Re: why I invested in Bioasis
in response to
by
posted on
Jun 26, 2020 10:02AM
(the last part of my post that got cut off)
Further, a licensing deal could be for one of the company’s non-core programs, and therefore while providing funding for the research budget for the core program(s), it will not diminish the upside potential of the company. This licensing deal should also provide validation that a major pharma will be utilizing Bioasis’ technology to better the pharma’s own drug development efforts. Also, there are many other programs to license in the near and intermediate future to provide further non-dilutive capital and validation of the technology. I refer you to their website or corporate deck for details on their other drug development programs.
Now let’s get back to Bioasis’ lead program xB3™-001. Brain metastases are among the most common form of brain cancer in adults. For example, HER2-positive breast cancer has a high incidence of the cancer spreading from its primary site in the breast to the brain. The prognosis for these brain metastases is often fatal as the resulting brain tumors are largely untreatable because anti-cancer drugs cannot cross the blood-brain barrier at effective levels. xB3™-001 is their own in-house drug development program combining the already FDA approved Herceptin ($7.1B in sales in 2017) breast cancer drug with xB3™ (xB3™ peptide fused to Herceptin antibody). Trastuzumab, sold under the brand name Herceptin among others, was approved for medical use in the United States in 1998.[3] It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system. This “combined” drug trial is for treating Her2+ breast cancer that has metastasized to the brain. The goal is to get the current standard of care drug (Herceptin) for breast cancer into the brain to attack this brain cancer. Using Herceptin alone does not have efficacy to do this. Of course to do this, the Herceptin has to get across the BBB and that is what the xB3™ component does.
Bioasis plans to start a phase 1b/2a trial with xB3™-001. The trial's patients will be very sick people. It is unethical to do only the usual phase 1 dosing and safety testing with them. They must actually be treated for efficacy. A lot of people will be watching this trial. They most certainly will start watching if phase 1b/2a is successful. No company that can effectively treat brain tumours in this phase is likely to remain a microcap for long. And if meetings with the FDA, post this phase, indicate that a larger phase 2 will be designed to facilitate an FDA decision to grant breakthrough status to xB3™-001, then the investing public might begin to realize that xB3™-001 could be approved for commercial release without going through a long and costly phase 3 and that post phase 2 it could be a player for billions in annual revenue.
Hopefully you’ll find this biotech as interesting as I do and that provided they get some additional funding, that the science foundation built over the past decade of its existence, will allow this small company to finally showcase that their xB3 Platform can be used to create an unlimited number of patented therapeutics for the treatment of many currently untreatable brain and other CNS diseases.