MEDIVIR AB - YEAR-END REPORT JANUARY - DECEMBER 2021

HUDDINGE, Sweden, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

October – December

Financial summary for the quarter          

• Net turnover amounted to SEK 13.9 (1.5) million.
• The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to SEK -23.5 (-10.6) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK -0.44 (-0.46) and SEK -0.44 (-0.46) respectively.
• Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -5.4 (-1.0) million.
• Liquid assets and short-term investments at the end of the period amounted to SEK 221.2 (70.0) million.

Significant events during the quarter           

• In October, the Board of Directors appointed Jens Lindberg as new CEO of Medivir. Jens Lindberg has extensive experience from the pharmaceutical industry and the field of Oncology. He joins from Sedana Medical where he has been VP Commercial Operations and acting CEO.
• IGM Biosciences, Inc. initiated its clinical study in solid cancers with birinapant (IGM-9427) in combination with IGM's DR5 agonist antibody IGM-8444. The purpose of this first clinical trial with the combination is to evaluate safety and tolerability.
• In November, results from an investigator-initiated phase II clinical trial of remetinostat in patients with squamous cell carcinoma were published.
• In December, it was announced that the first patient with hepatocellular carcinoma had started treatment with fostroxacitabine bralpamide (MIV-818) in the phase 1b / 2a combination study.

January - December

Financial summary for the period          

• Net turnover amounted to SEK 25.5 (13.9) million.
• The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to SEK -59.5 (-38.5) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK -1.20 (-1.75) and SEK -1.20 (-1.75) respectively.
• Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -48.7 (-58.1) million.
• Liquid assets and short-term investments at the end of the period amounted to SEK 221.2 (70.0) million.

Significant events after the end of the period          

• In January, it was announced that the WHO had selected fostroxacitabine bralpamide as the official generic name for the patented candidate drug MIV-818, which is in clinical development in primary liver cancer.
• Jens Lindberg assumed his position as CEO of Medivir on January 24, 2022.

Conference call for investors, analysts and the media

The Year-End Report January - December 2021 will be presented by Medivir's CEO, Jens Lindberg.

Time: Tuesday, February 15, 2022, at 14.00 (CET).

Phone numbers for participants from:

Sweden + 46 8 566 427 06

Europe +44 33 3300 9032

US +1 646 722 4956

The conference call will also be streamed via a link on the website: www.medivir.com

The presentation will be available on Medivir's website after completion of the conference.

CEO's message

On January 24, 2022, I took over as CEO of Medivir and after my first time on the job, it is clear to me why the company managed to deliver so well on business goals in 2021. We have an extremely competent and experienced team that works dedicatedly with both our cutting-edge project fostroxacitabine bralpamide (MIV-818) and with the business development for our other assets. I hope to be able to contribute to the further strengthening of our delivery capacity in the future. Under the leadership of the company's former CEO Yilmaz Mahshid, today a board member of Medivir, and our CFO Magnus Christensen, who has been the company's interim CEO since May, Medivir has made significant progress in 2021.

Medivir's drug development focuses on a very promising and proprietary clinical project, fostroxacitabine bralpamide (formerly MIV-818), with a clear therapeutic target, where the unmet medical needs remain extremely large, despite recent clinical advances. Fostroxacitabine bralpamide has the potential to become the first liver-targeted and orally administered drug that can help patients with various cancers of the liver. Its unique mechanism of action means that it does not directly compete with other treatment options but instead enables combination treatments with other drug alternatives in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide and HCC is the most common form of cancer that arises in the liver. The effect of today's medications is often limited and mortality remains at a high level.

After the end of the year, MIV-818 received the official generic name fostroxacitabine bralpamide from the World Health Organization WHO, something we see as an important step towards a product for the treatment of HCC.

The clinical development program for fostroxacitabine bralpamide has passed a number of milestones during the year. In April, it was announced that the top-line results from the monotherapy part of the phase Ib study were positive with a good safety and tolerability profile. They were later presented in more detail at the ESMO Congress in September and aroused great interest. In May, the design for the next step, the phase 1b/2a combination study with fostroxacitabine bralpamide for liver cancer, was presented. The regulatory approval from the British Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for the study was obtained at the end of August, and from the South Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in November.

In December, the first patient with HCC was dosed in the phase 1b/2a combination study with fostroxacitabine bralpamide, which is given in combination with two other medicines, either with Lenvima®, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or with Keytruda®, an anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor. Lenvima® and Keytruda® (approved in the USA) are currently approved as mono therapy treatments of HCC.

The licensing agreement with IGM Biosciences, Inc., which gives IGM the global and exclusive rights to develop birinapant, could potentially provide milestone payments up to a total of approximately USD 350 million as well as tiered royalties up to "mid-teens". At the time of signing in January 2021, Medivir received USD 1 million, and when IGM in early November initiated a phase I clinical trial in solid cancers with birinapant in combination with its own DR5 agonist antibody IGM-8444, it was followed by an additional USD 1.5 million. Of course, we look forward to IGM's continued clinical development of birinapant.

Also for remetinostat, a number of steps forward made during the year should be noted. Positive results from the investigator-initiated phase II clinical trial of remetinostat in patients with squamous cell carcinoma were published in November in the scientific journal JAMA Dermatology. Promising results from the investigator-initiated phase II study with remetinostat for basal cell carcinoma were published in August in the scientific journal Clinical Cancer Research. Through a renegotiated multi-party agreement, Medivir was able to further strengthen the business development potential for remetinostat in August.

Business development and collaborations are central to Medivir's success. Birinapant is a good example of this and we see opportunities for remetinostat and MIV-711, but also in other smaller projects. In early 2021, a licensing agreement was entered into with Ubiquigent for the preclinical research program USP7.

Thanks to the financing that was successfully carried out at the beginning of the year and provided the company with approximately SEK 223 million before transaction costs, we are entering 2022 with resources and business development opportunities that provide good conditions for continuing the clinical development program for our cutting-edge project fostroxacitabine bralpamide. Our goal is to make it an effective drug for liver cancer that makes a real difference for patients and for healthcare, and thus also for our shareholders. I look forward to keeping you informed about Medivir's continued development.

Jens Lindberg

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact

Magnus Christensen, CFO, +46 (0)8 5468 3100
E-mail: [email protected]

This report has not been subject to auditors' review. 

The information was submitted for publication at 08.30 CET on February 15, 2022.

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SOURCE Medivir