In itself, participating in JPM is the most significant of the calendar meetings previously compiled in the thread, in terms of partnering. Everyone will certainly be there. Those who already know they are a partner, and those who don’t know it yet. It’s likely improbable that a deal would be announced right then. In Stubb’s words, the (peace) agreement is closer than ever. It can’t exactly get any further away, if and when it is eventually signed…
Juho has a speaking slot at the Global BioInnovation Forum, held during the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.
It is a virtual event focusing on bio-innovations and future healthcare solutions.
The organizer is FINN Partners, an international marketing agency (FINN does not mean Finnish in this context) that specializes in healthcare, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industry communications, as well as investor relations. 1BusinessWorld, for its part, provides the platform. Juho will present Faron’s perspective on this:
It looks like you can also register at 2026 Global BioInnovation Forum | 1BusinessWorld. Juho is on Jan 13, 2026, at 10:30 AM San Francisco time for 30 min. What is the benefit for Faron? Visibility and networking.
I don’t think Faron has a COO right now. Juho was in that role to grow into the CEO position. Operational management is likely currently handled by the VP, Operations. It’s not C-level; it reports to the CEO and would also report to a COO if one existed.
That fancy-sounding Vice President role, which is mainly a director-level title, is held at Faron by Briton Joab Williamson. His duties include, among others, trial, clinical, and budget management. So, for example, the operational management of research projects and their budget management.
Joab announced a few days ago that he has written a book chapter with Alex Spencer:
Translated like this:
"I’m happy to share that a book chapter I co-authored with my friend and co-writer, Alexander Spicer, has just been published: ‘The Ethics of Optimism: Managing Investor Expectations in Biotech and Pharma.’
It’s part of the Business Ethics in the Healthcare Industry (Springer) course, and it addresses a question most people in the biotech/pharma industry have encountered at some point:
How do you maintain momentum and optimism in external communication without drifting into hype, oversimplifying, or setting expectations that you cannot reasonably meet?
We examine how announcements, headlines, and governance choices shape investor perceptions, why the dynamics between institutional and retail investors are significant, and what ‘constructive transparency’ can look like in practice. Our goal was to promote transparency in drug development beyond just the legal minimum."
Juho and Bono also liked Joab’s post. You can bet that following the Faron thread has provided some juicy bits or at least inspiration for that book. There’s no information on how the institutional investors give feedback. Perhaps via the shareholder list after expert consultations. On the other hand, there is no shortage of feedback from retail investors. How, for example, all communication can be twisted to the extreme—either negative (or positive). If the aforementioned post is seen as a positive, then points for daring to reflect on those questions semi-publicly.
Meanwhile, elsewhere: According to reports from the Financial Times and Reuters, among others, Merck is in talks to acquire Revolution Medicines, a developer of cancer drugs. The purchase price is expected to be between 28 and 32 billion dollars.
Revolution Medicines is a clinical-stage precision oncology company developing new targeted therapies for RAS-dependent cancers. It has drug candidates in both Phase 1 and Phase 2. RAS is an oncogene that causes cancer when mutated. RAS mutations occur in 20 percent of all cancer cases.
A fairly good reference, although Daraxonrasib has fewer indications compared to Bex and it is still in quite an early stage in trials, so anything can happen. But the money is big in these markets.
Well, this is at least something. It’s going quite well if someone is offering 28-32 big ones.
Even if it’s in the early stages and what have you, at least it’s something concrete. I wonder which one to put my money into.
Faron has nothing but repetitive forum chatter, and that “big payoff” is like the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ apocalypse. It’s supposedly happened quite a few times already according to the talk. Yet, the world hasn’t ended.
There is certainly a difference compared to Faron in that Revolution’s market cap has already reached 10 billion in 2024. Even 5 years ago, it was about ten times that of Faron. The pricing is not directly comparable as such.
Why are small biotechs like Faron of interest to Big Pharma right now? Because the years 2026-2028 will see the largest “patent cliff” in history. Merck (Keytruda), BMS (Revlimid, Eliquis) and Pfizer (Ibrance) will lose tens of billions in annual sales. They are under massive pressure to fill this gap with new innovations (such as bexmarilimab), and J.P. Morgan week is where these deals often start to take shape.
Here are some reports on the Merck - Celgene - BMS issues to start with:
What research? Are you calling your own comment research in this context?
The expiration of patent protection for many different drugs is a well-known fact and affects the entire drug development sector in general. Faron is certainly one among those that Big Pharma follows, but at least so far, Faron has not been caught in anyone’s net.
I apologize for any potential scientific inaccuracies or grammatical errors in my post. However, I have aimed to clarify matters that might not be obvious to everyone on the forum. After all, this is a discussion forum, not a medical journal. Nitpicking is perfectly fine, though.
Finprove https://www.duodecimlehti.fi/xmedia/duo/duo18755.pdf, which aims to treat estrogen-positive breast cancers that have progressed despite hormone blocking therapy using Bex in combination with a cytostatic drug, has received follow-on funding from the Academy for 2026–29. Originally, Finprove’s plan was until the end of 2026. In addition to Helsinki, Turku and Tampere are mentioned regarding new research cohorts. Faronians, including Pätsi, Juho, Bono, and Hughes, have liked the post, which likely speaks to the significance of the funding from Bex’s perspective as well.
There is no specific mention of Bexmarilimab treatment or any other treatments, but securing funding for the continuation of an investigator-initiated study sounds good. Faron provides Bex, and according to the Finprove pages, the partner companies are also responsible for the analyses. https://www.hus.fi/tutkimus-ja-opetus/tieteelliset-tutkimukset/syopatutkimukset/finprove-kohdennetun-syopalaakehoidon#yhteisty%C3%B6kumppaneille Immunohistochemical analysis of Clever-1 from a cancer sample before treatment is something quite new even for university hospitals. Faron will likely utilize its plans for processes in BLAZE regarding Clever and perhaps in other ways too. Whether they take a new sample or stain an archived one is unknown. After all, the immunological profile can change during treatment.
According to some information, the “first patient in” was supposed to have occurred already; Bono clarified in October that it would be “in the winter.” It always “takes time” with these things. You can only start booking the celebrations once confirmation is received that this trial has also started for the Bex arm. And to the market square only if/when good results are achieved.
Finprove’s principal investigator is the chief physician of the HUS Cancer Center, Adjunct Professor Katriina JALKANEN . Well okay, née Peltola.
A pretty nice LinkedIn shoutout from an investor/visibility standpoint. Is it exceptional? Perhaps not; a similar one was highlighted two days ago from ASH regarding menin inhibitors in AML. Juho also mentioned those specifically when sharing news from ASH.
This was a recruitment event, Biobridge Oct 31, 2024, not investor communication. The target audience is life science students, doctoral researchers, and postdocs.
I don’t know if there was some higher guidance involved, but I used the TurboScribe app to record what was said after watching it earlier, and the text begins like this:
Back to earthly matters and with the content reviewed, Pekka God a.k.a. Petri Bono, here are some highlights, some of which may be familiar to many:
BEXMAB-02 i.e., phase 2/3 MDS: ”This will be run in 90 to 100 cancer sites in three different continents, meaning a lot of work is required.”
”We have already selected our CRO that we will work together, and as a small biotech so we have selected a giant CRO to support us”
”And then, of course, in 2027, we will start to get the first results of these solid tumor combination trials. And then also want to mention that it’s not possible to do anything alone. You need good investigators, good network of people, and you need a good scientific board.
”We have two scientific boards. We have one for heme, one for solid tumors, and really top-notch leaders participating, guiding us what to do next, because they are in the forefront of the new treatments. They know exactly what’s happening in the field.
And then in the solid tumors, I’m super excited to tell that, for example, in ESMO two weeks ago, the scientific chair of the whole ESMO with 36,000 participants was Tony Choueiri from Harvard. So Tony is in our scientific board. When established the new thing called scientific board, when I called him he said, you know, Petri, I get an invitation to a board every single week, and I can only select a certain number of boards. But your stuff is so exciting that, of course, I want to join you.
And so then also the other solid tumor member, is from Gustave Roussy the largest European cancer center in Paris, and Dr. Massard from there, and then Tom Powles who is from London, and who TIME voted in 2023 among the top 10 scientists in the world, not just within medicine, but within all areas * So with these guys, we present our data, our plans, and get, of course, feedback from them that how to move forward, what trials to make, what is then relevant when you get the results, because the results are not immediately there.”
*according to other sources, Powles has been on the TIME100 Health list in 2024, but Nature Nature’s Top 10 people who shaped science in 2023.
We already know the blood cancer experts Daver, Kontro, and Zeidan from the BEXMAB releases. Cancers are roughly divided into blood cancers (MDS, leukemias, lymphomas) and solid tumors, which are divided into carcinomas originating from the epithelium (e.g., melanoma, lung cancers) and connective tissue cancers, i.e., sarcomas. So, the solid tumor members are the aforementioned Choueiri, Massard, and Powles.
Even the three wise men of the West don’t guarantee the success of Bex in solid tumors, but at least proving efficacy won’t fail due to a lack of knowledge or insight.
”You can pretty easily do your maths that we are a growing company, and we do have openings in clinical operations, regulatory affairs, CMC teams. One third of our people are based in the UK at the moment.”
As expected, Petri Bono praises Faron as an employer / the level of science. There is confidence; for instance, growth is being communicated in an environment where a potential partner might also be present.
The same confidence hasn’t spread to investors. HCM received over 450,000 shares as a loan repayment by Jan 12, i.e., today, and they can dump them onto the market quickly, while naturally being careful of the downward effect during their sale.
. Well okay, née Peltola.
