Peter Altman
Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead
Wow, that's a big question. So I'll try and detail some of it. Emanuela, thank you for being on the call. I really appreciate it. We're pretty darn excited about having the IND accepted. And it’s said that the markets don't appreciate what this is. Our sense is we've just bolted on the value proposition of any of the other large leading mesenchymal cell companies that have not yet been successful in getting to market. We have peers that are going after acute respiratory distress with intravenous administration of their culture expanded mesenchymal stem cells. In fact, the NIH has a program that's actively enrolling and we'll soon complete enrollment in a 120-patient trial. So I don't know all the nuances with respect to the chemistry manufacturing controls and nature of the competitive mesenchymal stem cell programs. All of them, to my understanding, are allogeneic. There is potential for them to be approved in Japan, based on the HELIOS data with Athersys in the not-too-distant future. And so, we're watching and following the data of our peers, and we're wishing them every success. On our end, you asked what is the opportunity. We are going after this slightly differently. We are going after patients recovering from COVID-19, not necessarily those who are in the middle of severe ARDS and on a respirator. And we're not sharing a lot of details on that today, but I think the key takeaway is we're coming at it slightly differently initially. Our trial design is a Phase 1/2 trial. And your question on whether or not we will have proof-of-concept, from a efficacy perspective, I think right now, we're focused on the Phase 1 potion, which has a dose escalation element. And we're pretty confident that we'll get through that without any issues. On the other side of that, we'll be learning where COVID is at, at that point in time and what the case rate profile is of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome secondary to COVID-19. Currently, your point, which is sort of implied, is correct, that the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 has drastically reduced. And even though that has potential to erode the enrollment rate of the BCDA-04 program, that same fact is going to drive enrollment in BCDA-01 and BCDA-02. So we're actually hopeful that, that is the case and that continues. We're going after this indication, because this is really where we started. And there's other things going on with these COVID patients. Again, we're going after patients who are recovering from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. And there's a lot of information in the media these days around long COVID. I wouldn't say we're going on that head on today, but there is potential for us to expand this to other indications. I note that an intravenous safety package with our Neurokinin-1 Receptor Positive mesenchymal cells has potential to go in many different directions. Some of the large programs with these cells are focused on other clinical indications that are not respiratory in nature, and that provides other partnering opportunities to BioCardia once we complete our safety package. But that said, the mechanism of action, the last part of your question, these cells are well documented as being anti-inflammatory in nature. This is basic messing kina stem cell biology. And there's many, many articles on their impact in this fashion. Our other three programs, BCDA-01 2 and 3 are all local delivery of cells to the heart using our delivery technologies. We are big believers that cells should be locally delivered to target sites where one seeks to have a therapeutic benefit. In this indication, we're delivering them intravenously, they migrate through the venous system to the lungs. Essentially, these are large cells, Think of them as 20 microns in diameter, and they get trapped in the first capillary they hit, which is in the lungs. They have their Neurokinin-1 Receptor Positive. And what's important about that is that is the receptor that binds to substance P. In our slide deck, I love to show a picture from the New England Journal of Medicine, which shows substance P as the primary mediator of inflammation in the lungs. And so, will that result in our having differential benefit over other mesenchymal stem cell therapies that are being advanced. We don't know. One would expect that it likely would. But again, I think head-to-head trials will probably not be performed until such time as there's a product on the market and the second one comes along trying to either unseat it or show non-inferiority. As we're initially going after a different indication from others, that may, in fact, be ours that gets to market first. But time will tell. So did I answer most of your questions?