Good afternoon, so my name is Henrik Bergentoft, and I am the CFO of Oncopeptides. Happy to be here to present for you, so Oncopeptides is a company that actually celebrates 25 years this year. It's been around since 2000, on the stock market since 2017. It is a Swedish biotech company specialized in difficult-to-treat cancer diseases, and right now we're doing so by commercializing our approved drug Pepaxti in Europe, and on top of that, we also have a very innovative pipeline. Even though the company has been around for quite some time, we are only in the beginning of a very expansive phase now, and this expansion is based on the commercialization in Europe, also our ongoing partnerships, discussions, and our next generation innovations.
And we are doing this with some 80 employees, where around about half are here in Stockholm and in Solna headquarters and our R&D facility. And the remaining half are in the countries where we right now are commercializing Pepaxti. Our key markets, that is Germany, Spain, and Italy, and Austria is also included there. And where we are not present ourselves, we like to engage in partnerships. The ones that we talk most about are the ones that we have in South Korea and Greece. Our commercialization in Europe is solely based on the fact that we have an approved drug in Europe since August 2022. So that's important to remember. It's an approved drug. The drug is called Pepaxti. And the Pepaxti drug is treating people with the cancer form multiple myeloma. I'll do this in Swedish. Benmärgscancer is the Swedish phrase for it.
It's one of those very, very sad things to hear from a doctor, because that is one of those cancer forms where death is the only outcome. So it is all about prolonging life. So that is what Pepaxti does. It prolongs life for people with this disease. But what it also does, it prolongs lives with pretty good conditions. I'm sure, or hopefully you have not too many own interactions with cancer, but I'm sure you've seen movies where people lose their hairs and they throw up and they just don't feel good. Pepaxti has very, very few side effects. So we like to say that we give people a longer life and a decent life. So this is a little bit where we come from. This is our CEO, Sofia Heigis, who tells us where we are right now.
Where we are right now is on a growth journey. The latest Q2 report, we could show sales numbers of SEK 19 million, which was a growth of 45% compared to Q1 2025 and a growth of 135% compared to last year. It was also the third consecutive quarter where we could demonstrate a growth rate of above 30%, quarter-over-quarter growth rate. That is also the growth rate we have said we need to accomplish in order to meet our profitability target, which is being cash flow positive or profitable by the end of 2026. Leaving the numbers a little bit, just before summer, we achieved a very important milestone in the sense that we were included in the European guidelines for treatment of multiple myeloma.
That means that the European experts in medicines pointed at Pepaxti and said, "Late line treatments of multiple myeloma, you should be using Pepaxti," and that is a very, very important recognition for the company and the drug, and of course, that helps our commercialization journey. To fund our commercialization in Europe, we just now concluded a rights issue of some SEK 150 million, which was subscribed at 157%, which of course was a very gratifying recognition of the company as such, so what is our way forward then? Like I said, the company is right now in a very expansive phase, and we attempt to expand by doing so geographically on our own, meaning that we take country by country with our own employees with Pepaxti in Europe. Where we cannot go ourselves, we'll make sure to partner in a smart way.
We will also continue to innovate purposefully. So Oncopeptides is not only one drug, Pepaxti. There's a lot of things going on in Solna in our pipeline. And by doing so, we will be able to expand the potential that the company has, which today is quantified at SEK 1.5 billion yearly sales for Pepaxti in Europe. But the pipeline potentials and also the partnership potential will add to that potential. And of course, having different streams of revenue will de-risk the case and increase the potential for the company. This is how we like to describe the potential for Oncopeptides. Core of the potential is still the approved drug Pepaxti in Europe, where yearly sales is estimated to SEK 1.5 billion. And we are currently commercializing in our key markets, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Austria.
Of course, there are human beings with these diseases outside of Europe, so there is a potential for Pepaxti outside of Europe. We like to embark on this potential by engaging in different partnerships. We already have a license agreement for the South Korean market and very interesting dialogue with a Japan license deal that I will tell a little bit more later on, and the outer circle is our pipeline and our innovations currently ongoing in our research facility, where there's a lot of potential for future drugs to come. The European commercialization is certainly the main objective for the company now, and that is bringing Pepaxti to patients in Europe, so this is a map just outlining how we take on this assignment.
We do have a regulatory approval for Pepaxti in Europe, meaning that we are all good and ready to sell it wherever in Europe from a regulatory perspective. But we also need market access and price negotiation for each country that we enter in Europe. So we have divided Europe into different phases, which is in essence a mix of the potential for Pepaxti and also the conditions for having a successful market access procedure. So phase one, that's already done since 2022. That's the country where most biotech companies start out. That is in Germany, where Switzerland and Austria are included. Phase two, main countries in phase two is Italy and Spain, where we have market access now and we are commercializing. In phase two, we also have ongoing discussions in Ireland, the Nordics, and the Netherlands.
Phases to come after that are primarily the U.K. and France, and beyond that is Central and Eastern Europe. The percentages there on the left-hand side are how big these phases are in relation to the total market potential. So you can see that, well, the phase one and the part of the phase two that we have completed is more or less 50% of that market potential of the SEK 1.5 billion. And it's also those key markets that will take us to profitability towards the end of 2026. So important to remember, we have an approved drug, and we do have market access in the countries that will take us to profitability. So what are the key drivers behind this commercialization? Below, you can see quarter- by- quarter sales, and you can certainly see that the curve is leaning upwards, and it will continue to do so.
Main data points for achieving this are that we concluded an innovative price in Germany and Austria. Innovative price means that we received a good price, and we are included in national guidelines. On the right-hand side, you see different evidence of the fact that we actually have clinical benefits proven, meaning that doctors that prescribe these drugs to patients can tell us that it works. Patients get a longer life, and they get decent living conditions. What is my time?
Your time's actually up, so we're into the Q&A. But there is a question here about the European commercialization.
How about this?
I guess, yeah, could you give us an update on the European commercialization?
I mean.
Don't say I'm not kind.
No, I mean, these are just maps outlining how the commercialization really works, because it is all about finding the doctors that are currently receiving a patient with multiple myeloma at late stage, making them understand that Pepaxti is the drug to prescribe. So the dots represent sites, clinical sites where they prescribe Pepaxti. So here we get Q2 2023, and there we get Q2 2025, two years down the line. Two years ago, we had some dots in Germany. Germany has expanded all along, and then came Spain, and then came Italy. So we are very well established in the key markets that will take us to profitability by the end of 2026.
Yeah, there's also a question here, actually, that you have achieved significant market penetration in Germany. What have you learned there that you could then apply to further your presence on other markets?
I mean, that's a very good question. And the thing is that it's fairly distinct conditions in this market. If you take Germany, for example, that is very fragmented. We have some 2,000 different clinics treating multiple myeloma, and they have about 3,000 patients per year. So then you can calculate yourself. It's not too many patients that come by each doctor. So it's really hard work to actually find all these doctors, making them prescribe. In Italy and Spain, it's much easier because it's much more concentrated, so it's fewer sites to go to.
Leaving Europe, turning towards the U.S., there are some questions about Pepaxti and the U.S. I mean, the FDA has lifted the clinical hold on the next generation of your medication. What are the next steps there, and what does the timeline look like?
I mean, good question. I mean, we have a very exciting pipeline that really consists of two platforms. One is the PDC platform where Pepaxti comes from. There we have the sister molecule to Pepaxti that is called OPD5. And that is a molecule that very well can be converted into a drug treating m ultiple myeloma in the U.S. So we are well advanced in the preclinical phase, but to advance that into the clinical phase, we will need additional financing or partnership, which is more or less the same. So we are very much engaged in different partnerships discussion, whereas it's somewhat difficult to express the timeline, but it's definitely a good number of years before we actually learn a drug because we are not yet entered into the clinical phase.
And let's see. Question here about why you sell yourself on some markets instead of going with partners on all markets. Why you've made that strategic decision?
Yeah, I mean, that's really very much a business case based on the potential in the market and what the cost to commercialize is. So in Europe and our key markets, it really makes all the sense in the world to have your own people on the ground. But for example, if you take the Middle East or Africa, where we're prescribing on a named patient basis, the potential is far less. So there makes more sense to go with distributors.
So it's a case by case.
Certainly case- by- case. Certainly case by case.
Thank you so much, Henrik, for the presentation.
Thank you.