Biohaven fuels up for post-Pfizer future with $302M fundraising, fresh faces in the C-suite

A new, slimmed-down Biohaven issued its debut earnings release post-Pfizer split, touting a $301.9 million fundraising, new executive staffers and a pipeline stocked with therapies to test in epilepsy and neuropsychiatric conditions.

Biohaven Ltd., formerly known as Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd., officially launched Oct. 4 after the $11.6 billion acquisition deal with Pfizer closed. That deal saw its migraine franchise calved off to join the pharma giant, while Biohaven retained its pipeline.

Since then, Biohaven has been busy raising funds through a public offering that provided $301.9 million to fund operations. At launch, the company had $257.8 million in cash and no debt.

The company also brought on three new executives to lead its drug development efforts. They are Bruce Car, Ph.D., who joined in August from Agios Pharmaceuticals to serve as chief scientific officer; former Bristol Myers Squibb executive Irfan Qureshi, M.D., to be chief medical officer; and Tanya Fischer, M.D., Ph.D., as chief development officer and head of translational medicine. Fischer previously held the role of vice president of CNS development at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals where she expanded the CNS pipeline.

“We are well positioned with an outstanding drug development team, a deep late-stage pipeline and a strong capital position to favorably position us to accelerate development across our portfolio,” Biohaven CEO Vlad Coric, M.D., said in the Wednesday earnings release.

Coric said the company is prioritizing the Kv7 platform for epilepsy and neuropsychiatric indications and is aiming to get at least one phase 2/3 study underway in 2023. Biohaven is also working through a phase 3 trial of taldefgrobep alfa in spinal muscular atrophy, and enrollment is underway for a late-stage study of troriluzole in obsessive compulsive disorder.

That therapy failed a phase 3 test in spinocerebellar ataxia in May. Biohaven again pointed to a subgroup analysis that suggested efficacy and said conversations with the FDA and other regulators will occur in some way during the first half of 2023, according to the earnings release.

“We have not yet decided on the format of such a regulatory interaction but we could seek advice through various formal or informal interactions with regulatory agencies or we could choose to submit a new drug application if we believe that is warranted from the results of our ongoing post-hoc analyses,” the company said.

Biohaven intends to complete phase 1 studies for epilepsy therapy BHV-7000, which came from the Kv7 channel targeting platform acquired from Channel Biosciences earlier this year.

The company has $50.7 million in cash on hand as of the end of September.