‘East to West’: AdAlta unveils new strategy to find drug candidates, but appears to’ve ditched AD-214

AdAlta (ASX:1AD) has unveiled a new grand plan to take cell therapy candidates from Southeast Asia, firm them up in Australian early-stage tests, and then licence those products if successful to European and American markets.

But shareholders haven’t liked the plan, with shares in the nanocap down just shy of 6% in the first hour of Thursday trades – given the stock is highly illiquid, that doesn’t represent very much turnover at all.

But the approach is, at least, worth monitoring for anyone slightly interested.

Even if it does mean the biotech company is effectively starting from scratch again as a biotech junior. The company was previously focused on lung fibrosis, but it appears that has fallen by the wayside heading into 2025.

“Following a strategic review AdAlta’s first-in-class antifibrotic molecule, AD-214, will continue to be advanced only via third-party transactions and the Company will cease internal discovery R&D activities to focus resources on the “East to West” growth strategy,” AdAlta wrote on Thursday.

At any rate, AdAlta has called its new plan ‘East to West.’ It wants to connect “Eastern innovation to reach Western regulated markets.”

Where exactly it will go in Southeast Asia to find cellular immunotherapy candidates is anybody’s guess but universities are likely. Specifically, AdAlta wants therapies looking at solid cancers.

“This strategy is already providing us access to “Eastern” advances in cellular immunotherapies and will, in turn, help drug candidates flowing from biotech innovation in that region reach “Western” regulated markets,” AdAlta CEO Tim Oldham said.

“We believe AdAlta can make a series of modest investments, leveraged with third-party capital and focused on single clinical trials per asset, that could see value realisation in relatively short time periods.”

1AD last traded at 1.6cps.

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