Fra Red Eye etter kvartalsrapporten:
The POLAR-M trial continues as planned outside of the US, and full patient recruitment is expected in Q2 2020, although no new US patients will be enrolled. A low number of US patients included in the trial doesn’t jeopardize a global filing, in our opinion.
Following the 2019 year-end report that was released yesterday, we hosted an investor meeting with the management to gain additional color to the clinical hold decision by the FDA, which was issued on January the 22nd.
Pledpharma has not yet received a written record of the decision, but this is expected later this week. In the waiting of such communication, Pledpharma has started its preparations to be able to as fast as possible answer the outstanding questions. Also, Pledpharma has now informed all regulatory agencies involved in the POLAR program about the FDA decision, and so far, none has followed. However, this does not mean that such a risk yet can be dismissed entirely.
So far, positive signals from the independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB), who just held a meeting, and the specialist group recommended a continuation of the two trials. The FDA bar is much lower than the DSMB’s. Once again, we want to highlight that the FDA does not have full data access to unblinded data.
The management continues to be optimistic about resolving any safety issues with the FDA, and Pledpharma still believes the few observed serious adverse events behind the FDA clinical hold decision are related to the stage of the disease and not to PledOx.
The most exciting news to us in the report was the reiteration of reaching full patient recruitment in the POLAR-M trial in Q2 2020. Pledpharma is not waiting for the clinical hold to be lifted and intends to finalize the recruitment of patients outside of the US, meaning a risk of a low number of US patients being included in a potential filing next year. We believe, as long as the clinical outcome becomes positive, efficacy, and safety, a lower number of US patients do not jeopardize a global filing (incl. the US).
Revenue in Q4 amounted to SEK 17.1m (11.2), consisting of research funding and a milestone payment (SEK 9,2m) from Solasia. The Operating expenses rose modestly to SEK 37.5m (34.1). The operating cash burn during the quarter was SEK -29.0m (-20.6), and by the end of December, cash and cash equivalents amounted to SEK 255.1m (229.9).
All personnel resources have been allocated to focus on resolving the safety concerns from the FDA, why other clinical activities are for now paused. From a cash flow perspective, this is, to some extent, positive, and we believe current funds sufficient to reach the clinical milestones in the POLAR program.
We continue to be positive about the stock, and the current valuation of Pledpharma and things are moving in the right direction. But as we previously have stated, we expect the share price to remain under pressure until we get further clarity about the FDA decision. We also want to repeat that, in our model, the US commercial opportunity of PledOx represents about 30% of the value."
Verdt å merke seg:
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DSMB har hatt nytt møte og evaluert sikkerheten i Polar M og kommet til samme konklusjon som sist: Her er det bare å kjøre på!
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Pled Pharma opprettholder målsetting om å fullføre rekruttering til Polar M i løpet av Q2 2020!!
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Noen færre innrullert fra US skal ikke ha noe å si på “global filing” for Pled Ox
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Red Eye vurderer at de har nok penger til å fullføre milestones i Polar programmet.
Oppsummert: Dette går vegen!