BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON YM BioSciences Inc. plans to float simultaneously on the Alternative Investment Market in London and the Toronto Stock Exchange, to raise up to C$40 million gross (US$25.4 million).

David Allan, chairman and CEO, told BioWorld International, “We expect a 50-50 split, raising C$20 million in Europe and C$20 million in Canada.

“We are coming to Europe at the same time as floating in Toronto because 35 percent of our shareholders are in Europe, the majority of patients [in YM clinical trials] are in the UK and 25 percent of the clinical and scientific board and 33 percent of the board of directors are based [in Europe], so we are already here in a big way,” he said.

Allan added that the dual listing would position the company to take part in merger and acquisition activity. “This industry will rationalize across the Atlantic; we have got to get together with other cancer companies. As long as we have small market caps no one will pay attention.”

YM BioSciences, of Mississauga, Ontario, specializes in licensing in early stage anticancer products for onward development and outlicensing. The fund raising will allow it to advance the clinical development of several compounds, most notably paying for a pivotal Phase III trial of tesmilifene, a small-molecule chemopotentiator that augments the antitumor activity of certain cytotoxic drugs.

YM licensed in the drug from the University of Manitoba in 2000 to develop in combination with mitoxantrone for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. The compound was previously licensed to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which dropped it after reviewing a Phase III trial in metastatic breast cancer, conducted by the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC).

“When we licensed it, because there was good data in prostate cancer, we also assumed the breast cancer data was not very good. So when the NCIC called up and said they were going to publish the long-term follow-up results [in breast cancer], we didn’t want them to. However, we were floored when we saw the survival data,” Allan said.

They show a greater than 50 percent increase in survival in women receiving both tesmilifene and doxorubicin compared to doxorubicin alone. “The closest anything else gets to this is Herceptin, which shows a 25 percent overall increase in survival in the 20 percent of women it is suitable for,” he said.

The fund raising will pay for a pivotal Phase III trial in breast cancer, starting later this year. Tesmilifene also is in a Phase II trial in advanced prostate cancer, and YM has applied for FDA orphan status in that indication.

Other YM compounds in the clinic include TheraCIM, a humanized monoclonal antibody that targets the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor, currently in a Phase I/II study in brain cancer; an EGF vaccine in Phase II in non-small-cell lung cancer; YMB-1003, a super-high-affinity sheep monoclonal antibody that targets the carcinoembryonic antigen, which is overexpressed in most colorectal cancers, in a Phase I patient study; and Norelin, a vaccine designed to stimulate the production of antibodies to gonadatrophin releasing hormone as a treatment for early stage prostate cancer.

Both TheraCIM and the EGF vaccine originated from the Centro de Inmunologia Molecular in Havana, Cuba, while YMB-1003 is being co-developed with KS Biomedix Group plc, of London.

YM has raised C$36 million since it was founded in 1994. Allan said it was not the initial intention to develop the company along a Canadian/European axis. “YM just evolved like this. In 1994 the Canadian capital market was good and Europe was nowhere on the map. However, Canada never delivered on its promise in terms of capital formation, but Europe took off and became very appealing, particularly because people are very knowledgeable about biotechnology on the buy side.”