Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our corporate update call. A copy of today's presentation is available on the company's website under the Reports and Presentations tab. I am joined on the call today by Darragh Lyons, our Chief Executive Officer, and Pat Jennings, our Chief Financial Officer. Dara will make some opening remarks. Pat will then give a financial update, including details of the main movements in our estimated intrinsic value per share before handing back to Dara, who will provide some updates on each of our key investee companies and look ahead to the milestones and targets we have for the year ahead. Please note there will be an opportunity for questions at the end of the call. Finally, may I draw your attention to the disclaimer contained within the presentation. I will now hand over to Dara.
Thanks, Fiona. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We're very pleased with the progress made by Malin and our investee companies during 2021. With two significant investee companies, divestments completed, our outstanding EIB debt balance of EUR 45 million fully repaid and over EUR 95 million of excess capital of the business returned to our shareholders in line with our long-standing commitment in that regard. Beyond these transactional and capital milestones, several important clinical and operational milestones were achieved by our companies, including our first drug approval with the U.S. FDA approval of Immunocore's lead product candidate, Kimmtrak, and we expect further approval of VIVJOA (oteseconazole) through its successive company, Mycovia, in the months ahead. We also saw some encouraging data from Poseida and from Immunocore's next wave of oncology programs, with further more mature data expected from both companies during 2022.
Malin's capital position was significantly strengthened during 2021, as can be seen on slide four. Kymab sale to Sanofi in April 2021 for total consideration of $1.45 billion will deliver initial net proceeds to Malin of approximately $112 million or approximately EUR 95 million, of which EUR 90 million has been received to date. Malin could receive up to a further $33 million if certain milestones are achieved in the years ahead. The sale of Altan to Ethypharm closed on September 30, 2021, yielding net proceeds from Malin of over EUR 68 million. We have subsequently repaid the full amount of our outstanding EIB debt of EUR 45 million.
We also purchased over 2.3 million Malin shares in the market for total consideration of EUR 50 million, thereby taking advantage of the market discount to intrinsic equity value per share. Finally, we completed a EUR 80 million return of excess capital of the business via a tender offer in December 2021, bringing total capital returns for the year to over EUR 95 million. Our key investee companies are set out on slide five of the presentation. Beyond the transactional activity, several clinical and operational milestones were also achieved by our investee companies during 2021. I'll discuss these milestones in a few moments along with the milestones we are targeting in our investee companies over the next year and beyond. I believe that these events can be the catalyst to further transactional activity in our companies.
Before doing that, I'll hand over to Pat, who will work through the intrinsic equity value calculations.
Thanks, Darragh, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As set out on slide six, the estimated fair value of our investee companies at December 31, 2021 was EUR 263 million compared to EUR 412 million at December 31, 2020. The decrease in the aggregate fair value during 2021 is largely attributable to the divestments of Kymab and Altan during the year, which is partially offset by a net increase in the fair value of our investee companies of EUR 8 million. Since year-end, our fair value estimate has decreased to EUR 224 million as a result of public market declines in the share price of Immunocore and Poseida. These decreases are largely consistent with the overall biotech market drops in 2022 to date and come despite some positive progress and news flow from both companies in 2022.
On slide seven, we've included our estimate of the intrinsic value per share of Malin, which we regard as the most important and robust metric of assessing the performance of Malin. This is calculated based on our estimate of the aggregate fair value of our investee companies and is adjusted for our net cash or net debt position divided by the total number of outstanding issued ordinary shares. As Darragh mentioned, our net cash position was significantly strengthened during 2021, going from a net debt balance of EUR 21.7 million at the start of 2021 to a net cash position of EUR 32.7 million at December 31, 2021, having returned over EUR 95 million of capital to shareholders during 2021. We expect further inflows of capital during 2022, which will enhance our cash holding of approximately EUR 31 million.
Our intrinsic value per share at December 31, 2021 was EUR 8.70 compared to EUR 8.48 per share at December 31, 2020. Driven by the realization of Altan at a premium to pre-transaction book value and the increase in the value of Immunocore following its Nasdaq IPO in February 2021. The significant declines in our public stocks during 2022 to date has resulted in our intrinsic equity value per share decreasing by EUR 1.20 per share since year-end. As I said before, we believe that these share price declines are market-driven only. The fundamentals of these public companies remain sound, and their outlook is very positive. I'll now turn the call back over to Darragh, who will give some thoughts on the position and prospects of our most significant investee companies, including Immunocore and Poseida.
Thanks, Pat. Turning to Immunocore on slide eight. Immunocore has had a very positive year following the excellent Phase III data for its lead program, which was reported by the company in late 2020. Kimmtrak, which was formerly known as tebentafusp, has recently been approved for commercial launch in the U.S., with further approvals expected in the months ahead in Europe, the U.K., Australia and Canada. We expect a fast launch, given this is a rare disease that was a high unmet need. Over 200 patients were on the drug before approval under various early access and compassionate use programs.
In addition to our conviction regarding a strong take up of the drug, we are encouraged by the robust pricing outlook in the U.S. and expect the median duration of therapy to be much higher than the level reported from the Phase III study. Beyond Kimmtrak, we are very encouraged by the data presented by the company last November on their second most advanced program, the Genentech partnered product candidate targeting MAGE-A4. While these data were early and the patients were dosed at extremely low doses, we saw some encouraging biomarker efficacy signals, along with a consistent safety and mechanism of action profile to Kimmtrak. Immunocore has initiated the first expansion arm in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma and will provide a further update on the program during 2022.
Given MAGE-A4 is a similar antigen type to PRAME, which is the target for Immunocore's third most advanced product candidate, we think these data bode well for that program also. Immunocore is expected to provide initial clinical data on the PRAME program around the middle of this year. Immunocore's capital position is also strong from following a Nasdaq IPO and prior crossover funding round that yielded nearly $400 million of capital in aggregate in early 2021. Immunocore reported cash of over $320 million at December 31, 2021, having had 2020 operating burn of approximately $130 million. We expect net revenue inflows from Kimmtrak to partly offset spend in 2022 and beyond.
Our conviction on Immunocore's commercial outlook for Kimmtrak, as well as our belief in the platform to deliver significant additional product candidates over the coming years underscored our decision to seek to take advantage of the current market weakness to add to our position in Immunocore. We acquired 128,000 shares over the past few months to bring our stake to 5.7% and believe that these shares will prove to represent very good value over time. Turning to Poseida on slide nine. Poseida has endured a very tough year on the market, with the current market capitalization representing only a modest premium to its cash balance.
However, we remain steadfast on the scientific and clinical differentiation offered by Poseida's cell and gene therapy technology platforms, the potential of its clinical programs and the near-term potential of the company's value inflection points and use flow to generate value. Poseida's early data for its autologous CAR-T product candidate P-PSMA-101 to treat metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients are very promising. The early data, including a recent update on the first 14 patients dosed, clearly show activity in the solid tumor indication, and we are seeing some emerging evidence of durability despite the fact that the data only include patients treated at low doses of the therapy to date. An acceptable safety profile is also emerging and we look forward to additional, more mature data from this program during 2022.
Poseida has two universal donor or allogeneic programs in Phase I. P-BCMA-ALLO1 is the next generation allogeneic BCMA-targeting CAR-T product candidate. Following the clearance of the IND for this program by the FDA last November, the company announced that its P-BCMA-101 autologous CAR-T program, which is the first generation program, is to be wound down. Poseida has also advanced its allogeneic program targeting MUC1C. Poseida's program P-MUC1C-ALLO1 has the potential to treat a wide range of solid tumors, including breast and ovarian cancer, and we expect some early data from this program before the end of 2022 also. Poseida has also been progressing its gene therapy platform and pipeline and completed a gene therapy collaboration with Takeda in October 2021 to initially include up to six liver and hematopoietic stem cell-directed indications.
The collaboration included a $45 million upfront payment with total biobucks value of up to $3.6 billion. Poseida recently reported a year-end cash balance of $206 million. This cash balance has recently been supplemented by an additional $30 million of debt on attractive commercial terms. We estimate that the company has cash runway beyond the middle of 2023, and the company has several potential value inflection points in the interim. Furthermore, the company has recently signaled a willingness to execute additional business development deals, and we see this as a possible attractive source of non-dilutive capital, given current market conditions and given Poseida's broad and largely proprietary pipeline.
We've taken advantage of the weakness in Poseida's share price to acquire an additional 500,000 shares over the past few months, bringing Malin's stake to over 15.5%. Again, we see strong potential of generating significant returns on this additional investment over time. We continue to engage very closely with Poseida management, and we are committed to protecting our stake at this level as we look ahead to what we believe are important potential milestones and value inflection points in the months ahead. Turning to Viamet on slide 10 of the presentation. We expect Viamet's successor, Mycovia, to gain U.S. FDA approval of its antifungal drug, oteseconazole, for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis, an unmet need in women's health over the next couple of months.
Product approval and a subsequent commercial launch will result in the initiation of cash inflows to Viamet shareholders, including Malin, and we anticipate Malin will receive approximately $13 million of cash from Mycovia during 2022. Turning to Xenex, which following a blowout year in 2020, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, reverted to a more sustainable level of growth in 2021. The company is working on several initiatives to further expand its footprint and also to differentiate its technology. Beyond these assets, we continue to work closely with our early-stage and legacy assets to support their innovation and development with the aim of helping these companies to mature into viable and more valuable enterprises or to generate capital realization opportunities for Malin.
This work yielded a gain of $3 million from one of our legacy assets in January 2022 when we divested our previously written off interest in Jaan Health. The targeted milestones and value inflection potential from where our companies are today are set out on slide 11. For Immunocore, we expect a fast launch of Kimmtrak in the U.S. and further approvals and commercial launches of this drug in Europe, Australia and Canada. The company has also signaled the further data update on the MAGE-A4 program during 2022 following the encouraging data presented last year. Initial data on the proprietary program that we believe represents Immunocore's largest commercial opportunity, PRAME, should be available by mid-2022.
As mentioned earlier, we believe that the early and encouraging MAGE-A4 data are informative and relevant as we look forward to that initial PRAME data. Poseida will have a further data update on its prostate cancer program later this year. These data could build on the very positive trend seen to date, and we expect the data will be more mature and include patients beyond the very low therapeutic doses used in patients so far. Poseida's other important milestones in the months ahead include dosing patients with its allogeneic or universal donor versions of the CAR-T technology in both solid and liquid tumor settings. This could facilitate data updates on both programs before the end of 2022.
For Viamet, as we said, we expect the successor company, Mycovia, to gain a commercial approval over the coming months, which will result in the initiation of milestones and royalty payments to Viamet shareholders, including Malin. For Xenex, we're targeting top-line growth and continued traction of their new business initiatives. In terms of our strategy and outlook, which is set out on slide 10, our continued primary focus is on protecting and enhancing the value of our positions in our existing investee companies while these businesses work towards reaching important clinical and operational milestones.
We have seen that successful achievements of significant milestones can catalyze attractive investment realization opportunities for Malin, and we remain focused on working with our investee companies to maximize the value potential of these businesses, as well as assessing realization opportunities when we believe optimal value inflection points have been reached. Several of Malin's remaining investee companies made positive scientific, clinical and operational progress over the past few years, and we believe they are well positioned to generate transactional and business development activity over the next year. As we seek to maximize shareholder returns, we will continue to judiciously deploy capital into strategically aligned opportunities with appropriate risk return and maturity profiles. To date, our further deployment of capital has been focused on our existing assets, where we have taken advantage of the weak biotech capital markets to acquire additional shares in Immunocore and Poseida.
Based on our extensive knowledge of these companies and the segments in which they operate, we see significant value creation potential on the capital we have invested over time. We continue to assess other capital development and or capital deployment and strategic business opportunities which can augment overall returns to our shareholders. We look forward to the year ahead with optimism that the clinical and operational progress that our companies are making will further translate into tangible value creation for Malin and its shareholders. I'll now hand the call over to the operator who will open it up for Q&A. Thank you.
Now our first question today comes from Alan Smyth from Davy. Alan, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Oh, morning, Darragh. Morning, Pat. Alan here from Davy. Thanks for taking my questions. I have three, please to kick off. The first one was just to draw out some of the points you made in your introductory comments. You've clearly reinforced your confidence in both Poseida and Immunocore by incrementally increasing your stakes. But, you know, as you flagged, both stocks have fallen sharply this year. Do you think there's anything, you know, from a broader market perspective that's concerning investors beyond the broader sell-off in the sector? I'm thinking in particular for Poseida, given its relative underperformance.
The second question is, again, if you know the backdrop of very significant progress you've made in 2021, perhaps you could give us more color on how you think about the company's priorities on a go-forward basis, both from a capital deployment and a returns perspective. Just finally, a related question. As you think through these priorities and with cash inflows due to come in this year, how should we think about your minimum cash levels that you'll be comfortable with? Thank you.
Thanks, Alan. Yeah. I think in terms of Immunocore and Poseida, I think as you've correctly said, the biotech market has significantly fallen over the past year. It peaked in February 2021 and is down over 50% since then. I suppose the falls in Poseida and Immunocore in that period are largely in line with the overall declines in the biotech market. We have seen that certain segments of the biotech market have been harder hit. Cell and gene therapy in particular has been one of the most impacted segments of the overall biotech sector. Then we've seen some other attributes where stocks have been harder hit.
I think a lack of news flow and cash runway concerns are also putting pressure on stocks. I think both of them are applicable to Poseida in particular. Not so much for Immunocore. Poseida didn't have the level of news flow that we would've hoped in 2021. There are some concerns over cash runway, albeit that I think they're going to be solved in the pretty near term or are currently being solved. I think the outlook for both are very positive from here. As we said during the prepared remarks, I think the business fundamentals are very sound for both companies. In terms of Immunocore, as we've learned about them individually, we're very bullish, as we said, on the launch of Kimmtrak.
I think demand is looking like it'll be very strong. We've got very good news in terms of the pricing outlook in the U.S., and I think that'll follow through in other jurisdictions as well. The duration of therapy I think is going to be a lot more significant than the Street is estimating. Also, in terms of where the Phase III duration was coming out. I think in a commercial setting it's gonna be much higher than that. We saw the data on MAGE very early, very low expression levels of the MAGE antigen in patients, but evidence of the mechanism of action and safety profile emerging, which is similar to what we saw on Kimmtrak.
I think for this new modality, we're starting to see how it works and we're starting to see consistency across the programs. I think given that MAGE-A4 is a similar antigen type then to the next program, PRAME, as we said, I think that bodes very well for the PRAME program. We're expecting data on both programs, MAGE-A4 data update and initial data on PRAME during 2022. I think there's, you know, plenty to look forward to there. I think the fundamentals are very good. Strong cash position as well, with EUR 320 million of cash at the end of the year.
In terms of Poseida, I think more broadly speaking, I think we're seeing more and more evidence of the differentiation of this technology based on some of the stumbles that peers are having. We're seeing evidence that non-viral vectors are gonna be critical in cell and gene therapy going forward, given some of the difficulties that the companies are having with viral vectors in both cell and gene therapy. Poseida now has three P hase I programs. I think one of the concerns that the market would have had in 2021 in terms of lack of news flow, I think that'll be solved in 2022 with plenty of tangible updates to give to the market.
I suppose in terms of funding, which certainly is a concern for that has sort of overshadowed the stock, I think with the additional debt that the company has drawn down in recent weeks, they are fully funded beyond the middle of 2023. In recent communications with the market, the company has indicated a willingness to execute business development. I think that makes sense, given the full gene therapy pipeline is proprietary. It's also maturing to an extent where spend is gonna be creeping up. It's getting broader, obviously with three phase I's and a couple of other programs that will enter the clinic either later this year or early next year.
Then obviously, in executing a BD deal, it's a potential source of non-dilutive capital. Thereby, therefore hopefully, completely removing that pressure on the stock as a result of the cash concerns and also, the potential validation of executing, cell therapy deals. I think, you know, that's how we're thinking about the stocks. I think there's plenty going on there in 2022. Obviously, we can't predict where the market's gonna go. It's down again over the last few days or yesterday. You know, I think it's really around delivery of news flow from both of those companies, which I think there's plenty of potential of that over the coming year.
In terms of your second question then, in terms of business strategy, as you said, we remain primarily focused on managing the existing assets towards hitting those key milestones and then generating those realization events. As we seek to maximize shareholder returns, we will continue to look at value accretive opportunities, and we will deploy capital where we see them. Obviously, as we've said, the opportunities we've seen to date that we believe are most accretive to overall shareholder returns are in our existing assets due to our knowledge of those companies and insights that we have over many years.
We do continue to assess other opportunities and where we believe that those opportunities would be accretive to overall shareholder returns and more broadly, I suppose the benefit to our shareholders over time. We will be keen to execute them as well. In terms of cash runway, I think it depends on, you know, I suppose that business development activity that we're seeking to execute in terms of any accretive value opportunities that we see. We did hold back about EUR 33 million following the return of capital, and that was with a view to assessing opportunities within the existing portfolio.
Externally we are expecting further inflows, as we mentioned during the year, both from Viamet and potential inflow related to Kymab, and potentially some other realization events which will buffer cash and then we assess the use of that cash, the opportunities that are arising. You know, we are committed then to continually return any excess capital of the business to our shareholders in an efficient and expedient manner.
Great. Thanks for that, Darragh. It's very helpful.
Thank you, Alan. As a reminder, that's star followed by one if you would like to ask a question today. Our next question comes from Alistair Campbell of Liberum. Alistair, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thanks very much. Thanks Darragh. Thanks, Pat , and well done on a superb 2021 in terms of delivering against your strategic objectives. Listen, I just want to dig in a bit more detail on a few areas if possible. Can I start with Mycovia as oteseconazole. By my calculations it probably has drifted past an action date at the regulators. Just to get a sense of your level of comfort that it is on track for an approval this year. And also, if you can discuss how Mycovia has gone about preparing for commercialization, that'd be helpful. On Immunocore, I mean, what's intriguing me here is that we've seen success with tebentafusp and encouraging data so far with MAGE-A4.
If we see that replicated with PRAME, it sort of begins to feel like this is not just this collection of one or two products, but a genuine sort of almost transformational platform able to address lots of intracellular targets. You know, can you maybe sort of give a bit more color about the breadth of the targets that they've generated in terms of intracellular targets the technology could target? 'Cause it feels to me that could sort of genuinely open up a significant platform value for the company. Then finally, on Poseida, I mean, obviously you've had some interesting original initial data on the PSMA program. Can you just give a bit more color on sort of how much more data we should expect to get from the company during 2022? Thanks.
Okay. Thanks Alistair. Yeah, our understanding, obviously Mycovia are responsible for the development and commercialization of the drug. Our understanding is that there is a slight delay in terms of the approval, and that's really in terms of the FDA review. We don't see anything concerning or we're not hearing anything concerning. We are aware that the review is nearing completion, and that should put us in a position of a possible approval within the next month or so. We are expecting that in certainly the first half of this year, hopefully much sooner than that. Nothing particularly concerning.
I think the FDA have missed a few of those PDUFA dates recently just because of the overall pressure that the agency faced, I think, over the past year or so with COVID related drug approval. Nothing majorly concerning and hopefully an approval imminent on that drug. In terms of commercialization, Mycovia have built out an infrastructure to initially launch the drug. That remains their intent that they will launch the drug themselves. It obviously is a drug that will be prescribed by a vast and broad network of OBGYNs and physicians. It will require a large sales force over time.
I think it will be, you know, we've always anticipated it would be a very gradual launch. We do expect Mycovia to potentially look at, you know, options in terms of scaling that launch over time. I think they're on track to initially launch the drug themselves following an approval, which will hopefully, as I said, be fairly imminent. I think on Immunocore, I think you're right. I think we are seeing the platform. We always invested in Immunocore on the basis of it being a platform. We've gotten approval in a previously unmet need.
Now we're seeing emerging data from the MAGE-A4, which I think the most encouraging thing for me in that data was that we were seeing consistencies across the biomarker data, the initial T-cell activation data, which is all pointing to a similar type of mechanism of action that we saw on Kimmtrak. We're seeing some consistency there. We're starting to understand the mechanism of action and safety profile of the drug because it is a new modality, as you said. I think it does open up you know the use of that modality in a wide variety of targets. The company has previously said that they've identified up to 200 targets that they think this modality can target.
I think it is a, you know, very vast platform. I suppose given you know the data on MAGE-A4, the fact that it is the same cancer-testis antigen as PRAME. I think that you know we are seeing a significant de-risking of the platform and hopefully huge potential value creation potential over time. You know the development of therapies in previously unmet needs for patients. Then on Poseida I think in terms of the data that we expect over the course of the year I think those 14 patients of data or that was the last update. We would expect to get that to somewhere like 25- 30 patients.
The phase I would be complete during 2022. Potentially, you know, based on that data, moving into a P hase II study at that point. That's the target on that one, and we'd expect the company would be in a position to present that data before the end of the year and hopefully even have initiated the Phase II study at that point as well, obviously with good efficacy. In terms of the other programs, I think, you know, the Phase I's are just being initiated on those programs at the moment. Given that they're allogeneic, you know, and that obviously is a pretty new area of cell therapy.
I think we should be able to see some data of initial proof of concept of Poseida's technology as an allogeneic therapy before the end of 2022, particularly on the MUC1C, which again is the double novelty of being a solid tumor target and also being an allogeneic therapy. Obviously huge potential validation for the platform if we can see some efficacy from that program in particular.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Thank you, Alistair. We currently have no further questions. I'll hand the call back over to Darragh Lyons for any closing remarks.
Great. Thank you, operator. Thank you all for joining us this morning on our corporate update call. We will meet many of you, virtually or in person in the weeks ahead. We look forward to continuing to communicate our progress with you beyond that.