Open Orphan’s hVIVO opens new quarantine clinic in East London
The new site is based in Whitechapel, directly opposite the Queen Mary BioEnterprise Innovation Centre (“QMB”) which houses hVIVO’s 24 bedroom unique ‘state-of-the-art’ FluCamp site and the recently opened new street-level volunteer screening centre.
The converted 26-bedroom former boutique hotel, which will be known as ‘the Whitechapel Clinic’, has the capacity for up to 19 quarantine rooms and will be used as an additional unit for human challenge trials and volunteer recruitment screening, the Company told investors.
The Whitechapel Clinic will act as an extension of hVIVO`s current QMB site. Like QMB, it will follow the highest safety standards to deliver each clinical study and volunteer screening visit and is also equipped with a 24-hour security presence and a working hour reception desk.
Of the 19 rooms, 8 rooms on a single floor are flexible use clinic rooms, meaning they can be used as either quarantine bedrooms for challenge studies or for volunteer screening visits.
Each room at the facility has been fully repurposed to the highest standard, with all volunteer rooms equipped with an en-suite bathroom, TV, wardrobe, and tea & coffee making facilities. ‘This will provide a comfortable space for volunteers during studies,’ the Group highlighted.
“Our newest quarantine unit greatly increases our capacity to facilitate hVIVO’s pipeline of upcoming studies. Our QMB clinic is now close to full capacity until December 2021, and as such, the newly renovated, state of the art Whitechapel Clinic will allow us to increase our study capacity substantially in the year ahead,” said Executive Chairman, Cathal Friel.
He added, “We have leased the entire former Whitechapel Hotel and managed to convert the space on a very cost efficient basis which is now almost fully booked to capacity for H1 2021.
This new facility will be run at the same high standard as our QMB site, and volunteers will be expertly supervised by our highly trained nurses and doctors in a safe and controlled clinical environment.”
Today’s announcement is clearly great news for ORPH investors to start the new financial year. We understand the funding for the short-term lease of the boutique hotel in Whitechapel and its transformation into a fully operational 19-bed quarantine clinic has largely been funded from the forward order book for human challenge studies, thereby protecting the balance sheet. Given the existing 24-bed QMB facility is now largely fully booked until October 2021 and this new Whitechapel Clinic is already booked for 1H21, the transaction will clearly add both revenue and operational gearing, as the Whitechapel Clinic will share much of the existing laboratory and administration facilities that are housed inside the existing QMB clinic.
Investors can now look forward to more positive news during 2021 as the company ramps up its human challenge study trials on the back of hVIVO’s increased capacity amid unprecedented demand for a whole range of disease indications. Shares in Open Orphan have increased by over 300% in value since the beginning of April 2020, trading within a range of 22p and 25p over the past two weeks.
Reasons to OPRH
Open Orphan is a rapidly growing Contract Research Organisation and world leader in the testing of vaccines and antivirals through the use of human challenge clinical trials.
The Group comprises two commercial specialist CRO services businesses, hVIVO and Venn Life Sciences and is also building out a valuable data platform business. All businesses are now working closely together to offer upselling and cross selling opportunities.
World Class Facilities
Open has Europe's only 24-bedroom quarantine clinic with onsite virology providing individually isolated rooms and specialist laboratory facilities. The hVIVO facility offers highly specialised virology and immunology laboratory services to support pre-clinical and clinical respiratory drug, antiviral, and vaccine discovery and development.
Largest Test Portfolio
Open Orphan has a leading portfolio of 8 viral challenge study models, which are: 2 FLU, 2 RSV, 1 HRV, 1 Asthma, 1 cough and 1 COPD viral challenge models. As announced in early March 2020, it is rapidly advancing several COVID-19 challenge study models and expects to be helping many COVID-19 vaccine development companies to test their vaccines.
hVIVO works with UK and Irish companies to provide COVID-19 testing to staff to protect staff and customers from a workplace COVID-19 outbreak through its COVID Clear offering.
The company announced that its first volunteer had been dosed with the Codagenix needle free, intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, COVI-VAC as part of a Phase I clinical trial of COVI-VAC currently being carried out by hVIVO, at its facility in the UK.
Rapidly Expanding Marke
The market for vaccine development and testing has grown rapidly over the past six months, largely due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
However, ORPH believes Governments and International pharmaceutical companies around the world will be making enormous ‘catch-up investments’ in all types of vaccine development to ensure the effects of any pandemic can be mitigated in the future, which it said should result in the hIVO facility being booked out for months, if not years, in advance going forward.
Planned Disposal
When Open Orphan acquired hVIVO in January 2020, hVIVO also came with a number of non-core assets including a 62.6% stake in PrEP Biopharm. However, the new Open Orphan Board and management team are primarily focussed upon cementing its position as a unique CRO and ‘world leader vaccine and antiviral testing using human challenge study models, and therefore earmarked all non-core assets for disposal.
The options for disposal of this unique asset are exciting, numerous and particularly timely given its mode of action. These options could include a trade sale to a Big-Pharma for cash, reverse the asset into the resurgence of listed SPACs and Cash Shells, or even Spin the asset out into a newly listed entity delivering investors dividends in specie of newly formed companies.
In any event, OPRH shareholders would do well to remain on the Shareholder register when this transaction takes place as, whilst the valuation of PrEP Biopharm is currently unknown, with little carrying value on the Open Orphan balance sheet, it should advance the share price accordingly.
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