Question:
To take up the topic with Vertex again; I had written to Sernova and asked how they see the situation with Vertex and how the competition is in general.
Answer:
Hello xxxx,
thanks for your question.
There are several differences between the clinical trial Vertex is doing and the one Sernova is doing. First of all, Vertex does not have a device and injects cells directly into the portal vein. They have indicated that they are working on a device, but have yet to bring one to clinical trial. Whether they do or not is not really in our control. With respect to Sernova, yes, we are implementing the use of a larger bag because we learned some things during the course of our clinical trial. We now have a much better understanding of how many cells we need to implant in the cell pouch and how they need to be distributed than we had before the trial. With this knowledge, we have designed the larger pouch to hold enough cells that are so well distributed that we anticipate that no filling of the portal vein will be required. I'm not sure why you would doubt that, internally we're pretty confident about our next steps.
We continue to engage with new investors in what has proven to be a very difficult market for healthcare. As mentioned in our AGM presentation, the overall healthcare index has fallen over 50% in the last 6 months, and we have finally separated Sernova from that decline. That doesn't mean we are satisfied, but we are outperforming our peers by a wide margin.
As we move forward, we have numerous catalysts that we are working on to drive awareness of our unique cell therapy offering and unprecedented clinical results, including demonstrating continuous insulin independence for over two years in our most advanced Phase 1/2 T1D trial patient, in contrast to the clinical setbacks of some of our peers. As we ramp up our marketing efforts over the next few months, I expect to see some recognition in the marketplace.
I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any further questions.
Regards,
Christoph Barnes
Vice President Investor Relations
Sernova Corp