Poolbeg Pharma CEO to use IPO proceeds for 1st severe flu drug

➤ Poolbeg Pharma preparing to list on London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market.

➤ CEO will seek acquisitions in the infectious disease market, exploring POLB 001 for severe flu and beyond.

➤ Intends to partner with pharmaceutical companies before its experimental therapies reach phase 3 trials.

Established as a spinout of Open Orphan PLC in March 2021, London-based Poolbeg Pharma Ltd. is focused on infectious diseases, a global market estimated to be worth over $250 billion by 2025. CEO Jeremy Skillington spoke to S&P Global Market Intelligence about plans to produce the first severe flu medicine, the company's decision to list in London and finding licensing partners to carry its therapies through to phase 3, the final and most expensive stage of clinical trials.

The following is an edited transcript of the interview.

S&P Global Market Intelligence: Why are you targeting severe flu?

Jeremy Skillington: There's a lot of interest in these immune modulators that, once the body is fighting hard to get rid of a virus and if it's failing, if the immune system is ... over-eager, that in itself causes damage. So from a severe flu standpoint, there is nothing out there. If you get symptoms, you have Tamiflu for the first 48 hours, but it's clearly stated this is not prescribed for [anything thereafter]. So that's when things go downhill. And [it's] just [intravenous] fluids and hoping for the best.

What we plan to do is block that immune cascade, that cytokine storm, using POLB 001.

But that can be applied to other viruses as well. And we're doing some exploratory work in that area. We don't talk about that, because we don't want to name viruses … so for POLB 001 we'll start with severe influenza, but the potential can be applied to other aspiring viral infections beyond that.

And pharma love this ... they love if one drug hits many diseases.

Will you fund phase 3 trials yourselves?

We're going to bring molecules forward to be phase 2 [trial] ready. So we're going to get that early human data, early human challenge data, that will be a proof of mechanism, proof of principle. And we don't intend to go to phase three.

There was no flu season this year due to COVID-19-related restrictions reducing transmission. What is the outlook?

The fear is that when the flu season comes back, it'll come roaring back, because the flu virus mutates a lot quicker. And as you know, it links in with ... the way the COVID variants arise when people are infected, there's mutations and what comes out the other end is obviously, from an evolution standpoint, advantageous to the virus. So similarly with flu, it's got 24 months to mutate and what comes back out, people are very fearful [of].

But the interesting thing from our approach, targeting the immune system ... [is] it's independent of variant. So whatever the virus is, it's how your immune system responds to that. And again, it's targeted at severe flu where there's no medications currently. We have a molecule [where] safety has already been demonstrated, we've demonstrated early proof of concept and it's a small molecule. We are making an IV formulation because the sickest patients who come into hospital may not be in a position to take a pill. But it's a case of having a stockpile of this drug ready.

I think the world has gotten the kick that it needed [from COVID]. We have to do a better job of being prepared.

Why did you opt for an IPO on AIM instead of Nasdaq?

The key differentiator [is] we're going to be very capital efficient. We're very excited about moving POLB 001 forward very rapidly. It's going to be a conveyor belt of assets that we will partner regularly. And I think what you will find is that this is the starting capital, but then regular partnering will fund the company going forward.

Any clinical-stage license deal would be far greater than the raise from an IPO, so that will fund the company moving forward. And if, in two to three years' time, we want to expand greatly, then Nasdaq's an option.