Formycon Postpones Annual Meeting Due to COVID-19

German biosimilar development company Formycon has pushed back its annual meeting until December, a 5-month delay, owing to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Formycon is following the large-scale events ban directed by the German federal government in mid-April that will last through the end of August.

The company said the postponement will not affect the publication of its financial statement for the 2019 fiscal year, which will still be published as planned on May 18, 2020. Formycon generated roughly $29 million in sales and other earnings for the first 9 months of 2019; the company incurred a net operating income loss of roughly $7.5 million.

Formycon’s Biosimilar Pipeline

Formycon currently has 4 biosimilar products in its pipeline.

Its ranibizumab product (FYB201), referencing Lucentis and in partnership with Bioeq AG, is the furthest along after completing a phase 3 clinical trial. In February, the FDA requested additional data for the company’s Biologics License Application for FYB201.

Formycon’s ustekinumab biosimilar (FYB202), referencing Stelara, is being tested in a phase 1 clinical trial, and its aflibercept biosimilar (FYB203), referencing Eylea, is still in preclinical trials. FYB202 and FYB203 were licensed from Aristo Pharma GmbH and Santo Holding (Deutschland) GmbH, respectively.

FYB205 has no published results yet but was described by Formycon as “an early stage biosimilar project that has been progressed up to the initial cell line screening.”

“Each of these is positioned to potentially compete against existing blockbuster biopharmaceuticals, each with sales in the billions of dollars. The market potential for our product candidates is thus substantial,” said Formycon officials.

Formycon’s COVID-19 Involvement

In April, Formycon announced that it would start to develop COVID-19 biologic drugs using its antibody-based protein drug technology platform, computer-aided structural protein design, and screening tests for SARS-CoV-2 blocking antibody-based drugs.

“We are pleased to be able to contribute with Formycon, because antibody-based drugs have great potential as an important treatment option for COVID-19, and the long half-life of these large molecules could ultimately also protect physicians and care givers from infection in an outbreak scenario,” said Carsten Brockmeyer, PhD, chief executive officer of Formycon.