HemoGenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HEMO) is developing novel therapies for blood cancers that are safer and easier to tolerate than current standard of care treatments.
Two products are at pre-clinical stage: Immunotherapy product (CDX Ab) for patient conditioning and a cell therapy (Hu-PHEC) for bone-marrow transplants.
A clinical trial for the CDX antibody platform is being targeted for 2019.
What it does
Hemogenyx has three products under development:
CDX Bi-specific Antibodies (CDX Ab): Aims to redirect the patient’s own immune cells to selectively target blood stem cells and certain types of blood cancer cells.
They could be used as a direct therapy to eliminate diseased cells or to clear unwanted blood stem cells prior to transplantation.
AHC Mouse Model: Hemogenyx has developed a novel humanised mouse model which the company believes exhibits a near fully-functional human immune system. Known as advanced hematopoietic chimeras (AHC), these mouse models may enable improved evaluation of therapies prior to entering expensive human trials.
Hemogenyx aims to form income-generating collaborations with biopharma companies and academic institutions who want to use the company’s proprietary animal models to evaluate their own drug candidates, says Northland.
Hu-PHEC cell therapy: Utilises Hu-PHEC, a naturally-occurring type of cell, that can be collected and modified to generate cancer-free, own-patient blood stem cells, which can be used in bone marrow transplantation.
What the broker says
Northland: "Although the company has demonstrated strong progress across its pipeline, the share price remains below its IPO price of 3.5p/share. With multiple collaboration agreements and investment from industry we view the company as undervalued."
Blue Sky
- Many collaborations with biopharma are ongoing, including a US$1mln investment from US group Orgenesis (NASDAQ:ORGS).
Total US market for bone marrow transplants US$3bn-4bn and in Europe US$5bn.
Hemogenyx‘s products offer the opportunity for more people to receive marrow transplants.
The humanised mouse model currently is generating significant interest from industry as an in-vivo platform for disease modelling and drug development, even though it was developed ostensibly as an in-house tool.
Inflection points
Filing of an IND application to the FDA regarding the CDX antibody platform to permit clinical trials.
Orphan Drug Designation by the FDA for the use of CDX Ab in BMT.
Pre-clinical data from Hu-PHEC cell therapy platform.
New contracts for AHC mouse model system.