Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. We've got another guest who is
Speaker 1: one of the front runners among those working on a
Speaker 1: vaccine for COVID nineteen and Novia Pharmaceuticals, their Pennsylvania based company,
Speaker 1: the stocks up more than six percent this year, joining
Speaker 1: us right now as the president CEO of Enovo, Dr
Speaker 1: Joseph Kim joining us on the phone in Pennsylvania. Dr Kim,
Speaker 1: so delighted to have you here with us. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for waiting while we listen to the president. Um.
Speaker 1: First of all, that headline from Maderna, what's your take
Speaker 1: on it all? I think it's great progress for the
Speaker 1: field for developing a vaccine, successful vaccine against COVID nineteen disease.
Speaker 1: So there's many companies like Inovo and others for blazing
Speaker 1: the trail just in the last six months or so,
Speaker 1: trying to make history and in developing several vaccinies UH
Speaker 1: that can be approved to be used both safely and
Speaker 1: effectively against this horrible pandemic. So tell us where you
Speaker 1: are and what you've learned so far. Dr Kim, Yes,
Speaker 1: absolutely so. We just reported on the preliminary data in
Speaker 1: our first clinical study involving forty healthy volunteers UH in
Speaker 1: the ages of eighteen to fifty UH, and we demonstrated
Speaker 1: very strong safety one of the safest vaccine platforms UH
Speaker 1: in this COVID nineteen race, and also demonstrating greater than
Speaker 1: of our participants having strong overall immune responses in a
Speaker 1: balanced way, both in UH antibody responses as well as
Speaker 1: having PI cell responses, which is another arm of the
Speaker 1: immune system that is very important for protecting again sparrow disease.
Speaker 1: Dr KIM. When that came out, that was a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and you're you know, investors certainly reacted
Speaker 1: to it a steeple, analyst said. Investors are likely to
Speaker 1: focus on the paucity of information in the release, which
Speaker 1: may raise more questions than answers. When are you going
Speaker 1: to publish your peer reviewed immune response data and and
Speaker 1: where will you will you publish it at any update
Speaker 1: and when larger trials will start here, Yeah, the second
Speaker 1: part of that question. First, So we're looking to start
Speaker 1: our phase to slash three efficacy trials upon getting regulatory
Speaker 1: concurrence this summer. So we're still on track for that. UH.
Speaker 1: In terms of the Phase one data, we are as
Speaker 1: we stayed, looking forward to publishing it in a peer
Speaker 1: reviewed UM publication, hopefully in the next a few weeks
Speaker 1: as well. So when you think about the timeline here,
Speaker 1: Dr Kim, what is a reasonable timeline to get your
Speaker 1: first vaccine available for use? And I think everyone wants
Speaker 1: to know when it will be widely available? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: UH in no view as well as other companies are
Speaker 1: racing against as farest UH to bring us Safe and
Speaker 1: Affective Act into the public as soon as possible. That
Speaker 1: all depends on how well the trials go in Phase
Speaker 1: two and Phase three stafies UH and demonstrating true efficacy
Speaker 1: and safety of the vaccine. UH. The FDA just released
Speaker 1: a guidance documents to the industry which provides their thoughts
Speaker 1: on what it's going to require. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's certainly as rapidly as we're running UH all
Speaker 1: of us. There's dozens of companies around the world trying
Speaker 1: to get the vaccine. It's gonna take some time, but
Speaker 1: I think there's been a lot of incremental successes in
Speaker 1: Phase one and and many companies going into Phase two,
Speaker 1: including our plans at inovo is a twenty twenty wide
Speaker 1: release too much to hope for. Well, I think that's
Speaker 1: a goal, and that certainly is an aspiration that many
Speaker 1: of us in the field have. It really depends and
Speaker 1: and and ironically it also depends on how bad infection
Speaker 1: is around us. Uh. You know, that would put a
Speaker 1: pressure or balance to the benefits and the cost of
Speaker 1: having a vaccines set of vaccines approved earlier. Conditionally, I mean,
Speaker 1: these are the things that the FDA and their policymakers
Speaker 1: will have to to decide on. What we focused on
Speaker 1: a Inobio and I'm assuming other companies as well, is
Speaker 1: to execute the next steps in the development, so next trials,
Speaker 1: next testing, so that we will be in a proper
Speaker 1: position to get the vaccines approved, uh, through this gauntlet.
Speaker 1: You know, it typically takes up to ten years or
Speaker 1: longer to get a vaccine approved. And everyone started or
Speaker 1: you know, from from day one at the same place
Speaker 1: in January, so you know, we're we're moving in a
Speaker 1: historical pace, but it's never fast enough because there are
Speaker 1: people dying every day. You said, though, how bad the
Speaker 1: infection is around us will determine potentially, I guess how
Speaker 1: regulators how quickly they want to move things along. If
Speaker 1: we don't see a second surge or off cases seem
Speaker 1: to die down, does this whole movement of finding a
Speaker 1: vaccine slowed down as well globally? Well, that's that's always
Speaker 1: a potential, and certainly that would be great for the society.
Speaker 1: Um but as we're in the middle of still the
Speaker 1: first wave and there's many experts predicting the second wave,
Speaker 1: all we can do as vaccine developers focused on our objective,
Speaker 1: which is to test properly the safety and advocacy of
Speaker 1: the vaccine and be ready when we're called upon. Some
Speaker 1: of your peers have received larger government funding or significant
Speaker 1: amount of funding. What about for you, guys, do you
Speaker 1: see getting any additional funds from the government. Well, I
Speaker 1: think absolutely. I think Udobio has already received extensive external
Speaker 1: funding from US Department of Defense just recently a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, as well as from the Bill and
Speaker 1: Melinda Gates Foundation and SEPPI in the past. As we
Speaker 1: events are program as re gu upe for massive manufacturing
Speaker 1: readiness or a vaccine, and we expect, uh you know,
Speaker 1: we are also to receive commensary levels of funding support,
Speaker 1: and certainly US government is a major part of that.
Speaker 1: So when you think about the nuts and bolts of this,
Speaker 1: Dr Kim, I know a lot of people are wondering,
Speaker 1: is this going to be one shot? Is it going
Speaker 1: to be two shots? Is this going to be something
Speaker 1: that we get once and maybe a booster and then
Speaker 1: we're good to go, or is this a seasonal thing?
Speaker 1: What do we know so far? Knowing that there's a
Speaker 1: lot more to learn, What do you know so far? Yes,
Speaker 1: most likely, I mean up to date information. Is the
Speaker 1: natural infection, the immune responses wign very quickly, so if
Speaker 1: you take us any guy, looks like the vaccines may
Speaker 1: have to be those and boosted annually. UM. So I
Speaker 1: think having a safevaccine that can be repeatedly those over
Speaker 1: time it becomes even more important, not just the initial
Speaker 1: those things, but having a vaccine that can safely treat
Speaker 1: for several years to come until this pandemic subsize and
Speaker 1: disinfection goes away is something that's very important for us
Speaker 1: as vaccine developers. And so just so I make sure
Speaker 1: I understand what you're saying. So you're saying probably two
Speaker 1: shots once a year, potentially potentially, Well, it's certainly the
Speaker 1: initial Most of the vaccines are are two doses initially,
Speaker 1: and I could predict that potentially a booster shot every
Speaker 1: year certainly is a possibility. You know, there's so many
Speaker 1: of you, the biotech and pharmaceutical companies going after a vaccine,
Speaker 1: and the potential certainly is great in terms of how
Speaker 1: we can deal with this, But it's also you know,
Speaker 1: coming up with a product, and I do wonder how
Speaker 1: much collaboration versus competition is going on, uh in the community. Well,
Speaker 1: there's unprecedented levels of collaboration, big companies, small companies together
Speaker 1: collaborating on assays, manufacturing. There's certainly efforts where we're not
Speaker 1: competing necessarily with one another, we're actually competing against this
Speaker 1: virus that's taken so many lives already and and really
Speaker 1: no end in sight. So we all realize having multiple
Speaker 1: successful vaccines on the market is going to be the
Speaker 1: only way to really control this pandemic and disinfection. So
Speaker 1: I think we all take that at hard and try
Speaker 1: to collaborate and work there as much as possible. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, we were hopeful that
Speaker 1: there will be multiple vaccines that are approved. Just got
Speaker 1: about when you say multiple vaccines because the virus is
Speaker 1: there's variations of it. Is that why, well, there's there's
Speaker 1: really no capacity for even the largest vaccine manufacturers to
Speaker 1: deal with the global demand the first few years. That's
Speaker 1: number one. Number Two, Um, as we have seen the
Speaker 1: virus mutate, so there may be advantages of one vaccine
Speaker 1: over the other. Number three, there may be other advantages
Speaker 1: of stability of the vaccine, the transportation. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: inobios vaccine doesn't have to be kept in a frozen condition.
Speaker 1: We can just deliver in a room temperature, which is
Speaker 1: a huge advantage over other platform vaccines. And lastly, the boosting,
Speaker 1: So you may need a booster vaccine that can be
Speaker 1: booster over and over again. Uh. Some vaccines are more
Speaker 1: poised to do that, like innobios vaccine. Al Right, Well,
Speaker 1: we really appreciate your time and best of luck. Um.
Speaker 1: I think it's safe to say we're all counting on
Speaker 1: you in many ways and the great work that you
Speaker 1: and your colleagues are doing. As you say, dozens of
Speaker 1: companies uh fighting this. It's a race against the virus.
Speaker 1: So we appreciate you. Dr Joseph Kim, President CEO of
Speaker 1: an Ovio Pharmaceuticals, joining us on the phone,