OPM is a Biotechnology company created in September 2022.
It is the result of the splitting of Oncodesign SA, founded in 1995 and one of the French success stories of the last 10 years, into two independent companies: Oncodesign Services and Oncodesign Precision Medicine (OPM). It was listed on Euronext Growth (Paris) in December 2022.
Along with the other co-founders, I personally invested several million euros at the company’s Initial Public Offering. Our revenues (received and to be received for public aid) and loans accumulated since the company’s creation represent 36.5 M€ (Stock market: 10M€/Banks: 6M€/Public aid: 8.4M€/Sales: 8.8M€/CIR: 3.3M€).
In February 2024, we tried to finance ourselves through the market and, with great difficulty, raised 2 M€; I personally acted as guarantor for this operation, and another of the co-founders reinvested on this occasion.
Today, OPM, like many other listed French biotechs, is facing difficulties, due particularly to the total sluggishness in which Euronext has been immersed for the past 2 years. Sources of revenue are becoming increasingly scarce, and it has become very difficult to raise money on the stock market for small and mid-cap healthcare companies in France. The stock market is therefore a trap that risks wiping out dozens of companies with innovative technologies and products, many of which were originally co-financed by national and European public funds.
The company’s mission is to discover effective treatments for resistant and metastatic cancers. We have developed a precision medicine platform based on three proprietary technologies: Nanocyclix (small molecule kinase inhibitors); Oncosniper (identification of new therapeutic targets); Promethe (vectorized systemic radiotherapy).
Our product portfolio includes two advanced products at clinical phase: OPM-101 and OPM-201.
Five years ago, we launched a research collaboration with Laboratoires Servier, which led to an exclusive license in 2022 for the compound OPM-201 derived from our Nanocyclix technology and aiming at the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. We are also currently the sole developer of OPM-101 targeting the cancers resistant to the leading immunotherapies that have revolutionized the treatment of certain major cancers over the last 5 years. It also has antitumor activity, notably in pancreatic cancers. It is an immunomodulator with a totally innovative mechanism of action.
What’s more, we’ve worked to create an industrial cluster in Burgundy Franche-Comté, which came into being in 2024 and specializes in the discovery, development and production of radiopharmaceutical molecules.
In 2025, we will set up a new company in collaboration with the German company Navigo Proteins GmbH. They are the originators of promising vectors for our future systemic radiotherapy molecules.
We were counting on financial revenues from Laboratoires Servier, but after 5 years of fruitful collaboration, they have revised their research strategy to focus on rare diseases in neurology and oncology, leaving Parkinson’s disease to one side and returning all rights to OPM-201 to us, after having invested over €60 million in one of the most innovative compounds to come for these patients.
We are delighted to have this molecule back in our portfolio, with all the value created by our collaboration with Servier, even if this alters our short-term revenues. We will be looking again for a pharmaceutical partner to take over from us, as our priority is to start Phase 1b/2a of OPM-101 in Oncology in early 2025.
The times require us to take a narrower view in terms of priorities, and to be pragmatic and agile managers.
As you can see, our determination is there, our products and technologies are of the highest quality and our course is clear.