Faron Pharmaceutical’s chief executive Markku Jalkanen said 2022 will the most important year in the company’s history as its moves forward with key trials for two lead therapies.
“Our focus for 2022 will be to accelerate bexmarilimab's clinical development, which in addition to the ongoing MATINS trial will include the initiation of trials investigating bexmarilimab in a first-line setting in combination with other checkpoint inhibitors and as a treatment for haematological malignancies,” he said in a statement.
“We have a responsibility to the millions of cancer patients across the globe currently not benefiting from existing treatment options to move this novel asset forward as quickly as possible," he added.
In 2021, the Finland-based biotech said it had learnt a great deal about the cancer sufferers likely to benefit most from bexmarilimab and about how patients respond to treatment.
"Bexmarilimab has the potential to bring the promise of immunotherapy to many more patients," he added and “We will move with urgency because patients can't wait”
Traumakine, Faron's intravenous interferon beta-1a therapy, also has a big year ahead, said Jalkanen.
In August, dosing commenced in the Phase II/III HIBISCUS trial investigating Traumakine in the treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 patients.
“While hospitalisations and severity of disease have decreased since the initiation of this study, we continue to believe that Traumakine has the potential to become a powerful treatment option for patients who are at risk of developing ARDS [acute respiratory disease] as a consequence of a viral infection, such as COVID-19,” he said.
Pre-clinical studies in a third product under development, Haematokine, meanwhile have indicated it could have broad applicability, not just in haematological malignancies, but across the field of regenerative medicine.
“As critical as 2021 was, there is no doubt that 2022 will be the most important year in the history of our Company,” he concluded.
Faron posted a net loss of €21.2mln for the year to end December 2021 with a cash balance at the end of the period of €6.9mln.
Since then, the biotech has signed a debt funding agreement for up to €30mln with IPF Partners.