Synairgen PLC (AIM:SNG, OTC:SYGGF) chief executive Richard Marsden talked with Proactive about the company's recent fundraising efforts to support a phase II clinical trial.
The study aims to test SNG001, a broad-spectrum inhaled antiviral, in critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation due to respiratory viruses.
Marsden explained that the trial will enrol 450 patients and focus on reducing mortality, which remains high in this population, ranging between 25% to 45%.
Proactive: Richard, very good to speak with you. This morning, Synairgen announced a fundraise to support a key trial. Could you give us some more details on the trial?
Richard Marsden: Yeah. Thank you, Stephen. So we've had an ambition to do a clinical trial in mechanically ventilated patients. These are really poorly patients who need help with their breathing, who are there because a common respiratory virus, like the cold and flu viruses, has set up base in their lungs and made them very, very poorly. So we've wanted to do a trial in this population for a long time.
It's taken an enormous amount of work to get to this place. And the trial we want to do is a phase two trial. It has 450 patients in it. So it’s a substantial trial. And the trial is designed to reduce the mortality rate in these patients. And the rate is very high. The rate is somewhere between 25% and 45%.
So our ambition in this trial is to show that SNG001, a broad-spectrum inhaled antiviral that's designed to boost the innate immune system in our lungs, can reduce mortality.
Proactive: Richard, tell us how this trial is being funded.
Richard Marsden: Well, we're very fortunate to have such good backing from Tetragon. So they have committed up to £18 million to fund this trial to the interim analysis. This is a midway point in the trial where we can check to see if the drug is reducing mortality at that 224 out of 450 patient time point.
Proactive: And can you tell us about the mechanics of the open offer?
Richard Marsden: Sure. Yes. There's an open offer. And we've always said that we would, when we do the fundraise, make it possible for existing and new holders to participate in the fundraising. And that is what we're doing. The open offer will accept up to £6 million. And there is a nuance, quite an important nuance, that if, when the fundraising concludes, Tetragon owns more than 75% of the company, we have said that we would delist from AIM at that time point.
Proactive: What does this mean for Synairgen?
Richard Marsden: It's tremendous for us. We've had an ambition to take all the research we've conducted in the past. The general theme in that research is the more adversely affected a patient is by the virus, the stronger the effects of the drug. So we feel we're taking our historic data into this population with a tremendous unmet medical need. And if we can show in this trial that we can reduce mortality, then it makes SNG001 a very valuable asset.
Proactive: Richard, I hope you'll keep us posted on any progress with the trial. Thank you very much for speaking with us today.