LUND,
Sweden, Nov. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --
July-September 2023
- Net sales amounted to KSEK 488 (358) divided by sales of tests
KSEK 70 (111) and royalties KSEK 418 (247).
- Net earnings were MSEK -38.6 (-22.9) and earnings per share
before and after dilution were SEK
-0.91 (1.01).
- Cash Flow from operating activities amount to MSEK -35
(-37).
- Cash and equivalents at the end of the period amounted to MSEK
107 (159).
- On July 11, the Company announced
that it will cease commercialization of IMMray™ PanCan-d test in
the United States to focus its
resources on development of the next-generation pancreatic cancer
detection test.
Significant events after the period
- On October 3, the Company
informed that a Nomination Committee has been appointed to consist
of the following persons who together represent 7.52 percent of the
number of shares and votes in the company as of September 30, 2023: Sara
Ek, Carl Borrebaeck and Mats Leifland, Sara Ek being appointed Chair of the nomination
Committee.
- On October 27, the Company gave
notice that an extraordinary general meeting will take place on
November 21, 2023.
- On November 7 the company
announced that the discovery phase of next generation test
development is successfully completed.
CEO's comments:
During the third quarter we made significant changes to
streamline Immunovia and made important progress in developing our
next-generation test. As we move forward, we are focused on the
rapid execution of our plan to develop and validate the new
product. Additionally, we are exploring strategic partnerships that
will allow us to succeed in 2024 and beyond.
Our transformation is nearly complete and Immunovia is now
leaner and stronger
Following the July announcement that we would discontinue
selling the IMMray™ PanCan-d test, we moved quickly to transform
Immunovia. This transformation has been significant and
multi-faceted, touching nearly every part of the company. The
restructuring was intended to significantly decrease spending,
while focusing the company's resources on our next-generation
test.
We have transformed Immunovia in important ways:
- We discontinued the sale of IMMray™ PanCan-d. We notified
physicians and patients of the change, taking care to maintain
relationships with clinicians and the trust of our patients. It is
now clear that this was the right decision. Customers lauded our
transparency and have consistently expressed their ongoing support
for Immunovia and our mission.
- We transitioned away from the proprietary IMMray testing
platform. We shuttered the produc- tion facility in Lund, Sweden where we previously produced the
slides and antibodies to run the IMMray™ PanCan-d test.
Discontinuing the IMMray platform will enable us to cut fixed
costs, decrease cost of goods sold, and scale clinical testing in
the future.
- We initiated and carried out significant staff reductions.
Discontinuing production in Lund
led to significant staffing cuts. In the U.S. , we laid off our
sales, customer service and lab teams. Overall, we reduced the
number of employees from 64 a year ago to 25 by the end of the
third quarter. Once the remaining terminations are complete by year
end, we will have 11 employees, down 82% from the prior year.
- We aggressively cut expenses. In the third quarter we still
carried costs relating to discontinu- ation of IMMray™ PanCan-d and
restructuring, but started to see a positive trend for personnel
costs, which decreased sequentially and year-over-year. We expect
this trend to continue in the fourth quarter and we also expect
other operating costs to decrease.
As we near the end of this transformation, the new Immunovia is
a much more agile, much leaner, and more focused company. We remain
true to our vision, we have unique assets, we are now cost
efficient, and we are focused on our clinical mission: to save
lives through early detection of pancreatic cancer with our next
generation test.
Development of our next-generation test is progressing
well
As we announced, we have successfully completed the crucial
discovery stage of development for our next-generation test. We
found more than a dozen proteins circulating in the blood that
identified patients with stage I and stage II PDAC (pancreatic
ductal adenocarcinoma). Conducted using the Olink platform, the
study is the most comprehensive proteomics study to date in
pancreatic cancer, exploring more than 3,000 protein
biomarkers.
The discovery study was completed quickly thanks to Immunovia's
extensive repository of in-house blood samples from pancreatic
cancer patients and controls. Immunovia's R&D partnership with
Proteomedix has also proven instrumental in rapidly developing the
new test.
We have already begun the model building stage of the R&D
process. In this phase, we will develop reliable assays to measure
the target proteins. These assays will be conducted on an ELISA
platform, which will reduce costs and improve scalability.
During the current model building stage, we will also select the
final biomarkers to be used in the commercial test. By Q2 2024 we
will complete a training and an initial validation study to
optimize the test and assess its sensitivity and specificity. Later
in 2024, Immunovia will confirm the analytical validity of the test
and conduct a larger clinical validation study.
Our progress in developing the next-generation test has been
powered by Immunovia's strengths and assets
The experience, assets, and relationships Immunovia has
built over the years are enabling us to develop the next generation
test successfully and quickly. Our development efforts are being
guided by a deep roster of expert advisors, with many of the top
thought leaders in pancreatic cancer providing counsel. We have
built deep realtionships with these advisors over several years and
they are incredibly supportive of our efforts. We are also reaping
the benefits of our industry-leading repository of pancreatic
cancer blood samples. Accumulated through collaborations with
pancreatic centers throughout Europe and U.S. these samples enabled us to
quickly evaluate thousands of potential biomarkers in a wide range
of patient types using samples we already had.
We are actively pursuing partnerships
As I noted in our second quarter report, partnerships will be
crucial to our success. Proteomedix continue to demonstrate their
deep expertise in discovering novel biomarkers, building accurate
tests, and developing commercial assays. Our collaboration strategy
has enabled us to accelerate our time to market and reduce our
development costs.
To generate sufficient clinical data on our new test to support
reimbursement, we will partner with leading academic institutions
and research consortia. These groups are conducting large clinical
studies in the early detection of pancreatic cancer in high-risk
individuals. By partnering with them, we can study our product in
more patients, for a longer time, at a much lower cost than
conducting our own proprietary studies. Conversations with these
groups are progressing well and we expect to announce research
partnerships in the first quarter of 2024.
Commercializing our next generation test will require
partnership as well. We will seek a partner with existing selling
capacity and established relationships with our target clinicians.
This will enable us to accelerate test adoption and bring our
next-generation test to market without shouldering the full expense
of our own sales organization. We can be an attractive partner to a
company looking to bolster its product portfolio with an accurate
test targeting a large market with significant unmet clinical
needs. Securing a strategic partner is the primary focus for the
remainder of 2023 and 2024.
We face challenges, but we are fueled by our clinical mission
and our desire to serve our stakeholders.
Our transformation into a much more cost-efficient company is
nearly complete and we are making excellent progress on our new
test. Still, we clearly face challenges, most importantly a
difficult financial market. We are working hard to outline a
compelling vision for the company and to regain investor trust by
delivering on our commitments. We are focused on execution,
leveraging our new lean and agile structure to drive development of
our next test. We will capitalize on our legacy assets, while
collaborating with partners who augment our strengths. Ultimately,
we plan to address the significant unmet clinical need for early
detection of pancreatic cancer and to reward shareholders for their
commitment and support.
November 9, 2023
Jeff Borcherding, CEO and
President
Immunovia AB
For more information, please contact:
Jeff Borcherding
CEO and President
jeff.borcherding@immunovia.com
Karin Almqvist Liwendahl
Chief Financial Officer
karin.almqvist.liwendahl@immunovia.com
+46 70 911 56 08
The information in this report is information that Immunovia
AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse
Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through
the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:30 am CET on November
9, 2023.
Conference call
Immunovia will hold a webcast tele conference at 15:00 pm CET on November
9 with President and CEO Jeff
Borcherding and CFO Karin Almqwist Liwendahl.
To take part of the presentation, please dial one of the numbers
or watch via the web link below.
Sweden: +46 8 5051 0031
United Kingdom: +44 207 107 06
13
United States: +1 631 570 56
13
Link to the webcast:
https://access.creomediamanager.com/registration/10534c57-ff26-4cd2-8e58-91ffc103b244?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fcreo-live.creomediamanager.com%2F10534c57-ff26-4cd2-8e58-91ffc103b244
Immunovia in brief
Immunovia AB is a diagnostic company whose mission is to
increase survival rates for patients with pancreatic cancer through
early detection. Immunovia is focused on the development and
commercialization of simple blood-based testing to detect proteins
and antibodies that indicate a high-risk individual has developed
pancreatic cancer.
Immunovia collaborates and engages with healthcare providers,
leading experts and patient advocacy groups to make its test
available to individuals at increased risk for pancreatic
cancer.
USA is the world's largest
market for detection of pancreatic cancer. The company estimates
that in the USA, 1.8 million
individuals are at high-risk for pancreatic cancer and could
benefit from annual surveillance testing.
Immunovia's shares (IMMNOV) are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. For
more information, please visit www.immunovia.com
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The following files are available for download:
https://mb.cision.com/Main/13121/3872159/2417629.pdf
|
Interim Report Q3 2023
(PDF)
|
https://mb.cision.com/Public/13121/3872159/beee5d74ba54c0a5.pdf
|
Press release
(PDF)
|
https://news.cision.com/immunovia-ab/i/key-indicators,c3237050
|
Key
indicators
|
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SOURCE Immunovia AB