Company Interview / Treating cancer with light

Key Points:

Invion's innovative photodynamic therapy shows promise in prostate cancer treatmentCollaborating with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Hudson Institute, trials expand to multiple cancersSafety and efficacy demonstrated, with focus on partnerships and regulatory approval for market expansion

Thian Chew from Invion discusses a new cancer treatment combining drug and light, showing a 40%+ response in prostate cancer trials with top safety results. Collaborating with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Thian reveals trials for prostate, skin, and other cancers leveraging photodynamic technology. The treatment activates an immune response, targeting only cancer cells, avoiding side effects common in chemo, radiation, and surgery. Commercialisation plans include partnerships and approvals from U.S. and Australian regulators. Despite pandemic setbacks, Thian notes renewed investor interest and potential in the biotech sector for its high-stakes but high-reward outcomes.

Full unedited transcript below:

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Well, we're actually just, uh, we have a treatment modality that uses a combination of, uh, drug and light, and we're targeting multiple cancers. We're working with, uh, institutes like the Peter Mack, uh, Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, as well as the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. And, um, we actually just announced a couple of days ago a prostate cancer trial where we showed, um, very, very good safety results and, uh, a 40% plus response rate. And, um, we're pretty excited about the potential for a safe, uh, treatment for prostate cancers, as well as one that has potential to really, uh, treat other cancers as well. So can you tell us how this differs from traditional methods of treating prostate cancer? When you talk about photodynamic cancer treatment, what does that actually mean? Right. Absolutely. Great question. So the drug itself actually is designed to localize only in cancer cells and not healthy tissue. And by itself nothing happens. It's quite

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safe until you shine a frequency of light, and that generates a oxidative process that kills just the cancer cells. And because it's only localized in the cancer cells, it just kills the cancer cells and leaves the healthy tissue alone. The second thing it does is it actually activates an immune response, and your body's own immune system starts fighting the cancer. And so that dual action is one of the great things about its potential. And obviously the other side is it's extremely safe. If you think about other standard of care for cancers, typically chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, they can have some pretty nasty side effects. And so we believe we have something that's safe that has a potential to treat as well. All right. So it's obviously very targeted. And I guess that's been the problem with many of these cancer treatments is that overall it can be devastating for for someone that's going through it. Absolutely, absolutely. And so we believe we have the potential to be a fifth modality for treating cancer. Um, and we're not we're

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not planning to sort of replace everything else that's been around, but but really be an alternative that can be quite credible for a number of patients. So is this novel? Is anyone else doing this? It's a great question. It's actually the modality has been around for quite a while. And it there's been a number of, uh, approved drugs, but they had a lot of, um, uh, side effects and toxicity. Uh, and we've actually addressed those in our, um, um, next generation, um, uh, photosensitivity. So, um, we actually believe that the potential the modality had is coming to fruition, which with what we have and, uh, we've already started to demonstrate that in our prostate cancer trial, and we're actually kicking off a skin cancer trial as well. Um, I just had a kick off meeting this morning, so we're, uh, we're we're on the way to start. Start showing some interesting results in humans. So beyond prostate, skin cancer, once again using this photodynamic technology. Correct? Correct. And in fact, with uh, we're looking at other cancers as well.

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Um, because the mechanism actually is driven by the fact that, uh, uh, cancers like sugars. So we actually added some, uh, glucose conjugates around the core molecule, and so cancer's just gobble it up and shine. A light blows up the cancers. What's your plan? Just as far as commercializing this technology and obviously getting regulatory approval. It's a great question. Uh, because we have multiple targets, we have to do one thing at a time or a couple of things at a time. Uh, we're very open to partnerships with we've actually partnered already with a couple of Korean companies, and what we're planning to do is really demonstrate our safety and efficacy in humans. And, uh, through that, uh, expand some of our partnerships. Now, the two pathways generally to commercialization, one is to do big trials and go towards the US or some of the larger markets. The other pathway is, uh, to do get it approved in Australia and then just start marketing it in other countries. And, uh, you know, we're going to sort of

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see how the results go and see what the investors and our internal team decide is the better pathway. But we want to keep our options flexible at this stage. And what sort of response are you getting for your investors? Well, you know, we've been uh, we actually went, uh, we're meant to do our trial a few years ago and, uh, little thing called Covid got in the way. So we actually used the Covid period to go back to the lab and actually develop all these new and much better compounds. But it's a little bit like snakes and ladders. We actually had to, uh, redo a lot of our preclinical work. So, frankly, um, it's taken a long time. And, um, uh, you know, I think the the attention has actually waned. And frankly, we also didn't want to tell the story because there was nothing to tell until we had human data. We have human data now, and we're doing more trials now. So part of the mission now is that the foundational elements of our development program are pretty much in place. It's really just spreading the word

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and, um, sharing what our findings are with the market and our investors. How difficult is it to invest in the biotech sector? It certainly has the reputation of being binary outcomes in a lot of these aspects, and it does require a lot of money, particularly to go through the trial process. And as a result, many investors are shy of the biotech sector. Are you having to overcome those perceptions? Absolutely. It's it's also a tough, tough time. And look, I my previous life, I was actually an investor at Goldman Sachs on a proprietary investing desk. So I can totally identify with the challenges that investors have. Um, in a way, biotech does have that binary outcome, but there's a de-risking process that happens along the way. So you may have a wonderful molecule coming out of a lab in a university. It's still a, you know, pretty 1 in 10,000 chance that gets approved. Then you go through a pre-clinical process and once you

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get to a human trial, actually the statistics are 1 in 10 get approved. So once you have a couple of pathways of trials, then the de-risking is already occurred. And if you're looking at a pretty significant unmet need like cancer, then really the upside from the from the investment can potentially pay off. So so that's why people look at it as a as an option investment. Um, but there's a level of de-risking, especially once you get to human trials and human data.

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I'm interested to know your backstory, given you had that investment banking background and now you've launched into life sciences, what was it that attracted you to it? What sort of opportunity do you see there? Well, I guess there's a little bit of, uh, sheer dumb luck and fate. I got into it because I got to know the founder of the technology and, uh, had found some really interesting results. And so, um, I got involved because we actually did a reverse merger into Indian to inject the technology into it with an established biotech team. Um, I've worked on Wall Street. I've worked in consulting. Um, and, you know, look, look, it's it's fun. It's great to make money, but I believe that there's a real mission when you can do good. Well, doing well. And as I've spent more and more time working on our technology, I've become more and more convinced about the real potential for this to make an impact. And so, you know, we're, uh, I believe that, um,

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I've been very fortunate to be given an opportunity to, to to make an impact or make a difference out there. And that's why I spend the effort I do on this, on this company. And, and I'm pretty excited about where we are now because, uh, curing cancer in mice is really fun, but it's not really going to make an impact on, on, on, on you and me. But it is a long road, as you've pointed out there. But as you say, the payoff is tremendous because it would literally be life changing. Exactly right. I mean, I mean, we all have loved ones that have been suffering from cancer, and this is a way, um, and an opportunity to really make an impact on that. So I feel very privileged to be in this position.