00:00 Welcome everyone. It's Michael Murray with Benzinga joined today by the CEO of Longeviron
00:06 Whale, Hashad Whale. It's great to have you with us. How are you doing?
00:09 Very good, Michael. Thank you for having me.
00:11 It's our pleasure, Whale. And we really appreciate you taking time out of your day to speak with
00:15 us. Give us a quick overview of Longeviron and what the company does to kick things off.
00:19 Yes. Longeviron is a cell-based therapy company. We have our first product, Lomacell B, is
00:27 in the clinic. We are studying it to address three critical diseases that either have no
00:36 therapeutic options today available or very limited therapeutic options. These are, the
00:42 first one is hypoplastic left heart syndrome. It's a congenital heart disease. The second
00:49 one is Alzheimer dementia, and the third one is aging frailty. So those are the three diseases
00:56 that we are tackling. And we're hoping to bring that medicine to all the patients that
01:01 need it in the future.
01:02 Wonderful. Now, Whale, tell us about Lomacell B. How exactly does that work?
01:07 So, you know, cell therapy doesn't have a very documented, but the biggest principle
01:13 that we believe this product work is through four main mechanisms. The first one is through
01:20 an anti-inflammatory effect or having an anti-inflammatory cytokine effect. And then the second one is
01:27 cell to cell interaction. The third potential mechanism is exosome and micro RNA release.
01:36 And the fourth one is mitochondrial transfer with the somatic cells that it tried to help
01:41 and support.
01:42 Fantastic. Well, three new board members were elected to serve, including yourself. What
01:47 do these board members bring to the table at Longeviron?
01:50 Yes, they really bring a great, I would say, overall guidance to the strategy and the governance
01:58 of the organization. We have Koso Belouche, who is a very well-known executive. He comes
02:05 with very strong background from the pharmaceutical biotech, both in the US and international
02:10 markets. He has been a CEO of a small company before as well, and he sits on multiple boards
02:18 and he really provides a great perspective and wisdom to me, myself, as well as to the
02:26 rest of the organization.
02:29 We also have Jeffrey Pfeffer, who is a very well-known professor. He's very well published.
02:33 He sat on multiple boards. He's a professor of organizational development at Stanford
02:39 University, probably one of the most well-known and highly respected people in his field.
02:45 And he brings a very good background to the board, especially around how to have the organization
02:53 function and achieve its goals and mission in the best possible way as well.
02:57 Outstanding. Now, do these additions change anything in the strategic direction of the
03:01 company overall?
03:02 Yes. So, you know, strategy is about making choices, Michael, as you know. And I think
03:08 there is, I would say that since I joined, I've been trying to reprioritize some of the
03:15 work that we're doing. I would say that my top priority right now is HLHS for a very
03:21 simple reason. It's potentially could be the fastest way to getting to the market and also
03:26 the least costly alternative for us to get to the market.
03:31 Alzheimer and dementia potentially going to cost the company a significant amount of investment
03:37 and probably the best way to do this is through a partnership with another major pharmaceutical
03:43 or biotech firm. Once we have the results from our phase two and hopefully it comes
03:48 positive, our goal at that time will to find a suited partner that can help us advance
03:53 that program forward.
03:56 And then with aging and frailty or aging frailty, our focus right now is in Japan and we believe
04:03 we can get there. And Japan provides an accelerated path to getting into the market. So that's
04:09 our top priority as well. So a little bit of just reprioritizing where we spend our
04:15 energy and focus. That's what I've done since I joined the company.
04:20 Terrific. Now, a final question for you here and actually two more questions leading into
04:24 each other. Have there been any major shifts in how we approach aging in the last few years
04:29 as a society? And what do we know now that we didn't know before in the past?
04:32 Yeah, well, aging is becoming more of a reality. Just to give you a little bit of perspective,
04:41 you know, the baby boomer generation, their life expectancies were in the 70s, like in
04:49 the mid 70s. Generation X, their life expectancy is in the 85, 90 years old. And Generation
04:57 Z, the newest generation, is their life expectancy is expected to be on average of the age of
05:06 100. To put things in numbers, there was about 590,000 or more, slightly more, of people
05:15 who are above the age of 100 in 2022. It is expected by year 2050, which is not that far,
05:23 that this number will be eightfold more to about 3.7 million. So when you look at these
05:30 numbers and people living to the age of 100, I think the most important question that comes
05:36 is how can people not just live longer, but live healthier and live those many years in
05:44 a good health and good condition. And I think that's where our focus is, is how can we help
05:51 making sure that we bring medicines that can allow these patients have a better quality
05:56 of life as they age and reach those triple numbers that they are expected to reach in
06:02 the future.
06:03 Terrific. Now, a final question as we close, too. For someone in their early adulthood
06:07 now, perhaps in the early 30s, what sort of healthy lifespan will be reasonable to expect?
06:12 Will we see people regularly and healthily living to 100 plus in the future here?
06:16 Absolutely. As I mentioned, we're expecting people who are born today or in young adulthood
06:26 today to live into their average life expectancy will be in the hundreds. So as I mentioned,
06:37 anyone who is 30 today or born around the turn of this century should expect to live
06:45 to the turn of the other century, 2100. So yes, I think that's a reasonable expectation.
06:52 And of course, everything I mentioned here is based on averages.
06:55 Absolutely. Well, it's great insights that we've gotten as far as Longeviron specifically,
06:59 but also the industry that you're in and what we can expect to see in the future. Wael Heshad,
07:03 CEO of Longeviron, thank you very much for joining us here today.
07:06 Thank you very much, Michael, for having me.
07:08 Thank you.
07:09 Thank you.
07:09 Thank you.
07:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments