Now it's time to talk to BioInvent and Martin Welschof, CEO of the company. A very warm welcome.
Thank you very much. Happy to be here.
Yes. Could you give us an introduction to BioInvent?
Absolutely. BioInvent is a clinical stage company and a very integrated company. That means we have discovery of targets and antibodies. We do the preclinical development as well as the clinical development and manufacturing in-house. That basically gives us a very good platform to move quickly from discovery into the clinical stage. On top of that, Björn Frendéus, the CSO, and his team, they're doing excellent science, and we're currently translating broadly the science that he has implemented and discovered basically into the clinic, which means we're pushing a broad portfolio. We're not focusing on one or two programs, but currently we have four clinical programs ongoing, and by the end of this year, a fifth one.
A broad portfolio, what you do is you develop antibodies for cancer.
That's correct. We are in immuno- oncology, and we have a discovery platform which allows us to screen directly on patient material that we receive fresh from the local hospital in Lund. Like this, we also make sure that we really target structures that make sense and could have an impact in cancer therapy.
Is it different types of cancer, or is it just one specific type?
We're going quite broad. If there's one focus, it's probably more in solid cancer. We have currently one liquid cancer, one lymphoma program ongoing, and all the other programs are predominantly in solid cancer. There's actually one program, BI-1808, where we also will have a rare T-cell lymphoma, which is also a liquid cancer, the majority is solid cancers. Across the board, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and other cancers as well.
You recently made the transition from being a research company to a preclinical stage company. Are you still in preclinical stage or in clinical stage?
We're in clinical stage. We have four programs in the clinic, so we're definitely a clinical stage company. As I said, the 5th program will start early next year, so we'll do the CTA application by the end of this year. We made a successful transition. At the beginning when I joined, there was a very small clinical development team, around Andres McAllister, who was our Chief Medical Officer. That team we have extended, so we have now in-house operational and also regulatory capabilities and more program managers for the clinical trials. We're definitely a clinical stage development company now, and that was actually rather smooth, that transition. Yeah.
When can we get some results?
The first readout we had earlier this year, where we could show the first data for BI-1206 in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, where we see early signs of efficacy, nice overall response rate, but also a nice duration of response. We will update on that at the end of this year around ASH, where we also present some data on that program. We also give an update on the first solid cancer program at the end of this year. The other programs will follow. Since we have five programs by next year, so there will be a very nice news flow and milestones over next year and the years to come.
Exciting. Thank you very much, Martin.
Thank you.