OPM is a biotechnology company founded in September 2022.
It emerged from the split of Oncodesign SA—founded in 1995 and one of France’s most successful companies over the past 15 years—into two independent companies: Oncodesign Services on the one hand, and Oncodesign Precision Medicine (OPM) on the other. The latter was listed on Euronext Growth in Paris in December 2022.
I personally, along with the other co-founders, invested several million euros in its IPO.
Our revenues (received and receivable from public aid and private grants) and cumulative borrowings since the company’s inception total €45.5 million (Stock Market: €10 million / Banks: €6 million / Public Aid: €8.4 million / Revenue: €10.09 million / CIR: €4.3 million / Bonds: €0.4 million / Private grants: €6 million).
In February 2024, we attempted to raise funds through the market and, with great difficulty, secured €2 million; I personally guaranteed this transaction, and another of the co-founders reinvested at that time.
In today’s global geopolitical climate, OPM, like many other publicly traded French biotech companies, is currently facing difficulties, largely due to the complete stagnation that has gripped Euronext for the past 2.5 years. Revenue streams are drying up, and it has become very difficult for small and mid-cap healthcare companies in France to raise money on this stock market. The stock market can therefore sometimes be a trap that has already brought down 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); and Promethe (vector-mediated systemic radiotherapy).
Our product portfolio includes two advanced products ready to begin their clinical proof-of-concept (POC) studies in patients: OPM-101 and OPM-201. These two molecules have attracted interest from several pharmaceutical companies and investors, who are awaiting the completion of a Phase 1b/2a trial.
Through the end of 2024, we had been counting on financial revenues from Servier Laboratories, but after five years of fruitful collaboration and having invested over €60 million in one of the most innovative compounds for these patients, they revised their research strategy to focus, in neurology, on rare diseases as well as in oncology, setting aside Parkinson’s disease and returning to us all rights to the OPM-201 product. We are pleased to have reacquired this molecule in our portfolio along with all the value created through our collaboration with Servier, even though this has altered our revenues and short-term development strategy.
Very recently, we succeeded in convincing the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) of the potential of OPM-201. This is the leading foundation in the U.S. and worldwide, dedicated to discovering effective treatments for Parkinson’s disease. Just as OPM was entering a critical phase of its development, this hig h-level scientific recognition secured us a $7.6 million grant that will enable us to advance the development of OPM-201 to begin its Phase 1b trial in mid-2027.
To date, we have continued to independently lead the development of the compound OPM-101 for the treatment of cancers resistant to the leading immunotherapies that have revolutionized the treatment of certain major cancers over the past five years. This molecule also exhibits antitumor activity, particularly against pancreatic cancer. It is an immunomodulator with a completely innovative mechanism of action. We are seeking a pharmaceutical partner to take over. Our priority is to initiate the Phase 1b/2a trial of OPM-101 in oncology in mid-2026. The POC will be conducted in the context of treating patients with melanomas resistant to anti-PD1 therapy. We expect to have safety results in the first quarter of 2027, and an interim efficacy assessment after 10 patients at the selected dose by the end of 2027.
In addition, we have worked to establish an industrial cluster in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, which was launched in 2024 and specializes in the discovery, development, and production of radiopharmaceutical molecules.