Novan CEO Talks About The Company's Future: 'Our Focus Is Put On SB204'

Benzinga recently had the chance to chat with Novan Inc NOVN’s CEO Nathan Stasko. In a previous article, he talked about the company’s HPV drug; in this article, we’ll look into his prospects for the business, potential catalysts and financing.

Capital Issues

When asked if the management team is comfortable with the company’s balance sheet and if it was considering a capital raise, the chief executive declared, “when we marketed our initial public offering, [what we said] was that we would look to be opportunistic on the heel of positive data with additional financing.

“Particularly what we were messaging was that the huge data catalyst that we have coming up with SB204 in the first quarter of 2017 creates an opportunity,” he added. “What we had been messaging was that we would use that phase 3 success to finance the entire platform at that time and move a lot of these programs along in their late stage development.  So (…) we will be looking at additional financing in the first half of 2017 to finance the successes we believe we will have in this platform.”

Key Focus Areas

Talking about Novan’s performance since its IPO and going forward, Stasko voiced, “the key focus areas for us are obviously execution on the SB204 acne program. There are very few phase 3 data readouts that you will see in the industry on a yearly basis, so we’re obviously focused on bringing that study to closure and reporting those results in Q1.”

In addition, he went on, “we also released recently some very exciting data on our anti-inflammatory programs, particularly for the potential treatment of psoriasis, and I think that, just like we have seen with SB206, which validates the potential of the antiviral approach with nitric oxide in a viral skin infection, we are aiming to launch the clinic program for psoriasis by the end of the second quarter next year, in 2017, and really look to validate the autoimmune diseases that are in the skin with that piece.

“So, each of our whole platform development goals are to take an indication where we believe there is a high level of probability of success and demonstrate nitric oxide can be delivered to affect those diseases and then really serve as a springboard for expansion in the multiple markets [indications] from there,” the exec concluded. “Our focus really right now is on the U.S.  We want to be a preeminent dermatology company in the United States, and we are focused commercially and regulatory wise on the United States and we would look to get patients across the world access to our products through partnerships and collaborative development.”

Liked this interview? Now check out our conversation with Blues Traveler’s Brendan Hill, who recently shared a look at the future of the marijuana industry, and our chat with Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc KPTI’s CEO and CFO, who went into the company’s finances, partnerships and pipeline.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned above.