Poolbeg Pharma: Trading now underway
Shares began trading on the 19th July 2021, in newly-listed Poolbeg Pharma after the company came to the market via an oversubscribed £25mln IPO. Poolbeg plans to develop a potential treatment for influenza and is aiming for a near-term partnership with big pharma. Poolbeg is a spin-out from Open Orphan PLC, a UK-based pharma service and contract research organisation (CRO), but it ultimately arose out of that company's 2020 acquisition of hVIVO. The subsequent strategic review led to Open Orphan deciding to retain hVIVO’s CRO capability but to monetise its drug development assets. Principal among these was HVO-001 – now known as POLB 001 - a compound that hVIVO had in-licensed after identifying its potential for the treatment of severe influenza. In the often-complex world of intra-pharma licensing agreements, POLB 001 was previously owned and developed by the Spanish firm Palau Pharma, itself a division of Uriach. The product had previously been licensed to Schering-Plough, which conducted early clinical studies. Under its now new owner, if POLB 001 reaches further development stages, Poolbeg will make payments to Palau totalling €1mln on development milestones with a further €5mln due on commercial events, as well as single-digit royalties on sales.
Poolbeg intends to reformulate POLB 001 for intravenous (IV) administration, which it considers to be better suited than an oral drug to patients being hospitalised with severe influenza. The drug is a p38 MAPK-inhibitor, a member of a class that was extensively tested, albeit unsuccessfully, by big pharma companies in 2000-2010 for autoimmune disease. Poolbeg believes POLB 001 can regulate the body’s immune response to influenza, suppressing the so-called cytokine storm, a disproportionate immune reaction to the infection (a similar phenomenon also can occur in COVID-19). One advantage of this approach is that it would bypass the natural ability of ‘flu viruses to mutate quickly which can render both vaccines and anti-viral treatments less effective in the medium-term.
Since phase I single and multiple ascending dose studies in healthy human volunteers have been completed, the product is to be phase II-ready, although Poolbeg plans a phase Ib challenge study with the IV and oral formulations in the first half of 2022, with a move into phase II trials in patients to follow quickly after that.
Obtaining positive phase II data will be key to obtaining a partnering agreement with a larger pharmaceutical company, as Poolbeg plans to run a 'capital-light' operation that would preclude the possibility of taking POLB 001 further with its own resources. Poolbeg has other assets bequeathed by Open Orphan that may allow it to identify other similar opportunities and management plans to in-licence potential development candidates in infectious diseases, broadening its focus beyond ‘flu.
Poolbeg’s management is largely in place and the board consists of a broad range of executives with pharmaceutical industry experience. Chief executive Jeremy Skillington was formerly VP BD of Inflazome, which was sold to Swiss giant Roche for €380mln upfront with significant downstream milestones in 2020.
As of today, Poolbeg has a market capitalisation of £50mln, with £25mln of cash, and comes with ambitious and experienced management team. While the past 18 months have seen the pharmaceutical industry’s attention focused on COVID-19, it is worth remembering that the problems associated with existing infectious diseases, such as influenza, have not gone away. In fact, the post-pandemic health service could be dealing with serious outbreaks of ‘flu this winter due to our relative lack of exposure to the virus during the lockdowns.