Title
| PharmAbcine, FAQs from the general shareholder meeting
|
Category
| Public Notices
|
April 13, 2020
< FAQs from the general shareholder meeting >
We (or “PharmAbcine”) prepared another FAQ to better answer some questions raised during the Q&A session of the General Shareholder Meeting on March 27, 2020. We recommend viewers should refer to the previous FAQ because this FAQ only addresses additional questions.
1. PR (Public Relations) activities did not seem impressive in 2019. What is your plan for PR?
Management acknowledges that PR activities have not been sufficient. Our PR process is in a major overhaul and there will be many changes. The biggest change probably is to have the maintenance of a PR to-do list at the management level. This list identifies topics, target dates, and authors. We will regularly update the list and actively communicate with investors about important activities, including conferences, clinical trials, and patents.
The use of a PR agency, as suggested by some shareholders, is under review. However, we would like to be more careful with the use of a PR agency. We used a PR agency in 2019, but it apparently did not work well as expected. We will consider having an in-house PR function on our own if deemed necessary.
As for IR (Investor Relations), we are preparing a more reader-friendly IR slide deck. It will be posted on our website when it is ready. We expect to update the IR slide deck quarterly. We will also prepare a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) based on questions received from both IR and PR activities and post it on our website.
Finally, we would like to inform our shareholders that we set up an office in Yeouido, Seoul as part of a plan to reinforce IR and PR activities.
2. Postponement of AACR 2020 and PMC-402 update
Our plan was to present the mechanism and preclinical animal study results of PMC-402 at AACR 2020. The postponement of AACR 2020 prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic came as a big disappointment for us. We had high expectations for our presentation because the results were encouraging. It was particularly disappointing that many important meetings associated with plans of clinical study of PMC-402 had to be canceled and deferred. Referring to a recent post on April 6 on their official website, it is announced that AACR 2020 will be held as two virtual online meetings, AACR Virtual Annual Meeting I on April 27-28 and AACR Virtual Annual Meeting II on June 22-24, 2020.
Regarding updates on PMC-402, in early April we entered into a strategic partnership with Samsung Biologics for the development and manufacturing of PMC-402. Under this agreement, Samsung will provide a full scope of its CDO (Contract Development Organization) services from cell line development, process development, cGMP clinical manufacturing to IND filing support. We will begin IND enabling studies of PMC-402 this year and initiate a phase 1 study by 2021.
3. Resignation of Dr. Sung-Woo Kim
Many people are wondering why Dr. Sung-Woo Kim, former CFO and CBO of PharmAbcine, left the company in March this year. The main reason for his resignation has to do with his health. There are a number of difficulties Dr. Kim had to face before and after the IPO. He had to make enormous efforts to raise funding as a CFO of PharmAbcine and a sharp decline in share price post IPO took a toll on his health. As such, he decided to take a break from these stressors and focus on his health and rehabilitation.
Dr. Kim is one of the founding members and PharmAbcine would not have been able to stand where it is now if it were not for his contribution. The company and its employees are all grateful for his philanthropic sacrifices. He was an important key member of this company with great talents and we certainly look forward to working with him again. Some speculate that Dr. Kim sold all of his shares of PharmAbcine subsequent to his departure. We recently confirmed with Dr. Kim that it was not true.
Thanks to the business expansion after the IPO, Dr. Kim’s role will be succeeded by Dr. Hyunsun Park (CBO and COO) and Paul Chulbum Kim (CFO). Dr. Park has more than 20-year experience in drug discovery and development and strategic alliance in the biopharma industry. Paul Kim is an accounting and finance expert whose experiences encompass US public accounting, global investment banking, and asset management.
4. Update on clinical trials and pipelines
The coronavirus pandemic has deteriorated the business environment globally, forcing companies to deal with uncertainties. We are already experiencing the impact. For example, we are already having difficulties in delivering drugs overseas to clinical trial sites as countries closed their border and fewer flights are allowed in.
The uncertainties are making most companies more conservative in their use of cash. We strongly feel that our efforts should expand beyond cost-cutting. All that said, we intend to make two changes.
First, as for the two olinvacimab-pembrolizumab combination trials for 1) rGBM (recurrent glioblastoma) and 2) mTNBC (metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer), we will focus more on mTNBC. This is because we find the combination trial for mTNBC more promising in terms of data and costs. Second, we will focus on development of two substances, PMC-402 and PMC 309, instead of having all three molecules, PMC-402, -309, and -401s develop to the clinical stage.
April 13, 2020
< FAQs from the general shareholder meeting >
We (or “PharmAbcine”) prepared another FAQ to better answer some questions raised during the Q&A session of the General Shareholder Meeting on March 27, 2020. We recommend viewers should refer to the previous FAQ because this FAQ only addresses additional questions.
1. PR (Public Relations) activities did not seem impressive in 2019. What is your plan for PR?
Management acknowledges that PR activities have not been sufficient. Our PR process is in a major overhaul and there will be many changes. The biggest change probably is to have the maintenance of a PR to-do list at the management level. This list identifies topics, target dates, and authors. We will regularly update the list and actively communicate with investors about important activities, including conferences, clinical trials, and patents.
The use of a PR agency, as suggested by some shareholders, is under review. However, we would like to be more careful with the use of a PR agency. We used a PR agency in 2019, but it apparently did not work well as expected. We will consider having an in-house PR function on our own if deemed necessary.
As for IR (Investor Relations), we are preparing a more reader-friendly IR slide deck. It will be posted on our website when it is ready. We expect to update the IR slide deck quarterly. We will also prepare a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) based on questions received from both IR and PR activities and post it on our website.
Finally, we would like to inform our shareholders that we set up an office in Yeouido, Seoul as part of a plan to reinforce IR and PR activities.
2. Postponement of AACR 2020 and PMC-402 update
Our plan was to present the mechanism and preclinical animal study results of PMC-402 at AACR 2020. The postponement of AACR 2020 prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic came as a big disappointment for us. We had high expectations for our presentation because the results were encouraging. It was particularly disappointing that many important meetings associated with plans of clinical study of PMC-402 had to be canceled and deferred. Referring to a recent post on April 6 on their official website, it is announced that AACR 2020 will be held as two virtual online meetings, AACR Virtual Annual Meeting I on April 27-28 and AACR Virtual Annual Meeting II on June 22-24, 2020.
Regarding updates on PMC-402, in early April we entered into a strategic partnership with Samsung Biologics for the development and manufacturing of PMC-402. Under this agreement, Samsung will provide a full scope of its CDO (Contract Development Organization) services from cell line development, process development, cGMP clinical manufacturing to IND filing support. We will begin IND enabling studies of PMC-402 this year and initiate a phase 1 study by 2021.
3. Resignation of Dr. Sung-Woo Kim
Many people are wondering why Dr. Sung-Woo Kim, former CFO and CBO of PharmAbcine, left the company in March this year. The main reason for his resignation has to do with his health. There are a number of difficulties Dr. Kim had to face before and after the IPO. He had to make enormous efforts to raise funding as a CFO of PharmAbcine and a sharp decline in share price post IPO took a toll on his health. As such, he decided to take a break from these stressors and focus on his health and rehabilitation.
Dr. Kim is one of the founding members and PharmAbcine would not have been able to stand where it is now if it were not for his contribution. The company and its employees are all grateful for his philanthropic sacrifices. He was an important key member of this company with great talents and we certainly look forward to working with him again. Some speculate that Dr. Kim sold all of his shares of PharmAbcine subsequent to his departure. We recently confirmed with Dr. Kim that it was not true.
Thanks to the business expansion after the IPO, Dr. Kim’s role will be succeeded by Dr. Hyunsun Park (CBO and COO) and Paul Chulbum Kim (CFO). Dr. Park has more than 20-year experience in drug discovery and development and strategic alliance in the biopharma industry. Paul Kim is an accounting and finance expert whose experiences encompass US public accounting, global investment banking, and asset management.
4. Update on clinical trials and pipelines
The coronavirus pandemic has deteriorated the business environment globally, forcing companies to deal with uncertainties. We are already experiencing the impact. For example, we are already having difficulties in delivering drugs overseas to clinical trial sites as countries closed their border and fewer flights are allowed in.
The uncertainties are making most companies more conservative in their use of cash. We strongly feel that our efforts should expand beyond cost-cutting. All that said, we intend to make two changes.
First, as for the two olinvacimab-pembrolizumab combination trials for 1) rGBM (recurrent glioblastoma) and 2) mTNBC (metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer), we will focus more on mTNBC. This is because we find the combination trial for mTNBC more promising in terms of data and costs. Second, we will focus on development of two substances, PMC-402 and PMC 309, instead of having all three molecules, PMC-402, -309, and -401s develop to the clinical stage.