Poolbeg Pharma has revealed a substantial year of progress in which the well-capitalised biopharmaceuticals company made strides forward in the development of key medicines.
Poolbeg is increasing its focus on rare and orphan diseases by leveraging POLB 001’s potential to treat cancer immunotherapy-induced Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS). The rare and orphan drug market is expected to grow rapidly, reaching $368 billion by 2030, and Poolbeg is well-positioned to benefit from opportunities in this space given its leadership team’s expertise.
POLB 001 showed positive results in an influenza human challenge trial and potential as an oral preventative therapy for CRS in cancer immunotherapy, with a market potential over $10 billion. Poolbeg has also achieved promising in vivo animal data post year-end.
The company is effectively utilising AI through collaborations with CytoReason and OneThree Biotech, which have yielded valuable insights into influenza and RSV through the analysis of human challenge trial data.
Poolbeg also noted progression in the Oral GLP-1R agonist program by engaging key opinion leaders and working towards a clinical trial to demonstrate oral delivery, tapping into the projected $150 billion obesity and diabetes market by 2031.
Poolbeg has an enviable cash position with £12.2m on hand as of 31st December 2023.
“We made excellent progress and hit multiple key milestones in 2023, the most important of all perhaps was filing patent applications which will give us international protection over the use of POLB 001 as a preventative therapy for cancer immunotherapy-induced CRS, in addition to the existing severe influenza indication,” said Jeremy Skillington, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Poolbeg Pharma.
“With a market opportunity exceeding US$10 billion in cancer immunotherapy-induced CRS, positive data generated, and a robust patent portfolio – POLB 001 has great potential to generate significant value for shareholders.”
On Tuesday, Poolbeg also announced an option to acquire a novel topical muco-adherent formulation of Pentoxifylline, a treatment for patient’s suffering from Behçet’s Disease from Silk Road Therapeutics Inc.
Investors were evidently encouraged by today’s updates and shares were trading 6% higher at the time of writing.