2018 WAS ANOTHER IMPORTANT YEAR FOR SOM BIOTECH with new rounds of investments, a clinical asset in the pipeline and three new products ready for proof of concept.
SOM has been making excellent progress in the past months and we wanted to use this letter as a forum to share how we are leveraging our resources and capabilities to create value for our current and future shareholders.
We recently closed a series A round of 5M euros, half of which was contributed by internal investors, reinforcing their faith on SOM, and the rest by a well-known family office of a mid-sized pharmaceutical company from Italy. In addition, the board is in sync with the management team to raise another significant amount in Series B that we would start in 2019. We are also exploring options for IPO on Euronext/NASDAQ, but our team is constantly monitoring volatile market conditions and is in touch with the investment banks to make the right decisions at the right moment.
We also had notable success on our research and development part where we have already recruited 15 patients out of 30 aimed for our SOMCT02 Huntington disease trial and we expect the clinical results to be completed by the end of second quarter 2019. In addition, we have received several term sheets and interests for licensing out this asset not only for the global market but also for few Asian countries, proving our strength in strategically selecting assets with highly unmet need.
Outlook for 2019
We plan to start clinical trials for SOM1201 for ALD (Adrenoleukodystrophy) in the second quarter of 2019 and thanks to our artificial intelligence-based platform, we already have two additional new candidates on indications Phenylketonuria and Niemann-Pick. In addition, we expect to receive milestone payments for our out licensed product SOM0226 (ATTR), from Corino therapeutics in the second quarter of next year for developing new formulation and dosing first patient in Phase IIa. Come 2019 and we plan to actively engage with the FDA for some of our programs through Fast track/Accelerated approvals.
At SOM, we are in the process of assembling world class Independent board of directors and management team who would assist us in shaping the short- and long-term strategies. Our team is committed to maximizing firm value through the following:
- Continue exploring orphan assets that has high unmet needs
- Manage risks by diversifying our portfolio through co-development, licensing out and may be taking few products to pivotal trials
- Raise optimal capital and efficiently use this capital to provide higher return on invested capital for the shareholders
We believe that the next six to eight months would bring several value inflection points for SOM. The path to approvals and launch is time consuming, expensive and always beset with risks but we are confident that together with our current team and new additions, we possess the requisite skills, experience, technical know-how and strong commitment that would help in positioning SOM as world class repurposing firm.
Thank you for your unflinching support.
by Mr. Saurabh Mishra, SOM Biotech Chief Financial Officer
