RE: ESMO20 Oct 2025 23:53
What I’d like to see, if pharma consider a multi billion deal is still a little early for Faron:
2-3 strategic equity investments from eg Merck, Pfizer, Abbvie, for 5% each with no strings, board seats, options, rights attached, valuing Faron at €4-500m.
This would give away 15% of the company for around €60-75m; enabling Faron to remain completely unencumbered and remain eligible for a full takeover once the first 120 patients in Bexmab 2 have been analysed, and the solid tumour POC has been established in the upcoming solid tumour combination trials.
This would give a cash runway to pay off the CLN and be nicely funded to achieve the above objectives, and a market cap around 2-2.5x current, with big pharma early validation.
This is a similar approach to what Trillium embarked upon, prior to their $2.3B takeover by Pfizer; only difference being Pfizer were the only strategic equity investor.
If Faron can get 2-3 big pharma investors, the most strategic for deal making, it gives the Pharma players the most visibility on the upcoming trials as observers (but with no additional rights) and little outlay for a front row seat, and for a very modest spend (€20-25m). It also gives them a reasonable stake in a high impact science biotech, regardless of whether they go on to secure the whole company.
For Faron, it obviously means the financial muscle to take bexmarilimab to a point where a mega buyout becomes inevitable, and at a price all parties can agree on as the drug becomes derisked further, and the full potential of Bex becomes clearer, not just in myeloid malignancies but in solid tumours also, perhaps enabling a FL combo trial of Bex / Ven in AML & keytruda / Bex as the preferred option in the upcoming solids trials.
If we can remain independent obviously, as while we sit at c.£200m market cap, we become a sitting duck for an early mover, the only constraint being the likelihood that would trigger a bidding war if a low-ball were to be tabled.
For me, giving away a licensing deal at this stage probably would involve giving away our jewel in the crown of hr MDS in the US and possibly including the EU due to similarities in regulatory approvals, which for me is a bridge too far for what we would get back, perhaps 200m with extra considerable milestones and royalties.
Bigger picture is after a few more months of proving up the drug and the platform, a €5B + takeout for the whole company is all but guaranteed, given Magrolimab takeover (FortySeven) at $4.9B & is already having more data, better safety, better efficacy where we currently sit now.
There are also a plethora of other options; so don’t listen to the hype of it’s a) or b).
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