20 Things You Didn’t Know About Innate Pharma SA
Innate Pharma SA is a biotechnology company. It is working on the development of drugs for the treatment of cancer through a unique platform. The company serves cancer patients in the country of France. It has recently gone public and because of this, it has gathered the attention of potential investors who are considering the company as a potential investment. Whether you’re interested in knowing more about Innate Pharma SA for a possible investment, or you’re a health care provider or a cancer patient, here are 20 things that you didn’t know about the company.
1. Innate Pharma has completed much of the hard work
This company has reached what is referred to as a “commercial stage” in its development of drugs to help fight cancer in humans. What this means is that they have gone through the necessary steps in the development and clinical trial of a product, then received approval for its licensing and distribution. This is not a fast, nor an easy process and it shows that the company has already achieved a measure of success in the approval and production of at least one commercial product. This gives them the potential for profitability.
2. The work of Innate Pharma focuses upon the immune system
Innate Pharma has conducted research on the immune system’s ability to fight off cancer, as well as the deficiencies which prevent it from doing so. They’ve identified therapeutic antibodies that use the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. It’s a complicated process, but this has resulted in the development of the drug Luxoxiti, which gained approval from the FDA in September of 2018 for the treatment of certain cancers.
3. Innate Pharma SA is a pioneer
Although there are hundreds of biotech companies in the world today, most work on a unique approach to solving problems in the healthcare industry. Innate Pharma is pioneering an aspect of NK cell biology and has advanced in the understanding of this specific area. They’ve made advances in understanding the microenvironment of tumors and tumor antigens, and they also come a long way in the engineering of antibodies. These antibodies are useful in stimulating the body’s immune system to fight cancer.
4. The company is teaming with established leaders in the biopharma industry
We learned that Innate has formed alliances with several of the leading biopharmaceutical companies in the world. Some of them include AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk. Innate has entered into agreements with these companies to collaborate on a variety of products.
5. Innate Pharma serves a unique community
One of the overarching goals of Innate Pharma is to develop treatments for cancers that have a high unmet medical need. In lay terms, this means that there are certain cancers for which there are currently limited or no treatment options. there are two benefits to taking this approach to research and development. The first, and proprietary is to identify solutions for complex barriers in the treatment and/or cure of certain cancers. The second is for commercial purposes. The development of effective treatment therapies will provide solutions for a problem, creating a demand for the commercialized product, and making it a profitable product for Innate Pharma, SA. This will bring in revenue for the increased research and development of new treatments in the unmet medical arena and it will allow for compensation and a return on investment for shareholders.
6. Innate Pharma recently closed its IPO
Innate Pharma announced the closing of its IPO on October 21, 2019. This was a global offering with a total of 14,375,000 ordinary shares with 9,922,227 in American Depository Shares, referred to as ADSs. the pricing of the ADS was $5.50 per share with 4,452,773 ordinary shares offered in Europe. The total amount of funds raised globally for Innate Pharma came to $79.1 million.
7. Innate Pharma is listed under two symbols
This company went public globally in Europe and in America. It is listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchanged under the ticker symbol IPH. It is concurrently listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol IPHA. The official start date of trading for the ADS shares commenced on October 17, 2019, with the IPO closing on October 21, 2019.
8. Other information about the IPO
The Initial Public Offering for Innate Pharma was led by Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., along with SVB Leerink LLC, and Evercore Group LLC. Together the three participated in the IPO as joint bookrunners for the United States portion of the public offering. The global coordinator for the European Private Placement was Citigroup Global Markets Limited with Namsen Capital serving as the capital markets advisor for Innate Pharma.
9. The IPO fell below expectations
Although there was a measure of success with the nearly $80 million raised at the IPO for Innate Pharma SA, it fell short of its original $100 million goal by slightly over $20 million. This information was obtained from the F-1 registration statement which was originally filed when Innate Pharma submitter the original application for its IPO.
10. Innate Pharma is on stable financial footing
Although the IPO didn’t raise as much funding as anticipated, the company remains on solid financial footing. Prior to the IPO Innate Pharma’s financial ledger showed a cash reserve of $181.4 million with liabilities of $188.4 million. While the liabilities are higher than available cash, these figures were released prior to the IPO which brought in an additional nearly $80 million, bringing the company to a positive standing on the financials.
11. The pipeline is full
Innate Pharma currently has an approved product that is licensed through AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, ready for distribution. The drug Lumoxiti has already been approved for commercialization as of September of 2018. This represents the possibility of billions in revenue from sales of the product. In addition to this, there are several candidate drugs currently in the pipeline. The firm continues to research and develop more cancer-fighting therapeutics that are based upon the use of antibodies that harness the healing power of the body’s own immune system.
12. The company was founded in 1999
Innate Pharma has been in operation for 20 years. The company first began its research efforts in 1999 when it was officially founded. The two decades of experience have helped Innate Pharma to become established in the research and development arena of biotechnology and as such it has developed a sound reputation within the pharmaceuticals community, forming bonds with the larger companies which license and distribute approved drugs for sale to the public.
13. The company relies on Natural Killer Cell therapies
One of the things that make Innate Pharma unique in the world of biopharmaceuticals is that it focuses on the use of NK cells, which stands for Natural Killer. The combination of NK cells, myeloid cells adn T-cells increases the number of anti-cancer effector cells at the disposal of the immune system to launch a much greater attack on tumors. The anti-bodies that Innate has been researching and developing in the form of treatments engage natural killer cells in the body’s fight against tumors and other cancer cells. It’s much like equipping an army with effective weaponry against an invading enemy. This innovative approach is less damaging to the body than earlier cancer treatments which in essence, killed healthy cells along with cancer cells.
14. Innate Pharma has another lead candidate drug under development
When it comes to commercialization and profitability, we’re aware of one drug that has made it past the clinical trials and has met with FDA approval. While this is good news on the revenue front, more is needed for sustainability, however, there is yet another drug candidate emerging through the pipeline. Monalizumab is a dual-targeting checkpoint inhibitor that shows great promise of effectiveness in treating colorectal cancer, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck and other solid tumors. This drug is currently in teh development phase and Innate is collaborating with AstraZeneca throughout the process. HNC is the 6th most common cancer in the world today and it originates in the oral cavity, sinus, throat and salivary glands. Projects predict that by 2026 the global market for the treatment of this type of cancer will reach $2.8 billion, and Innate Pharma is a company that will have a slice of that pie.
15. Innate has stiff competition
Innate Pharma is not the only company researching and developing treatments for HCL. There are several others who are also engaged in these activities. They include AbbVie, Astellas Pharma, BioGenomics, and Roche. All four are major pharmaceutical companies. They are joined by Taiho Oncology, Bayer, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Eli-Lilly. The initial public offering was intended to raise funds to develop yet more treatments for the condition and to get them to the commercialization stage, however, it is worth noting that the approach that Innate Pharma has taken is unique and it retains all rights to the specific types of drugs under development. They differ from those of their competition. In short, the companies are not working with potential copyright infringements because of these differences.
16. Designations for the IPO proceeds
Innate Pharma has announced in advance of its fundraising, its intentions for the use of IPO proceeds. The lead designation is to advance the clinical development of monalizumab which is the lead product candidate in the pipeline. They are working with AstraZeneca on this project. Other designations include the advancement of the clinical development of a new treatment for Sezary syndrome, PTCL, and MF, with the designation IPH4102. In addition, advancement in the clinical development of IPH5401 is indicated as a priority. This is a drug candidate for the treatment of patients with solid tumors. Other uses of the IPO finds include building commercial capabilities for Lumoxiti in the US, adn pending approval, within the EU, as well as expanding and advancing the preclinical pipeline, and the transition of IPH 5301 into clinical development.
17. Innate Pharma maintains strong and competent leadership
The current Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Board of Innate Pharma is Dr. Mondher Mahjoubi. Dr. Mahjoubi attended the University of Tunis and earned his M>D. degree with Medical Oncology certifications from teh institution as well as in Clinical Research and Methodology from the University of Paris Sud. He is also a member of the European Society of Medical Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He was appointed to the executive leadership position of the company near the end of 2016.
18. Mahjoubi brings extensive experience
The company is led by a qualified leader with years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Dr. Mahjoubi previously worked with AstraZeneca from 2013 through 2016 as the Oncology Global Manager. Prior to this, he worked at Genentech from 2010 through 2013 as the Senior Vice President of global product strategy in oncology. Before that he worked in various medical affairs adn marketing positions with Rhone Poulenc Rorer, Sanofi-Aventis, Mayne Pharma, and Roche.
19. Innate Pharma maintains transparency
Potential investors may be interested in knowing that Innate Pharma maintains high standards in accounting for investors as well as to all other stakeholders. The company offers a webcast and conference call with full disclosure of the dates on their official website. There are other disclosures of financials, leadership and other information made public and easily accessible on the company’s site.
20. Innate Pharma SA is a company to watch
If you’re a potential investor then Innate Pharma SA is a company within the rapidly growing biotech and pharmaceutical development industry that bears watching. So far, the company is off to a good start. Although they didn’t reach their initial goal of $100 million, they didn’t fall short by much. The company is solid and making good progress in producing commercial-ready products with one success already noted and another strong candidate emerging. The pipeline is filled with new treatments that are awaiting their turn to go through clinical trial periods and within a few years, the potential for this company to generate billions in revenues is a reality.
