We are a Nordic biotechnology company that, through our hub & spoke business and portfolio model, further develop and add value to the group's project portfolio through separate portfolio companies. This creates the conditions to run the projects with lower costs, increased focus and provides a more efficient exit process. Among other things, the projects have in common that they must have a significant commercial potential, a clearly defined medical need and the potential for an early exit.
The strategy is to create value by developing promising drug candidates, typically up to clinical "proof of concept" and then achieving exit agreements in the form of, for example, partnership, sale or separate listing of subsidiaries.
With our three portfolio companies, we have a total pipeline of four projects ready to enter clinical phase IIa and phase IIb in skin cancer, hair loss and chronic wounds, as well as one project in leukemia that is being prepared for clinic. In the parent company Coegin Pharma, projects are run in the early preclinical phase within diabetes complications based on a close collaboration with NTNU and Lund University.
Business model and strategy
Business model with a focus on identifying new groundbreaking projects with clear potential for value added.
1. Identification of new projects
These are examples of our requirements on potential new projects:
- Projects with strong research data and patent protection
- Projects with significant commercial potential
- Projects with potential for novel breakthrough treatment methodologies
- Projects addressing a clearly defined medical need
- Projects that can benefit from Coegin Pharma's competencies, structure and resources
- Projects with manageable capital needs
- Projects with potential for early exit
2. Financing of the portfolio companies
The board and management have a long and broad experience in financing combined with a focused and efficient business model. We are therefore well positioned to identify, finance and add value to pharmaceutical projects in a cost-effective and scalable manner.
Coegin Pharma’s status as a listed company provides access to a broad shareholder base and public capital, but the model with portfolio companies also creates opportunities to attract specialist investors with a direct interest towards a specific development project in a portfolio company. The financing model can therefore be adapted to the needs of each portfolio company. Coegin Pharma’s total capital need may be reduced, if the board of directors decides to provide the opportunity for direct investment in one or more of the portfolio companies.
Our strategy is, through a mix of financing models, a cost-effective structure and the possibility of external direct investments in portfolio companies, to pursue a broad portfolio of projects without significantly accelerating Coegin Pharma’s capital need. Coegin Pharma can thus combine the advantages of being a listed company with those of being able to attract specialised investors or potential future partners, who are offered the opportunity to invest directly in Coegin Pharma’s unlisted portfolio company. The financing strategy, which can be tailored to the needs of each portfolio company, enables Coegin Pharma to actively broaden its project portfolio, with a limited financing need.
3. Value-adding and scalability
Our strengths include a strong network of experts across the entire drug development value chain, from research and clinical development to commercial positioning and exit. We can use the right resources at the right time in a flexible way, and cost-effectively add value to the portfolio companies’ projects. We ensure that projects are run by the right people, with experience and competencies in the relevant therapeutic area, that projects have a well-defined strategy for regulatory approvals, and an equally well-defined strategy for commercialisation of the drug candidate.
Another important part in being able to run the portfolio companies cost-effectively, is the well-developed platform for project and corporate governance, as well as the administration that we has established. The portfolio companies can benefit from shared administrative and research resources, and established corporate governance practices, providing synergies such as reduced overhead costs and effective governance.
4. Exit
We define exit as an early out-licensing in phase I or phase II to international industrial players, but exit may also include spin-out with subsequent listing or sale of a portfolio company to a larger listed Swedish or Nordic life science company, where our project/portfolio company complements the existing business of the acquirer. The portfolio companies shall have well-defined exit strategies with a balance between a reasonable cost profile, attractive commercial conditions and potential for early exit after we have added value to the projects.