Case Studies Archive - Alacrita

Due diligence on the developability & investability of a cancer vaccine

Written by Cort | Feb 2, 2023 11:28:29 PM

Challenge:

A newly-formed US biotech company has acquired the intellectual property and assets of a legacy cancer vaccine company that had ceased trading several years ago following disappointing Phase 3 clinical trial results. The Newco had commissioned a expert re-analysis of the clinical data which concluded that the vaccine did indeed have efficacy and on this basis the client asked Alacrita for its views on the developability and investability of the asset. As such, Alacrita's brief was to act as the "Red Team" to identify likely objections from potential investors and to help formulate appropriate responses.

Solution:

The analysis was conducted by one of Alacrita's Managing Partners who had deep experience in the cancer vaccine space and had led a company developing a cell-based product with many similar features to the asset in question. Alacrita reviewed the available information, which was incomplete due to the age of the asset and the circumstances of its previous termination. The question rapidly became "what could be salvaged" and, as expected, the outcome was a conclusion that the asset was clearly not based on current technology, suffered significant CMC and regulatory issues and the underlying clinical data, even with the new subgroup analysis, was not sufficiently persuasive to make a compelling case for new investment. 


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