This week, MWP Partners became substantial holders of Island Pharmaceuticals, alongside some biotech heavies (with significantly more scientific pedigree than our own) including Daniel Tillett, Jason Carroll, Bill Garner and Chris Ntoumenopoulos.
The capital provided will ensure Island can fully fund its Phase 2a/b trial targeting Dengue Fever and fast track the acquisition of Galidesivir, which primarily targets Ebola.
What attracted us to this opportunity:
- Large (and growing) market opportunity with Dengue infecting an estimate 400m people annually and no current treatment.
- Dengue is becoming a ‘rich country’ problem with global warming expanding carrying mosquitos beyond equatorial regions into Southern America, Southern Europe and Northern Australia.
- ILA-101 is a small molecule with clinical history. Having previously been developed by J&J for oncology, it has high safety profile and is well tolerated based on 45 human studies. Animal and cell studies, which for antivirals has great translation into humans, further show ILA-101 prevents viral replication and deaths from lethal Dengue.
- The US Army, who are a natural stockpiler of an approved drug, is providing no-dilutive funding and cooperating with its R&D library to provide diluted strains of the virus for Island’s Phase 2 trial.
- Dengue is the tip of the iceberg, with many other mosquito-borne disease targets including Zika, West Nile and Yellow Fever.
- Island could be eligibile to receive Priority Review Voucher(s) following FDA approval for both ILA-101 and Galidesivir, which can be sold to big pharma for >US$100m a piece, providing substantial dilution-free funding.
- Galidesivir has a potentially rapid pathway to market under the FDA’s ‘Animal Rule’, requiring only animal trials given the obvious unethical and safety concerns putting Ebola into humans.
The market is beginning to recognise Island's potential and is off to a strong start as we await first readout of the Phase 2a results in November. Follow the journey and hope we put a dent in these crippling viruses.
https://lnkd.in/g7-9hDDB
Island Pharmaceuticals has secured A$3.5m in new funding to support the ISLA-101 Phase 2a/b PROTECT clinical trial in #denguefever, as well as the due diligence campaign for the galidesivir #antiviral therapeutics program.
The Placement is being supported by notable investors including Dr Daniel Tillett and prominent Hong Kong-based fund manager, Angus Walker, together with Island co-founder and major investor, Dr William Garner; substantial shareholder Jason Carroll and recently appointed Non-Executive Director, Chris Ntoumenopoulos (subject to shareholder approval).
Island is now fully funded on current programs, which takes the company through several important inflection points, including all data readouts for the PROTECT study. Read the full announcement: https://lnkd.in/g2g87BH8.
#biotechinvestment #ASX #smallcaps
Vice President, Investment Banking at Canaccord Genuity- Global Capital Markets
1wNice one lads