Cell therapies for Parkinson’s disease are progressing in Japan.
“The committee also approved Amchepry, a candidate treatment for Parkinson’s disease developed by Japanese drugmaker Sumitomo Pharma.”
“To deliver treatments as quickly as possible, both products have been granted conditional and time-limited approval based on the likelihood of their efficacy, allowing them to be sold provisionally. Further testing will be needed to demonstrate safety and efficacy, and the companies will need to apply for ongoing approval within seven years.”
Since Herantis had over 10 follow-up negotiations agreed upon with various pharma companies last year, following the Phase 1 presentations. The results of the presentation were reported in a purely positive tone, perhaps even an extremely positive one.
Funding is not an issue for this company; that’s probably clear to everyone following it. Who they will enter Phase 2 with remains to be seen, but they seem to be very much in the driver’s seat here.
Of course, anything can happen, as long as they don’t change the strategy and decide to carry out Phase 2 entirely independently.
Vuolanto visited the UK for networking. The research professor from the funder Funding boost for promising treatment | Parkinson's UK describes Phase 1b as having been highly successful. They have likely studied it more thoroughly than what Vuolanto’s presentation there showed.
This brought to mind: The Phase 1b biomarker announcement stated that HER-096 had a clear systemic effect, which is naturally promising for many other potential applications besides Parkinson’s, but the central nervous system effects at the biomarker level remained unclear—how they were measured and what was observed—or do others have a different understanding? The analysis was indeed promised to take months.
Here are Siltanen’s preview comments as Herantis reports its H2 results on Thursday
Herantis Pharma will publish its 2025 results on Thursday, March 5, 2026, and the company’s results announcement can be followed here starting at 10:00 a.m. In the report, we are particularly monitoring how the preparations for the Phase 2 clinical trial of the HER-096 drug candidate are progressing. Funding for the upcoming study has become clearer following the recently announced share issue and EU grant. Any additional information regarding the securing of the remaining funding requirement will also be at the center of the report.
I don’t know, but could a major problem for Finnish listed companies be equal disclosure and the treatment of owners? Nowadays, as information is exchanged on forums like this, the companies themselves end up as the ones suffering when all investors do not have the same information. As a result, the market values of companies move by incomprehensible amounts in short periods of time.
Herantis’s €4.2 million directed issue just before the announcement of the €8 million from Horizon Europe. A perfectly legal thing that just happened to occur at the same time?
Is it time to make changes to stock exchange regulations? Since technology would allow it today, why not make subscribing easier so that all owners could participate? I wonder when the laws were last updated?
And thinking a bit more generally, when Finnish companies “muddle through” (while complying with the law), then when it’s time for a big leap, these companies are “taken.” Why? Perhaps because those who have had the opportunity to invest money in the company have already gotten their share or have been getting it along the way.
And when it is time for big decisions (partnering/sales deals), these same people make the decisions or provide strong recommendations. Money tends to follow money more and more.
The way we could get our country on the rise would be the spreading of wealth, not its narrowing. We have seen around the world where that eventually leads.
Hopefully, in the case of Herantis, transparency will continue in communications, for example, regarding partnership discussions.
Good interview of Antti by Antti. Vuolanto’s demeanor is quite confident and calm. 2025 went successfully, results were good and the feedback from Big Pharma (BP) and experts was excellent. This year has started off brilliantly regarding Phase II funding, and his answers really exude positive confidence that the funding will be secured on schedule.
Here is a fresh company report from Antti regarding Herantis’s H2
Herantis’s main theme for 2025 was the completion of the Phase I study. All objectives of the study were achieved, providing a solid scientific basis for the future. The company’s estimate of the remaining funding requirement for the Phase II study is 20–25 MEUR, which is in line with our forecast. The next critical step is securing funding for the study, which in our assessment involves significant binary risk depending on the solution reached. We are modeling our estimate for follow-on funding and adjusting our target price to EUR 2.4 (prev. EUR 2.5) following the changes. We upgrade our recommendation to Accumulate (prev. Reduce) as the share price decline has improved the risk-reward ratio.
Aspen’s therapy uses the patient’s own programmed iPS cells as a source for dopaminergic cells to avoid an immune response against the graft. This is a very expensive way to manufacture the therapy, so it remains to be seen how commercially viable it will ultimately be.
What on earth is this again? Could you have at least put a disclaimer at the start that this is random AI-generated speculation that isn’t based on anything? I wasted three minutes of my life looking for news related to this.
In less than 2 months, we should know the results of the partnership negotiations, which typically last 6–9 months. If the number of stock options is anything to go by, the financial side was certainly not overlooked.
Not an actual partnership agreement yet, but an interesting collaboration at first glance. This could speed up the timeline for Phase 2 results, reduce the required patient count, and consequently lower the total costs of Phase 2.
Edit. It’s confusing that the news had no impact on the share price. After all, the stock has been sliding down for a while now without any negative news.
Here are Antti’s comments regarding the recent news.
Herantis announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with the Swiss company Indiv to utilize digital biomarker technology in the upcoming Phase II study of the HER-096 drug candidate. The news is a step forward in study design that aligns with expectations, as we have previously estimated that the company plans to use digital methods for monitoring patient symptoms. The technology can improve the study’s sensitivity to detect potential treatment effects within a relatively short follow-up period.
The company has already reported on both topics, although they could certainly provide endless additional details. Since the finance team is also present, I wonder how it relates to those topics. A press release regarding financing negotiations? It would be strange at this point and perhaps a bad sign for that side of things…
The information provided regarding the Phase 2 study has been quite general so far. In the interview linked by Sijoittaja-alokas above, Vuolanto mentions that they aim to provide more detailed information about the P2 study design “within the next four weeks,” which likely means going deeper into concrete scientific, clinical, and practical details. One could certainly hope for news regarding the financing arrangements as well, but in my opinion, that is fairly unlikely.
Edit: And naturally, there will likely be more detailed information about the Invidi collaboration, and the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions.
Herantis Pharma’s Chief Scientific Officer Henri Huttunen was interviewed by Antti
Topics:
(00:00) Introduction
(00:09) Phase 2 study
(00:55) Endpoint
(02:05) Digital tools
(03:10) Secondary endpoints
(03:50) 100-patient study
(06:23) Study timeline
(07:29) Pros and cons of the study
(09:18) Role of the FDA
(11:04) Post-study period
(12:25) Phase 3 / Phase 2b
(13:29) Financing situation
