arovella is the only Australian company working on an iNKT therapy – and only one of three or four globally.In May, the Buffalo, New York based Athenex Inc entered voluntary bankruptcy protection after the US Food and Drug Administration placed its phase I program on clinical hold (after a patient died).Athenex bought its relevant asset for $US185 million two years previously and already owed $US250 million to Oaktree Capital (as with Arovella, the company had reinvented itself).Others are the Nasdaq-listed, $US76 million market cap Mink Therapeutics (in phase I stage) and the private, pre-clinical Appia Biotech. In 2021, Appia signed a $US875 million partnership with cell therapy leader Kite Pharma, so its shareholders could not have been ‘appier.
In the broader Car-T space, there are dozens of drug developers and no shortage of big-ticket deals.In May this year, Janssen and Cellular Biomedicines Group announced a phase IIb collaboration involving a $US245 million upfront.In January, Astrazeneca acquired Neogene Therapies for $US200 million of upfront payments and $US120 million of milestones.In phase I stage, the same-but-different Neogene dabbles in a variant called T-cell receptor therapies that recognise intracellular targets such as mutations".

https://www.fnarena.com/index.php/2023/07/17/dr-borehams-crucible-arovella-therapeutics/

Regards.