Active Biotech's partner at Stanford University reported preliminary data from 3 patients. The new eye drop formulation of laquinimod enters the vitreous humour of the eye at therapeutically relevant concentrations. One patient experienced a potent anti-inflammatory ocular effect after administration with no concomitant corticosteroids. This suggests laquinimod should enter the posterior parts of the eye and might be used to treat posterior uveitis. Active Biotech is optimistic it can find a partner to conduct a phase II study upon a positive conclusion of the biodistribution study.

Active Biotech has announced a rights issue of SEK36m plus up to SEK7m in an over-allotment option. This is a quite dilutive issue with up to 723 626 284 shares being issued (not taking the over-allotment into account), which means a trebling of the shares outstanding (to 1.1bn shares). The strike price is SEK0.05 per share with two new shares per share owned. The share has held up rather well despite the low strike price. This means the subscription rights (traded 30 October – 8 November 2024) should have a substantial value. The rights issue could fund the company until reaching a deal with laquinimod in 2025.

Some time has passed with no progress with naptumomab from NeoTX, located in Israel which has a battered economy. We, therefore, choose to set the value of this programme to zero until a funding solution is in place. We have added one year to the clinical programme of tasquinimod as the myelofibrosis studies have taken a long time to get started. Our estimated market launch is now in 2031 (2030). Assuming full subscription in the rights issue, we use 1.1bn shares for calculating our new base case, which is SEK 0.5.