hVIVO PLC chief executive Mo Khan talked with Proactive about the company's recent developments, including a change of address, the upcoming Capital Markets Day, and new major contracts.
Khan highlighted hVIVO's largest field study contract to date, a Phase 2b influenza trial with a U.S.-based company. This trial will enroll up to 1,000 healthy volunteers in both the U.S. and UK, with significant revenue expected in 2025.
He noted the expansion of laboratory services and new ventures into patient recruitment and consulting services. Additionally, hVIVO plans to convert its former corporate office into an expanded outpatient unit by early Q4, enhancing its capacity for screening and field trials.
Proactive: I'm joined today by Mo Khan, the chief executive of hVIVO. You've announced your change of address and an upcoming capital markets day, and that's going to be at your new facilities to coincide with the trading update.
Mo Khan: Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having me on. Yes, it's official. We have moved to our new facility here at Canary Wharf. I'm now sitting one floor below the world's largest human challenge trial unit. And also pleased to invite our investors, analysts, and the media to our Capital Markets Day, which is taking place on the 17th of July here at this facility.
It will also coincide with our trading update. So, it would be great for people to come in, have a tour of the laboratory, the quarantine facility. We'll also talk a little bit about our diversification and services and also provide a little bit more color on the trading update.
Proactive: You've signed your largest field study contract to date. Can you tell us more about that?
Mo Khan: This is a trial that we signed with a US-based company to enroll up to 1,000 healthy volunteers for a phase 2b influenza trial. This trial will take place in the US and in the UK. In fact, we are the only UK or the European site in this clinical trial. And the fact that we are recruiting up to 1,000 patients, it says a lot for our flu brand, which is basically responsible for recruiting all of these healthy volunteers.
We expect to conduct this trial later on this year. But the majority of the revenue will be generated in 2025. It will be conducted at our Plumbers Row screening site, where we've moved out from last month.
Proactive: How does a field study differ from hVIVO’s usual human challenge trial?
Mo Khan: Well, they are two very different trials. So human challenge trials typically you vaccinate a number of healthy volunteers, then a month later, you bring them in and you intentionally inoculate them with a virus, and then you keep them into quarantine for up to two weeks, depending on how they feel until the disease clears, whereas the field trial is very different.
You recruit the volunteers, you vaccinate the volunteers, but then they are free to go home. So there's no intentional inoculation of the individual with the given virus. They do come back on a periodic basis to have some safety checkups, just to make sure the trial is going well and for us to also collect some additional data from the patients. But they are two very different animals. But you know, I've talked about the fact that we screen so many healthy volunteers. And majority of those volunteers don't make it into challenge trials. But they could potentially be eligible for a field trial. So this is a good case in point that the people who've been unsuccessful in getting into that challenge trial can now take part in a different type of trial. And for us to be able to diversify our service offerings.
Proactive: You're also looking at diversifying your revenue streams. Mo, can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Mo Khan: Offering this big field-based trial is a key step towards the diversification of our services. What it means is that we're able to generate more revenue without tying up our quarantine rooms, which is something that we always aim for. In addition to that, we're looking to expand our laboratory services.
We've moved our lab from QMB to here at Canary Wharf, and we think we've increased the usable space by up to a factor of three. So that means we're now free and able to go and sell laboratory services as a standalone service rather than just being part of the challenge trial service.
We're also looking to expand into patient recruitment services and additional consulting services. So our goal and aim to diversify service offerings I think is coming into fruition now. So very pleased that this is the first major contract that does not involve the challenge trial concept.
Proactive: Your RNS mentioned that as part of your move to Canary Wharf, you initiated plans to convert your former corporate office at Plumber's Row into an expanded outpatient unit. Tell us more about that, please.
Mo Khan: We've been, maybe lucky is not the right word, but maybe we did some good planning. Within a month of moving into here at Canary Wharf, to a CL3 facility, we signed our first CL3 contract. We signed a contract to run a Covid-19 challenge trial, which we would not be able to run unless we had this Canary Wharf facility. And it seems even before our Plumber's Row expanded facility is opened, we've signed a new field-based trial.
By the time the field trial actually comes into fruition, with us getting all the regulatory and ethics approval, we will have the top floor of Plumber's Row available. So we will effectively double our screening capacity. The office where I was sitting effectively will now be converted into a screening facility. And that should be ready by the time, hopefully in early Q4. We have a brand new quarantine facility where we can run CL3 level challenge trials and we will have an expanded screening facility where we can run more field trials.
Proactive: Mo I’m sure we're going to be chatting to you later this month when you issue that trading update. Thank you very much for the update today.