Nordic Life Science 1
LS: Describe your business strategy? You said rec
ently that you are committed to progressing bemcentinib through to regulatory approval. What happens after that? RG: Clearly biotech is a science driven business, in our case we are focused on understanding the biology that drives aggressive cancer and developing AXL inhibitors to improve patient treatment outcomes. We are defining our registration path and will pursue those clinical trials in the near future, and at the same time prepare for commercialization. Clearly that requires different skill sets that we can build, or indeed could access through partnerships, we are flexible and open to both possibilities. The AML market is substantially smaller than the NSCSL market and could more easily be accessed with a smaller in-house commercial team. NLS: What lessons have you learned from your different strategic partnerships? RG: Like all relationships they must be treated with respect and cared for. Communication is key, and it is important to understand each other’s priorities and work together, but sometimes these change and one must be flexible and open minded. NLS: Describe your developments in companion diagnostics? RG: In our experience, approximately 50% of patients seem to have high levels of AXL in their cancer and we can identify this with our companion diagnostics (CDx). In parallel we are developing the CDx so that we can prospectively identify patients who will benefit from taking bemcentinib. In AML we can identify responding patients by measuring the levels of AXL in the blood. We call this ‘sAXL’, which is very convenient. In solid tumors we take a biopsy and stain for AXL and compute a predictive score we call ‘cAXL’, to identify the responding patients. In NSCLC we see 3x longer patient benefit in cAXL +ve patients and in AML almost half the patients are sAXL and they report a complete response. NLS: What’s next for BerGenBio and what results can we expect during 2020? RG: We are in the process of taking scientific advice from the FDA and EMA. We will report 2L trial data from AML and NSCLC, and when combined these will inform our strategy and our ambition is to initiate randomized studies with the potential for conditional approval. NLS: Do you have any advice for Nordic life science companies, perhaps aiming for the stock exchange? RG: There are pros and cons of both private and public ownership. Certainly you should not go to public market too early, the company must have robust assets and a clear development plan, and an organization that can support its strategy. Shareholder communication is very important and carefully managing investor relations is essential. Valuation is always important to shareholders and is best developed and defended by milestone delivery – but sometimes on the stock exchange external factors can impact your share price, over which you have no control. NLS: Advantages/disadvantages of being a Norwegian life science company? RG: Norwegian life science companies certainly benefit from a local conscientious and skilled scientific talent pool, which is especially valuable in the early days of research and technology development. Moving into clinical development requires an industry knowledge and experience there is limited – but growing; clusters and long term government innovation initiatives have an important role here, and more could be done. There are very valuable and well managed sources of non-dilutive funding available that are extremely useful and offer win-win project funding, and we enjoy the benefits of several grant supported R&D projects and well-funded collaborations in clinical research. The investor base is supportive, access to capital is possible and the business environment is buoyant. NLS “NORWEGIAN LIFE SCIENCE COMPANIES CERTAINLY BENEFIT FROM A LOCAL CONSCIENTIOUS AND SKILLED SCIENTIFIC TALENT POOL, WHICH IS ESPECIALLY VALUABLE IN THE EARLY DAYS OF RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT.” 24 NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG