The collaboration agreement with Gilead regarding their anti-PD-1 usage has now been halted. On one hand, the speculative value of Gilead as a partner for Faron has decreased, but on the other hand, a risk identified by Faron itself—the use of Gilead’s zimberelimab, a molecule that lacks marketing authorization in the West and thus has no proven efficacy—can now be set aside. In December, it was noted:
Nivolumab definitely works, for those for whom it works. And in those cases, the market is 20x the MDS market. Faron’s future solutions will likely be made easier by the fact that they haven’t “put a ring on it” with an uncertain molecule partner. Even now in Finland, someone might be receiving nivolumab for the treatment of their melanoma, for example. A couple of weeks ago, Orion announced the commercialization of a nivolumab biosimilar in Europe Orion sopimukseen tärkeän biosimilaarilääkkeen oikeuksista Euroopassa - Inderes. Perhaps it is completely unrelated.
Academician Sirpa Jalkanen, the “mother” of bexmarilimab (and Juho), and Orion’s Outi Vaarala participated in a 45-minute SuomiAreena discussion titled “Medicine can be a fount of wealth – or a wasted opportunity” https://youtu.be/M-V9p8EDIkg?is=gTxp5gBCED64VM_n, and at least one of them mentioned having followed the difficulty of seeking funding from close quarters. Leading a startup pharmaceutical company requires substantive expertise; lessons in industrial engineering and management experience from the wood-processing industry do not carry you very far.
A regrettable halt has now occurred in the breast cancer FINPROVE trial. Bex’s position was quite unique, as it does not yet have marketing authorization for anything and is not tailored to a specific gene profile—perhaps making it an odd bird in that environment, even though stakeholders including HUS (Helsinki University Hospital) were helping to push it forward; ultimately, Fimea was of the opinion that it did not fit into that trial.