Living the dream, robots running biological experiments in silicon valley AKA my first go on Transcriptic
14 Apr 2015So I thought I would write up my first experience using Transcriptic.
So I thought I would write up my first experience using Transcriptic.
Towards the end of my PhD I started to get really into R. During my undergraduate degree at the University of Leeds my whole class were really heavy users of Origin Pro which is a really great plotting tool with an easy to use GUI. Though the only real taste of programming during that period was the use of Maple for one practical.
Marlowe is a job tracking tool for the mass spectrometry service. It is a little buggy but it is better than submitting jobs by email!!
First you need to create an account with your email and a new password.
Once logged in, go to settings and add the project code where jobs get charged too.
Once that is created you can go ahead to the jobs section.
Click new job.
Chemical formula is case sensitive.
Fill in the details, the molecular weight will be calculated for you.
Hazard buttons donāt work so well right now so if you could just put the hazards in the comments that would be awesome!
Click the button to attach a chemical structure. We like jpgās pleasethanks.
Then click Submit.
Note that after clicking submit, it will submit it but you wonāt know!
Click the jobs button at the top of the page to return to your jobs so see your newly created job!!
Thatās it, cya!
P.s if problems email Ben Miles, search the IC directory for it.
This week I wanted to attempt a valuation of a company called Versartis. Versartis is a single asset company based around a recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH). The key value proposition here is that Versartis can extend the half-life of hGH in circulation somewhere around 60x, they are aiming for a once-a-month injection for treating pediatric growth hormone deficiency. This is achieved by creating a fusion peptide of hGH and a peptide licensed under the name XTEN from Amunix (from where Versartis was spun-out). Hence the product is an XTENylated hGH known as VRS-317 primarily positioned at treating paediatric human growth hormone deficiency. Improved clinical outcomes are intended to come from improved patient compliance as ultimately it will mean less uncomfortable sub-cutaneous injections for the kids, and extend the lifetime of hGH within a therapeutic concentration window.
Existing hGH drugs on the market are hardly differentiated hence there is an opportunity here to separate from the rest of the market where all the players are present. These include Nutropin (Genentech), Humatrope (Lilly), Genotropin (Pfizer) and Norditropin (Novo Nordisk).
Versartis IPOād on March 21 2014 on NASDAQ and have previously raised capital all the way through to a series E round!
I was looking around for a method of valuing a drug co. pre-market and found an article in Nature Biotechnology on a technique which takes into account the risk and time to getting a drug to market and ultimately the revenues when at market and calculates an adjusted value for the present time. The supplementary information for the article comes with a handy spreadsheet model so I hacked away at that for a few evenings.
So here are the parameters I used for calculating the rNPV for Versartis:
| MARKET DATA | Ā |
|---|---|
| Number of Cases Forecast for Year 1 | 100,000 |
| Annual Population Growth | 0.27% |
| Peak Market Penetration | 45.0% |
| Revenue Per Unit | $30,000 |
| Market Ramp Time to Peak Penetration (Years) | 5 |
| Orphan Drug (< 200,000 U.S.)? (y/n) | Y |
Cases Year 1 based on 1:3480 children in North America are estimated to suffer from GHD1.
42.66M children in North America2 + 30.8M children in Europe3 + Japan 16.38M. (population data from Wolfram Alpha.)
Annual number of cases of Paediatric GHD: 25,816.
Another way to calculate number of cases per year is to take the annual dollar size of the market ~$3b and divide that by the annual cost of treatment, approximately ~$30,000. Whilst not really from first principles, this takes in account all other applications of hGH which might not nescessarily be a good ideaā¦
Annual number of cases of GHD: 100,000.
Peak market penetration is estimated to be 45% due to how this drug is so differentiated from all others on the market and the assitance it should receive from being an orhan drug.
Revenue per unit is based on the estimated annual cost of treatment per child in the U.S being in the range of $10,000 to $40,000.
Market ramp to peak penetration is estimated to be 5 which I believe is quite short however with orphan drug status the EMA will aid in facilitating the promotion of the drug.
VRS-317 was awarded orphan drug status by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on September 13, 2013 and the FDA on December 13, 2013.
Actual enrolment should only be taken from the published data from the clinical trial. Apart from this estimated enrolment is taken from the Clinical Trials database.
| Phase | Patients Enrolled |
|---|---|
| Phase 1 | 504 |
| Phase 2 | 48 (estimated)5 |
| Phase 3 | 250 (estimated)6 |
| Phase | duration / years |
|---|---|
| Preclinical | Passed |
| Phase 1 | Passed |
| Phase 2 | 15 |
| Phase 3 | 36 |
| FDA | 1 |
| Total | 5 |
FDA clearance duration is estimated at 1 year for a fast-track therapeutic.
Versartis completed a Phase 1 trial in 50 adults earlier this year.
A phase 1b/2a pediatric trial is currently underway assessing 6 month growth velocities of kids with pediatric GHD5 due for completion in June 2014, therefore the the lowest duration of 1 year is used..
Additionally there is a planned phase 3 open label extension study allotted for 4 years to assess the long term effects of VRS-3176. However Results may be announced earlier hence an estimate of 3 years.
| Item | Cost / $ | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Pre-Market Patent Fees | $10,000 | Ā |
| Annual Preclinical Costs | $- | Ā |
| Per Patient Phase 1 | $12,000 | Hollister-Stier |
| Per Patient Phase 2 | $12,000 | Hollister-Stier |
| Per Patient Phase 3 | $6,000 | Hollister-Stier |
| Approval Costs | $1,300,000 | $309,647 for PDUFA and $500,000-1,500,000+ for NDA preparation (ProPharma Partners; Covance) |
| Animal studies supporting Phase 1 | $500,000 | SEC documents referencing 2001 survey |
| Animal studies supporting Phase 2 | $1,000,000 | SEC documents referencing 2001 survey |
| Animal studies supporting Phase 3 | $1,500,000 | SEC documents referencing 2001 survey |
| Manufacturing/Marketing Costs + Markup | 25% | Ā |
Not sure about any of these costs, stuck with defaults. Went for 25% marketing costs as they can do the production in bacteria therefore getting a great margin.
| Item | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty Rate | 5.0% | Ā |
| Discount Rate | 20% | VC and pharma IRR (cost of capital for biotech) |
| Phase | Risk mitigation entering Phase | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Preclinical | 0% | Completed |
| Phase 1 | 0% | Completed |
| Phase 2 | 66% | Ongoing |
| Phase 3 | 67% | Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Research Association |
| FDA | 81% | FDA FY 2000 Performance Report to Congress for the Prescription Drug User Fee Act |
I seriously have no idea how to place a percent value on risk mitigation. I am working with 66% and 67% mitigation for phase 2 and phase 3 respectively.
I gave phase 2 a fairly high level of risk mitigation because essentially the in vitro work with XTEN has demonstrated the ability to extend the therapeutic half-life7, needless to say this is probably horribly inaccurate.
Phase 3 has the default from the spread sheet which is an average from the āPharmaceutical and Manufacturing Associationā.
| Metric | $ |
|---|---|
| PV of Revenue | 1,191,678,737 |
| NPV Cash Flow | 831,127,445 |
| Risk-Adjusted NPV | 547,557,840 |
The rNPV comes out at $547.5M however if we look at the current market cap of Versartis we see a value $659.21M (13 May 2014). Therefore it is 17% overpriced by the stock market and should be $22.65 per share.
| Patient Prevalence | Cases Y1 | rNPV / $ | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:3480 | 25,816 | 139,412,886 | Paediatric GHD only, based on epidemiological study and census data. |
| NA | 100,000 | 547,557,840 | All applications of GHD, based on market size and cost of treatment. |
You can see from the above table that the only way one can justify the current stock price of Versartis is that the market size is based on prior global, annual hGH sales rather than purely the incidence of paediatric GHD. This is confusing because most of Versartisā PR and clinical trials are aiming at paediatric GHD. Perhaps the market cap is based on if Versartis advanced VRS-317 to adult treatments as well?
I have learnt itās not just about having a great valuation model. You also need models to determine the risk mitigation and market penetration.
I would be able to provide more accurate costs if I had access to a full quarterly report, but Versartis havenāt been public long enough to file that information yet. Additionally I think I will need to play with this model to accomodate different cost types. Additionally I did not have good data for manufacturing and marketing costs.
Whilst I said the market is overvaluing the stock by 17% thatās a difference that would easily fall in to an error caused by an in correct risk mitigation rate or time scale for phase III completion. So I canāt say with any certainty how good the market price is.
I have to say that I was optimising parameters to get the rNPV to fall into a ball park of the market cap which is probably a stupid ideaā¦
I in no way attest to this being a good analysis. However it is my first attempt so I wanted to learn and keep learning. So get in touch with me on twitter at @BenNMiles and call me out on my BS numbers.
Iām looking forward to seeing the results of the Phase 2a trial in mid June 2014.
I have no idea what Iām doing so you shouldnāt make any investment decisions based on anything I write on my blog. Donāt hold me responsible for any financial losses or even gains. Iām doing this for fun not to inform investment decisions.
As a final year PhD student there is a question Ihear a lot āSo what are you doing after?ā. The majority of answers I hear are either āI donāt knowā or āHmmm maybe a post-doc?ā. And I think these are perfectly acceptable answers. However I think a more important question is āWhat are you passionate about?ā as this shifts the focus from just getting a job, to finding a calling that will satisfy you.