Daily Brief Health Care: Mankind Pharma, Indegene Limited, MedSci Healthcare Holdings, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Context Therapeutics, Basilea Pharmaceutica Ag and more

• Mankind Pharma (MP) is looking to raise up to US$527m in its upcoming India IPO.
• MP is a pharmaceutical company engaged in developing, manufacturing and marketing a range of pharmaceutical formulations across various acute and chronic therapeutic areas, as well as several consumer healthcare products
• We have looked at various aspects of the deal in our earlier notes. In this note, we talk about the implied valuations.

• Mankind Pharma (6596876Z IN), a pharmaceutical company, is seeking to raise up to Rs43.3 billion (US$527 million) at Rs1,026-1,080 per share. The public offer runs from 25-27 April.
• We previously discussed the IPO in Mankind Pharma IPO: The Bull Case and Mankind Pharma IPO: The Bear Case. 
• The 9MFY23 (nine months to December) disclosure showcases a slowdown in growth, market share losses, margin pressure and declining RoCE. We are cautious about the IPO. 

• Indegene Limited (1864095D IN) is looking to raise about US$400m in its upcoming India IPO.
• Indegene is a “digital-first” commercialisation firm with an exclusive focus on the global life sciences industry.
• Its solutions aim to enable biopharmaceutical, emerging biotech and medical devices companies to develop, launch and drive sales for their products in a more efficient manner. 

• Mankind Pharma (6596876Z IN) IPO will open for public subscription on April 24 and close on April 27. The shares are expected to be listed on May 9.  
• The company has set IPO price band of INR1,026 –1,080 per share, valuing the company at INR433 billion at the top of the price band.
• The IPO price band implies P/E of 30.9x at the lower band and 32.6x at the upper band. This is pricier than other India focused pharmaceutical companies.

• MedSci’s profit quality/business structure is “healthier” than Medlive. MedSci is better able to cope with the negative impact of external changes, and its performance growth is more resilient than Medlive.
• MedSci’s physician platform solutions business is stronger than Medlive’s medical knowledge solutions business. Considering the logic and significance of this business, MedSci is expected to have bigger growth potential.
• If considering the cash balance, MedSci’s IPO valuation seems not that cheap. However, we think MedSci’s valuation would narrow the gap with Medlive or even surpass it in the future.

• Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD US) markets CNS drug Nuplazid, which is cash flow positive with increasing profitability since 2019. Acadia has guided for Nuplazid revenue of $520M–550M for 2023.
• On April 17, Acadia has launched in-licensed drug Daybue in the U.S. for the treatment of Rett syndrome in adult and pediatric patients two years of age and older.
• Nuplazid is being evaluated for negative symptoms of schizophrenia with top-line results expected in early 2024. In-house drug candidate ACP-204 is in Phase 1 trial for Alzheimer’s disease psychosis.

Context Therapeutics’ April R&D webinar included takeaways from its poster presentation on CTIM-76 preclinical data at the AACR Annual Meeting in April 2023. The presentation highlighted the development of Context’s CLDN6 program and rationale for selecting CTIM-76 (a CLDN6xCD3 targeting bispecific antibody) as its new lead candidate (following the recent discontinuation of the ONA-XR program). We remind readers that while the therapeutic benefits of targeting CLDN6 (expressed on a variety of malignant tumor cells but rarely in healthy tissue) are well recognized, development hitherto has been hampered by a lack of selectivity and off target toxicities. Preclinical data presented by Context suggest that CTIM-76 selectively binds to CLDN6 with a potentially beneficial safety profile. The latest Phase I data in solid tumors from BioNTech’s CLDN6 CAR-T asset BNT211 (33% overall response rate, ORR; n=21) highlight the potential of a CLDN6-targeting therapy and are an encouraging read-across for this asset class, including CTIM-76.

Basilea has announced that there will be a minor delay in the timing of its new drug application (NDA) for Zevtera (ceftobiprole) to the FDA and it now anticipates submission in Q323 (previously H123). The decision comes because one of Basilea’s contract manufacturing organisations requires an additional three to six months to adapt its quality control systems before FDA inspection, a prerequisite for NDA review. Following the NDA submission, Basilea expects a regulatory decision on the approval of Zevtera in the United States by Q224. Management does not expect the recent news to affect its FY23 financial guidance and we believe a US launch date for Zevtera by late FY24 remains feasible.