Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC (LSE:HEMO, OTC:HOPHF) chair Marc Feldmann, in the company’s final results statement, described the year as a “period was a vital one in the progression of the company.”
During the year the junior biopharmaceutical group, which is developing new therapies and treatments for blood diseases, raised capital on a number of occasions to support this progress.
In January it started the year raising just over £4 million, placing shares at 2.5p, and subsequent funding efforts were complicated by a clinical hold in its trail of the HEMO-CAR-T (which resumed early this).
Further funds were raised in the market in December, pricing shares at 2.375p, and in 2024 the company raised £3.325 million with further new shares priced at 2p each.
A partner financing of $830,000 in September 2023, however, saw investment from Prevail Partners at a premium price equivalent to 6p per share which the company saw as a demonstration of confidence in HEMO-CAR-T. Prevail is a contract research organisation that’s been engaged by Hemogenyx, for the implementation and management of the clinical trial.
Hemogenyx chair, in today’s comments, noted frustration over the funding landscape in London which has increasingly seen junior drug discovery and biopharma companies undervalued compared to US based peers.
Feldmann said: “While we accept that recent market conditions have been very difficult, we have been disappointed by the successively lower price at which we have had to carry out our fundraisings in the UK market, in the light of the progress we have made and the view taken by Prevail Partners concerning our status.
“The capital recently raised will undoubtedly take us materially further forward and we are now looking at a number of strategies for the future development of all three of our current product candidates.”
In terms of the company’s operational and clinical progress, Feldman was more sanguine.
“The period was a vital one in the progression of the company.
“Development work on our lead HEMO-CAR-T product candidate was completed and we were able to submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enable us to move into clinical trials for HEMO-CAR-T.
“Unfortunately, the FDA decided that certain aspects of the data initially provided did not meet its rigorous safety standards, so it imposed a clinical hold pending further development of the product. We worked hard in the final months of the year to meet the FDA's additional requirements and, as a result, the clinical hold was lifted in January 2024.
“Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals is thereby established as a ‘clinical stage’ company and we are now proceeding to the next step in the development of HEMO-CAR-T, the commencement of Phase I clinical trials.”
He added: “At the same time, we continued to move forward, insofar as funding would allow, with our other main pipeline assets, our Chimeric Bait Receptor (CBR) platform and our CDX bi-specific CD3-FLT3 antibody (CDX).”
The pre-revenue London-listed company reported a £6.69 million loss for the year.
It ended 2023 with around £219,000 of cash, prior to its recent £3.325 million net equity raise in February.