..Author: Ben Eversfield

Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month 2018

Update: Bill completes Long Kayak for Lungs

IPF patient Bill Van Nierop paddled into Wellington, South Australia yesterday to complete his 2,200km journey down the Murray River.

“The last 12kms was always going to be difficult mentally but more so as weather/river gods obviously decided to challenge to the end. After what seemed forever, at a time when Wal & I side by side in the river, Wal simply said, “you’ve done it, welcome to Wellington mate”.”

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AdAlta is so proud of what Bill has accomplished, a herculean effort to tackle this challenge while living everyday with IPF. The strides he has made in raising, not only awareness of an often-neglected disease, but also $64,000 for the Lung Foundation are beyond remarkable. Learn more about Bill’s Long Kayak for Lungs and make a donation here.

At AdAlta we are focused on progressing AD-214, our potential treatment for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Our day-to-day activities are focused on the nitty gritty details of understanding fibrosis and how AD-214 works to reduce scarring of the lungs while also raising funding to continue our work.

In the Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month of September we take a step back and focus on the patient behind the disease we’re working so hard to treat. Learn more about Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month using #blueup4pf and #PFMonth.

Throughout September AdAlta will be following the journey of IPF patient Bill Van Nierop as he takes on the Long Kayak for Lungs, paddling 2200km over 42 days in a sea kayak down the Murray River. Bill, originally from Berri in Adelaide, grew up on the Murray River. Consider that IPF is characterised by difficulty breathing and you can understand how extraordinary a challenge Bill has set himself.

We were honoured when Bill reached out and asked for our support, last year Bill, 65, walked 770kms to raise awareness about IPF and funds for Lung Foundation Australia. Following his diagnosis of IPF, Bill has found little awareness of what Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis is and that there is a stigma attached around the disease.

AdAlta is proud to support and promote Bill’s courageous journey; Bill’s story is a strong reminder of why we do what we do at AdAlta. Learn more about Bill’s Long Kayak For Lungs and make a donation.

Background

Bill was diagnosed with IPF in 2015. Over the last three years Bill has been on both of the existing treatments, initially Nintedanib and now Pirfenidone. Both treatments have had side effects, with nausea being common in both, and Nintedanib have additional side effects of sun sensitivity and diarrhoea.

Bill is looking ahead and hoping to be accepted on a clinical trial for new therapies in the near future. He is hopeful that AdAlta’s treatment AD-214 will one day be available to patients.

 

AdAlta visits at Echuca

On Sunday August 19, AdAlta’s CEO Sam Cobb and Chief Scientific Officer Mick Foley met Bill in Echuca, after he’d been paddling for about 10 days.

AdAlta CSO Mick Foley, IPF Patient Bill Van Nierop and AdAlta CEO Sam Cobb presenting a cheque from an AdAlta shareholder.

With only 50% lung capacity battling the effects of IPF including fatigue along with the side effects of treatment, Bill continues to push on despite the cold weather, whitecaps and strong head winds of 40kms recently seen in the Victorian region of the Murray.

Bill’s Experiences

On paddling with IPF: Really strong kayakers just power through this water, but effort required makes me breathless quickly so more stops. I need to find a different way of managing these patches.

On the battle with IPF: IPF battled me for lot of last 12-15kms…and it’s really a mental challenge, which I find much more tiring.

On the current treatment options for IPF: For those fellow IPF patients, they would understand that our medication like Pirfenidone, has some side effects, which we all live with. There are a lot worse off than me. However today I had to persevere with nausea & stomach cramps, first real day that there’s been an impact, so can’t complain.

On the side effects of IPF: Don’t mention it much, as part of my life now, but I’m susceptible to whatever causes nausea in my medications, & got hammered today.
On scale of 1-10, about 18, but usually being active gets me through it. Not today, had to live with it.

 

Related media

ABC News: Bill van Nierop to kayak 2200kms to raise awareness of IPF

Health Professional Radio: Long Kayak for Lungs 2018

Check Orphan: Australian lung fibrosis patient on long kayak for better treatments

PharmaDispatch: AdAlta backing Long Kayak for Lungs

CEO Sam Cobb provides an update to the Morgans Network

AdAlta CEO Sam Cobb met with Morgans Senior Analyst, Scott Power, in August 2018 to provide an introduction to AdAlta, an update on the progress of improved lead candidate, AD-214 and some background on Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, a lung condition in desperate need of new treatment options for which AdAlta is developing AD-214. The interview can be viewed below and AdAlta’s latest company presentation can be found here.

Australian lung fibrosis patient on long kayak to call for better treatments

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A 65-year-old Brisbane man with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) will kayak 2,200 kilometres from NSW to South Australia over the next two months to raise awareness for the debilitating lung disease characterised by difficulty breathing.

Bill Van Nierop has called his endeavour the ‘Long Kayak for Lungs’, and it builds on his efforts last year when he walked 697 kilometres from Narromine to Forbes in NSW and raised more than $100,000 for Lung Foundation Australia.

Mr Van Nierop will kick off the Long Kayak for Lungs on 10 August and he aims to complete it by 20 September, coinciding with global Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month (September). Donate here to support Bill’s endeavour and the valuable work of Lung Foundation Australia.

“I want to get Australia having a conversation about IPF,” said Mr Van Nierop, who was diagnosed with the condition in 2015 with no noticeable symptoms except a sense of breathlessness that he had put down to age.

“There is a real stigma around IPF – no one is talking about it – and a lack of awareness among clinicians. Treatment options are severely poor and available funds for research are difficult to access, all of which make IPF difficult to diagnose and to live with as a patient.”

IPF, or lung fibrosis, is a life-limiting disease that causes irreversible scarring of lung tissue. The cause of IPF is unknown, and the scarring continues to worsen over time, making it difficult to breathe.

Experts estimate that 1,250 people are diagnosed with IPF each year in Australia. Currently, there are just two treatments approved for IPF – Pirfenidone (Esbriet®) and Nintedanib (Ofev®). These drugs are not curative only slowing disease progression, and patients tend to discontinue use due to severe side effects. Even with treatment, the prognosis of IPF is very poor, with a median survival of only three to five years following diagnosis.

AdAlta is developing its lead i-body candidate AD-214 to treat IPF.

AdAlta CEO Sam Cobb explained, “AD-214 is a novel treatment because, unlike the existing treatments, it selectively targets and binds to a protein thought to contribute to the progression of lung fibrosis, called CXCR4. Our data clearly demonstrate the therapeutic potential of the i-body in the case of IPF, and its promise as a future treatment option.

“We are immensely inspired and encouraged by Bill’s efforts, and we wish him the best of luck!”

AdAlta is progressing AD-214 to the clinic as quickly as possible, and is currently completing manufacturing of the product in preparation for additional safety studies, after which the drug will be trialled in human studies. AdAlta will complete its first human studies in healthy volunteers in Australia in the first quarter of 2020.

Learn more about Bill’s journey at the Long Kayak For Lungs website: https://www.longkayakforlungs.com.au/

AdAlta Conference Call Audio

AdAlta held an Investor Conference Call on August 1 where CEO Sam Cobb provided an update on the progress of AdAlta’s lead therapeutic program for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, AD-214. She also discussed the Company’s recent Placement to institutional and sophisticated investors and conducted a Q+A session, covering any questions on AD-214 progress and the Share Purchase Plan (SPP) Offer, which is currently open to shareholders.

If you would like to access a recording of the call please provide your details below. The Investor Presentation that accompanies the recording can be found here.

The proceeds from the Placement and the SPP will be used for manufacturing and pre-clinical studies of AD-214 as well as internal research and development of new i- bodies and corporate costs.

Full details of the SPP Offer are available in the SPP Offer booklet and available on the Company’s website (www.adalta.com.au).

Please sign up below to listen to the Investor Conference Call Recording, August 1 2018

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AdAlta’s i-body platform: reaching for the high-hanging fruit

The potential of AdAlta’s i-body platform to target G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), the high hanging fruit of drug discovery, has recently been highlighted in two articles published by Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

GPCRs have previously proven difficult to target by conventional therapeutics, namely small molecules and antibodies. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery has recently highlighted the achievement of a major milestone with Amgen’s erenumab securing FDA approval as the first antibody targeting a GPCR. However, the article also highlights the existing challenges and suggests that both phage display techniques as well as single-domain antibodies, characteristic of AdAlta’s i-body platform, may open up further opportunities to develop therapeutics to GPCRs.

Another article published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery was focused on how conventional antibodies have captured the low-hanging fruit of drug discovery, resulting in blockbuster drugs such as Herceptin. However, next generation antibody therapeutics such as AdAlta’s i-body platform have the potential to reach the high-hanging fruit including difficult to access targets, multi-pass membrane proteins and improved antibody selectivity, as shown below.

The advantages of the i-body platform were discussed at AdAlta’s Investor Briefing held in February 2018 as well as in a recent report published by NDF Research.

 

 

Wrap Up: CEO Sam Cobb attends 121 Tech Investment in Hong Kong

AdAlta CEO Sam Cobb attended 121 Tech Investment in Hong Kong held June 13 and 14, 2018. 121 Tech Investment is a gathering of 39 Tech companies and over 200 sophisticated investors from Asia’s tech investment and finance community.

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During the two day event Sam Cobb provided an introduction to AdAlta and its lead IPF program through both an Interview with 121 Tech and a Presentation to Investors. Sam Cobb also had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with investors from Asia’s Tech community, providing exposure to an additional segment of potential investors.



Top female biotech CEO committed to readdressing the gender imbalance in Life Sciences

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Ensuring there is an even 50% split of female to male leaders in the Life Sciences industry is the lifetime goal of one of Australia’s few female biotech CEO’s, Samantha Cobb from AdAlta.

Speaking at the 10th annual BioMelbourne Network “Connecting Women” event, Ms Cobb pointed to a lack of confidence and difficulty re-entering the workforce after children as among the top reasons why women in leadership positions are scarce in the life sciences sector.

In a report released in December last year, NDF Research found women made up just 7.5% of CEOs working in life sciences in the US. The sector in Australia and New Zealand fares slightly better, with 13% of its CEOs being female.

Ms Cobb is the Managing Director and founding CEO of emerging Australian biotech AdAlta, which is developing a next generation antibody called an ‘i-body’. AdAlta’s lead therapeutic program has received global attention as a compelling potential treatment for lung fibrosis (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF). Under Ms Cobb’s leadership, AdAlta listed on the ASX in 2016 and raised $10m in an oversubscribed IPO.

“I haven’t seen many females on either side of the table when it comes to raising capital, especially in the micro-cap space,” Ms Cobb said.

“In saying this, I have never felt disadvantaged or discriminated against because I was a woman. However, I think the challenge of juggling a leadership position with the demands of family life make it difficult for many women to consider pursuing C-Suite roles.”

Ms Cobb is passionately committed to encouraging women into the emerging life sciences sector and is actively working to readdress the balance of sexes in leadership roles. She is on the executive committee of Springboard Australia, a community-driven accelerator program for high-growth tech companies led by women, from which Ms Cobb herself graduated in 2013. Through Springboard she assists emerging female biotech leaders to better present and market their companies to an investor audience.

“I want to see us reach a 50 / 50 ratio in my lifetime. We need more women in leadership positions because we need to see different opinions, diversity of backgrounds and diversity of experiences for the sector to grow and thrive.”

She added, “Companies with women directors on their board also perform better than those without women when looking at specific metrics. For example, when Fortune-500 companies were ranked by the number of women directors on their boards, those in the highest quartile in 2009 reported a 42 percent greater return on sales and a 53 percent higher return on equity than the rest.”

Ms Cobb has a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Intellectual Property Law and was working as Business Development Director for the CRC Diagnostics when she was approached to lead AdAlta.

As a guest speaker at the BioMelbourne Network Connecting Women Lunch on Friday, Ms Cobb was asked to consider where she was in her career 10 years ago.

“I was experiencing one of the most challenging times in my career 10 years ago,” she said. “AdAlta was an unlisted company looking to raise funding in the middle of the Global Financial Crisis. We had a pharma partner walk away, and then shortly after an acquisition fell over. Times were tough, but we raised private venture capital shortly after and progressed the technology to where it is today – an asset going into the clinic.

“I always loved the business of science, but I never thought I would be, or wanted to be a CEO,” Ms Cobb said. “I wouldn’t change it for anything and I can’t imagine what else I might be doing now – I love what I do.”

She concluded, “To other women considering a career in life sciences, I would say get some real work experience because having a degree can only get you so far… and develop your confidence because that’s what will take you into a leadership role. I am also a big fan of career mentors – having someone who can share their experiences with you and provide their advice along the way is invaluable.”

 

AdAlta announces Share Purchase Plan

Share Purchase Plan now available for shareholders

AdAlta is please to offer eligible shareholders an opportunity to acquire additional AdAlta shares under a Share Purchase Plan Offer (SPP Offer), which opens 16 July 2018, and closes at 5.00pm (AEST) on 10 August 2018.

CEO, Sam Cobb, will conduct a Q+A session, covering any questions on the Share Purchase Plan Offer on Wednesday the 1 August at 11am AEST. Click here for details of the call.

Background

We announced earlier this year that AdAlta would be taking an improved version of its lead therapeutic, named AD-214, through to human clinical trials. This decision was made following an evaluation process, whereby AD-214 was found to have have a significantly better half-life (duration of time in which the drug stays in the body) and significantly enhanced activity compared to AD-114. The combination of these factors provides improved therapeutic benefit for patients and for potential commercial partners. More information about AD-214 can be found here and in the presentation from CEO Sam Cobb below.

Private Placement and use of funds

Last week we announced the successful completion of a $4.25m placement (Placement) to institutional and high net worth investors, who also understand the benefits of this new therapeutic and of other programs developed using our i-body platform. We are delighted to have had such strong support. These shares were placed at a price of 30 cents per share.

As we progress AD-214 to the clinic, an important milestone for the Company, we also look forward to expanding the i-body pipeline with additional new candidates that further demonstrate the advantages of our powerful i-body platform with challenging targets.

It is intended that the funds raised from the SPP will be used for manufacturing and pre-clinical studies of AD-214 as well as internal research and development of new i-bodies and corporate costs.

Important SPP details

Under the SPP Offer, each eligible AdAlta shareholder as at 7.00pm (AEST) on 12 July 2018 will have an opportunity to subscribe for up to $15,000 (50,000) of new AdAlta shares. The offer price per share under the SPP Offer will be 30 cents per share, being the issue price under the Placement.

Full details of the SPP Offer are available in the SPP Offer Booklet. If you have any questions please reach out directly to CEO Sam Cobb at enquiries@adalta.com.au

CEO Sam Cobb presents to the Morgans Network

AdAlta Chief Executive Officer Sam Cobb presented to the Morgans network in July 2018, providing an update on the company’s lead drug treatment AD-214, the securing of key manufacturing partners and the potential to expand AdAlta’s pipeline us the novel i-body platform.

AdAlta featured in ABC Radio National Roundtable segment

AdAlta CEO Sam Cobb was invited to participate in the weekly Roundtable segment broadcast on ABC Radio National.

The round table discussion focused on the growth of the Biotechnology industry which is “on the point of boom times that will be every bit as transformative as the digital revolution” and the challenges faced when commercialising research and completing clinical trials in Australia, geographically far removed from the large markets of Europe and the US.

A recording of the Roundtable segment featuring Sam Cobb can be found below with highlights including:

  • Advantages of undertaking drug development in Australia [5:45]
  • Challenges of completing clinical trials for small indications in Australia [6:25]
  • The importance of protecting your intellectual property worldwide [17:00]
  • The ‘courting’ process in developing relationships with potential licensing partners [19:05]
  • The race to develop the best compound ahead of your competitors [20:05]

ABC Radio National Sunday Extra The Roundtable: How to stop the biotech ‘valley of death’ in Australia, presented by Hugh Riminton, July 8

Audio Source: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayextra/sunday-roundtable/9940686