Marinomed Biotech connects to Link Health

Marinomed Biotech, an Austria-based biopharmaceutical spinout of University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (VetMedUni), will receive €3m ($3.4m) in upfront payment through a strategic partnership with drug producer Link Health, ThePharmaLetter reported on Monday.
The spinout will also receive milestone payments in the low eight-digit dollar range for each product developed under the strategic partnership.
Founded in 2006, Marinomed creates pharmaceutical products for respiratory diseases and allergic conditions based on information from its two drug design platforms, Carragelose and Marinosolv.
The company has so far commercialised six medications targeting viral infections of the respiratory tract by using Carragelose, which uncovers therapeutic candidates based on a red algae compound it claims can treat more than 200 subtypes of virus.
Under the strategic agreement, China-based Link Health has gained local distribution rights for formulations developed through the Marinosolv platform, and will also perform pre-clinical studies on these products.
Marinosolv designs therapeutic compounds for complications in sensitive tissues, particularly allergic reactions in the eyes, nose and lungs. The lead candidate from the platform, Budesolv, is a nasal-administered form of existing medication Budesonide that will treat allergic rhinitis, inflammations in the nose known colloquially as hay fever.
The company has separately been awarded a $17m research and development brief with the EU-owned European Investment Bank, though details of the project have not been disclosed.
Marinomed announced plans in November 2018 for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Vienna Stock Exchange expected to raise between $34m and $41m. The offer period was subsequently put on hold in response to high volatility on global stock markets, but Marinomed expects to resume the process in early 2019.
Proceeds from the IPO had been allocated for a phase 3 study of Budesolv as well as phase 2 and 3 trials of an immunosuppressant called Tacrosolv and an extension of Mariomed’s Carragelose technology.
VetMedUni’s commercialisation arm, VetWidi Forschungsholding, currently holds a 3.7% stake in Marinomed, though investment firm Acropora is the spinout’s largest shareholder with 33.3% interest.
Hermann Unger, head of VetMedUni’s Laboratory of Tropical Veterinary Medicine, has a 13% stake, with Marinomed co-founders Andreas Grassauer and Eva Prieschl-Grassauer each owning 12.8%.
Other significant shareholders include Invest AG, the investment arm of financial services firm Raiffeisenbankengruppe Oberösterreich, (10.3%) and state-owned development bank Austria Wirtschaftsservice (10%).
Andreas Grassauer, who is also CEO of Marinomed Biotech, said: “With our innovative technology platform Marinosolv we plan to enter the multi-billion dollar market for the treatment of allergies and eye diseases.”