hVIVO plc (HVO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

The Vox Markets Podcast with Justin Waite. Nothing in this podcast is intended as investment advice, and the people in this podcast may hold positions in the stocks they talk about. Do not buy anything based solely on a tip or recommendation. Please do your own research.

Joining me on the podcast right now is Mo Khan, Chief Executive Officer of Open Orphan, ORPH the ticker there. Mo, thanks for joining me.

Thanks for having me, Justin. Good to speak to you again.

Yes, it was good to have you also. Good news at a chunky contract there on influenza. We'll talk about that in a bit. But as always, Mo, for people may be tuning in and doing some research in Open Orphan, just give them a brief summary to what you're all about, please?

Yes. So we are the largest provider of challenge studies as a CRO. We work with repeat customers with big pharma as well as small to mid-size biotech. And we have the largest portfolio of challenge agents in the world as well. So if anyone out there is looking to do a challenge trial in infectious diseases, then we are the #1 choice.

Excellent stuff. Thanks, Mo. Well, congratulations on this GBP 6.2 million influenza study. Tell us more about this significant contract, if you could, Mo.

Yes. This is a great addition to our portfolio of influenza human challenge studies we have already on our books. This is from a U.S.-based biotech company. It's a new technology and an antiviral for influenza A. The study will commence in the second half of this year. We will conduct it here in our London facilities. We also will be doing the quanti hopefully, early next year and finish the study next year. So with the addition of this biotech company, I think we have a really good mix of small to midsize biotech companies as well as the light big pharma as a client. So it's a good place for us to be to be able to offer these services to the whole breadth and size of pharmaceutical clients.

Yes, absolutely. And will you be sort of providing any additional clinical services as part of this contract?

We definitely will be, yes. So this is a full service contract in the sense that we will be watching the protocol. We will be recruiting the healthy volunteers. We're also contributing to the -- actually conducting all the lab work and working with our Venn Life Sciences colleagues to provide some consulting services. So yes, all around, this is a full service across both hVIVO and Venn Life Sciences. So it's really good to see the 2 entities working together to deliver a full comprehensive suite of services to our clients.

Yes. And I'm sure sort of investors and keen listeners and researchers, they spotted yet another influenza contract for hVIVO. And tell us why there seems to be so much interest in pharma for influenza studies though, Mo, if you could.

Well, I think one of the biggest reason, of course, due to COVID, people are now looking at the next potential pandemic and most scientists and leading academics agree that it's influenza, and that is the kind of the best, if that's the right word, the next candidate for pandemic. So the research and the funding in influenza has increased significantly. And as you mentioned, we've seen a number of influenza trials. And the good thing is they're across different variants and strains. So we've been able to cater for them all. We believe this will continue, and we are looking to add to our portfolio of challenge agents as we move forward. But top of influenza, of course, let's not forget, we're also running an RSV, we have more than one RSV trial. And we're looking to build the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron challenge. But -- so we do have a good portfolio of challenge models. We're not relying on one specific indication. And I think that, that speaks volumes with regard to our future potential growth.

Yes. Okay. And if you could, as a reminder, if someone like I said, is researching Open Orphan at the moment, just give them 3 quick reasons why they should hit that follow button on your page and add you to their watch list, please, Mo?

We're simply the world leader when it comes to challenge studies. I think if there's any pharmaceutical company or a biotech company and they're looking to conduct a challenge study? I believe we are the #1, potentially, the only choice for those guys. We have the largest portfolio of challenge models. We have the largest recruitment patient database, and we've done over 60 trials to date. So I think just for those reasons, I think we are the choice for our investors. And then on top of that, we are able to offer a complete full service from consulting to manufacturing to characterization and a challenge studies with our sister company, Venn Life Sciences. So I think all in all, we are the leaders in challenge studies and that's the major reason I think investors should invest in us.

Excellent stuff. Well, good to chat to you. And hopefully, we catch up again in not too distant future. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Justin.

The Vox Markets Podcast with Justin Waite. Nothing in this podcast is intended as investment advice, and the people in this podcast may hold positions in the stocks they talk about. Do not buy anything based solely on a tip or recommendation. Please do your own research.