Public-Offer

Faron's public offering has ended

A warm thank you to everyone who participated in the offering

The objective of the offering is to strengthen the company’s cash position so that the company would have sufficient funding to reach its key milestones for the year 2024, i.e. a significant commercial partnering deal and to finance its product development costs until the latter half of March 2025.

The product development costs mainly include the production and research costs in respect of the Company’s lead program bexmarilimab, i.e. costs related to the completion of enrolment of the patients for the BEXMAB Phase II trial, treatment of patients and publication of readouts as well as obtaining regulatory feedback from the FDA regarding measures required to obtain regulatory approval in the U.S.

By the end of 2024, the company is also aiming to conclude a global partnership deal to fund Phase III clinical research and to commercialise bexmarilimab, and it believes that the better the company is financed the better its position is to conclude a partnership.

If the company succeeds in completing the offering of approximately EUR 30.7 million, the company believes it would have sufficient resources to execute its core business and deliver its key milestones of the year 2024 under the current business plan and in compliance with the financial covenants of the IPF Facilities Agreement until the latter half of March 2025.¹

¹ Part of the proceeds sought by the Company in the Offering may be raised through the separate UK Offering arranged at the same time as the Offering.

From the CEO

Cancer affects more than 20 million people worldwide every year¹. Approximately every 25th second someone in the world gets a blood cancer diagnosis². Almost every one of us knows someone who has been touched by cancer.

At Faron, we are developing a drug for blood cancer, i.e. leukaemia, and especially for its untreated, high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome ("MDS"). It is one of the deadliest forms of cancer and there is no effective treatment for it. Currently, the average life expectancy of a person with this type of blood cancer is only around six months³. So far, the research results of our drug product candidate bexmarilimab have been promising. We have already been able to extend the lifespan of some patients by about two years, and those patients are still doing well.

The objective of the offering is to strengthen the company’s cash position so that the company would have sufficient funding to reach its key milestones for the year 2024, i.e. a significant commercial partnering deal and to finance its product development costs until the latter half of March 2025. In this way, we can contribute to that more people have the chance to beat cancer.

Join us in transforming blood cancer care,

Juho Jalkanen

CEO

Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd

¹WHO 2024, Global cancer burden growing, amidst mounting need for services.

²Worldwide Cancer Research

³Prébet T, et al. Outcome of high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome after azacitidine treatment failure. J Clin Oncol 2011

Key strengths

Strong preliminary Phase I and II data with novel investigational treatment

The BEXMAB Phase 1 results have already indicated a high overall response rate (ORR) of 87.5% (7 patients out of 8) amongst HMA-failed MDS patients treated with a combination of bexmarilimab and azacitidine, as announced by the Company on 18 March 2024. There are now a total of 14 HMA-failed MDS patients treated in both Phase 1 & 2 with this novel combination. On 20 May 2024, the Company reported an ORR of 79% (11 patients out of 14) in this population. The treatment has been well tolerated, without any dose-limiting toxicity. The current true remission rate is 64% (9 patients out of 14). Similar size patient cohorts treated with existing alternatives have reported 0-20% ORR, without deep and durable remissions. The median estimated overall survival in phase I patients of BEXMAB has also increased to 13.4 months, compared to a historical reference of 5-6 months.¹This median may still change as the study progresses.

Large addressable market of cancers that are difficult to treat, with focus on MDS unresponsive to treatment

The MDS market represents a large and growing indication with projected sales of USD 4.5 billion in 2028.² Among the different blood cancer types, MDS is one of the earliest fatal cancers,³ for which there is no approved treatment^4,5: 50% of patients will not respond to HMA treatment and of the 50% who respond, 80%⁶ will relapse within 1-2 years.⁷ If drug development is successful, the Company expects bexmarilimab to take a large share of the addressable market, as a new potentially effective treatment. Bexmarilimab has also been preliminarily tested in the MATINS study, which focused on solid, non-operable tumours, which showed that the drug candidate is safe and well tolerated, with promising efficacy results. The Company is advancing plans to study the use of bexmarilimab in combination with anti-PD-1 therapy in selected advanced solid tumors.

The Company aims to reach key milestones by the end of Q1 2025

If the Company succeeds in raising the funds sought through the Capital Raise, the Company is aiming to complete the BEXMAB Phase II trial patient recruitment, announce interim and final results and to obtain regulatory feedback from the FDA regarding required actions for regulatory approval in the U.S in order to be ready to move to Phase III⁸.

Potential for future value creation with strong patent protection and committed management

More than 250 patients have already been treated with bexmarilimab without any safety challenges. The Company is aiming to enter into a global partnership agreement by the end of 2024 to commercialise bexmarilimab and fund Phase III of the clinical trial. The Company’s business is based on a foundation of nearly 20 years of pioneering academic research and drug development at Faron with highly experienced scientists, clinical experts and a management team. Bexmarilimab also has extensive and long-term patent protection to support its development, where, for example, patents protecting the drug candidate are valid until 2037.

¹Prébet, et al. 2011, Outcome of high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome after azacitidine treatment failure.
²Evaluate Pharma 2024, Sales by indication.
³Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) 2022.
⁴Bewersdorf, Carraway & Prebet 2020.
⁵Santini et al. 2019.
⁶Awada et al. 2023, What’s Next after Hypomethylating Agents Failure in Myeloid Neoplasms? A Rational Approach.
⁷Fenaux et al. 2021.
⁸Part of the proceedings sought by the Company in the Offering may be raised through the separate UK Offering arranged at the same time as the Offering.

Find out more about the public offering from the Marketing Brochure

Download the Marketing Brochure (in Finnish)

The information presented in this Marketing Brochure is based on a prospectus prepared by Faron, which prospective investors should consult before making an investment decision in order to understand the potential risks and rewards associated with their investment decision. This is not a prospectus approved by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority. The prospectus approved by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority is available here