Neil Mayall, Chief Financial Officer of Stablepharma, has a long and varied career within the Financial Services industry. Prior to taking up his role at Stablepharma, he was part of the founding team who developed and ultimately sold the financial services consultancies Troika and PEN Partnership.
I asked Neil what attracted him to Stablepharma Ltd, a biopharmaceutical company developing a range of next generation fridge-free vaccine products, and how his experience could help the company to reach its vision of reducing global wastage, saving lives and making fridge-free vaccines a reality.
“Well let me start with the fact that I am not a scientist, but I am not sure you need to be to understand the huge need that exists globally to make vaccines more accessible. It’s quite amazing to read about the number of vaccines that are wasted, in both developing and developed countries, as a result of failures in the cold chain, that is, the infrastructure required for the refrigerated distribution and storage of vaccines. So when I learned about StablevaX™, Stablepharma’s fridge-free technology, which not only removes the need for refrigeration but also extends the shelf-life of vaccines, in turn reducing vaccine wastage and CO2 emissions, I felt I had to get involved to do my bit to make this vision a reality”.
Stablepharma’s technology platform, StablevaX™ converts existing approved vaccines to fridge-free status.
Stablepharma is progressing towards first-in-human clinical trials for SPVX02, a fridge-free vaccine for the prevention of Tetanus diphtheria and Dr Karen O’Hanlon, Head of Clinical Development, will lead the clinical trials with Professor Faust OBE, of NHS University Hospital of Southampton. “The quality of people on our team and the outstanding partnerships that we have made over the last few years, is another key factor in wanting to be part of this incredible journey”, said Neil. “But it’s when I read the statistics about the millions of people who suffer as a result of diseases that could be prevented if only vaccines could be delivered without the need for the cold chain, that provides the biggest motivation”.
Neil talked about the historical growth of the company, which spent a number of years focused on fundamental research before really starting to gain momentum in 2019 following the first of two Crowdfunding rounds, and further accelerated in 2021/22 following a Series A fund raise of $6.4m. “We used this funding to achieve a number of key milestones, including acquisition of the worldwide rights to produce and distribute our first two thermostable vaccine products, optimisation of the thermostable manufacturing process and ongoing research into the development of fridge-free vaccines including mRNA/LNP stabilisation technologies”.
“There is a lot going on at Stablepharma. We recently closed a bridge-funding round of approximately £2m to specifically progress the launch of SPVX02 (Td), potentially the worlds first fridge-free vaccine for the prevention of Tetanus diphtheria, a second fridge-free vaccine SPVX06 (Tetanus mono) and our mRNA research programme being managed out of our R&D Centre in Madrid, Spain. And, alongside all of the above, we continue to have positive conversations with big pharma about partnerships on R&D projects. Exciting times!”.
“We are moving forward at pace in terms of reaching our milestones, supported by our partners, advisors, academic institutions and shareholders. We are also in active discussions with institutional investors as we move into clinical trials later this year. The thermostabilisation of our first two products is just a starting point; we have identified up to 60 vaccine candidates that could be suitable for our technology – this could have a big impact in the world”.
“With my experience over the years of growing and developing companies, I can honestly say that working with Stablepharma is not only about the commercial potential, given the size and growth of the global vaccines market, but the tremendous potential for eradicating vaccine wastage and making vaccines more accessible to everyone, no matter where in the world. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to work with such an impactful company.”