Vicore Pharma (VICO) Oppenheimer 36th Annual Healthcare Life Sciences Conference summary

Company overview and strategic focus

• Publicly listed with a $380M market cap and $140M cash, operating in Europe and the US.

• Lead program buloxibutid targets idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a severe orphan disease with high unmet need.

• IPF affects about 150,000 US patients, with current therapies offering limited efficacy and poor tolerability.

• The IPF market is valued at over $4B in 2024, projected to exceed $10B by 2030.

• Buloxibutid is positioned as a differentiated, late-stage candidate in a limited competitive landscape.

Mechanism of action and scientific rationale

• Buloxibutid is an oral small molecule agonist of the AT2 receptor, promoting tissue repair and anti-fibrotic effects.

• The AT2 pathway is distinct from current therapies, aiming to restore lung function and resolve fibrosis.

• Mechanism involves refunctionalizing alveolar epithelial cells, restoring surfactant production, and reducing fibrotic signaling.

• Also upregulates enzymes that digest fibrotic matrix and induces vasodilation, addressing multiple disease aspects.

• Approach is supported by preclinical and early clinical data consistent with the proposed mechanism.

Clinical development and results

• Phase II-A open-label study in treatment-naive IPF patients showed good tolerability and no serious adverse events.

• Mild to moderate, reversible hair loss observed in 19% of patients; lower doses are being explored to mitigate this.

• Lung function improved by over 200 ml at 36 weeks, contrasting with typical decline in untreated or standard-of-care patients.

• Synthetic control arm analysis using real-world data confirmed significant improvement versus matched placebo arms.

• Conservative imputation analysis still showed a positive effect even when accounting for COVID-related dropouts.