AdTiger, Formycon, CureVac - Brilliant to the finish line!

AdTiger - Ingenious Marketing

AdTiger is an online advertising platform from China. Not well known in Europe so far, the agency deals with advertising contents of advertisers, as well as the diverse interests of the associated publishers. It is about efficient advertising channels, design and content. While Covid-19 spreads more and more across the planet, AdTiger managed to adjust its business model to the additional demand of app developers and educational institutions. The initially expected dent in growth quickly turned into public relevant projects and government contracts in the service of education and information of society.

Important in this context is good cooperation and the strong presence of AdTiger with social platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo. Their growth also brings with it corresponding demand and potential in online business for AdTiger. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, online activities around the globe have grown by an average of 46%. In addition to contact platforms, the demand for online education and training is incomparably more vital than in previous years, at 27%.

All in all, AdTiger succeeds in transporting the lower circulation of offline media into a higher penetration of its online advertising content. Even if the pandemic should disappear one day, AdTiger has completely taken care of its digitization transfer and uses the changed habits of its clients to increase sales and profits. In pandemic times, ingenious marketing means contactless presence and content excellence. AdTiger currently costs EUR 78 million on the stock exchange and is listed in Frankfurt at EUR 0.13 per share. It is worth taking a closer look here.

Formycon - Genius Antibodies

We received another announcement in the area of Covid-19 control yesterday from Munich-based biosimilar expert Formycon. Since today, we know that Formycon is not only working on the biosimilars but also, with the help of Bavarian research funds, on the development of antibodies against the coronavirus. Based on Formycon's clinically validated experience with antibodies and antibody fusion proteins, the Company started the development of an ACE2 antibody fusion protein with the internal code FYB207 in March 2020 - shortly after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe.

SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses use ACE2 on the surface of human cells as an entry point for respiratory infections. Formycon has therefore linked the human ACE2 protein to the constant portion of human antibodies using computer-aided structural design, creating a very effective SARS-CoV-2 blocker. Different variants of the virus blocker were investigated on a laboratory scale for producibility, stability and virus inhibition. In vitro tests with isolates of SARS-CoV-2 as well as the original SARS-CoV from 2003 show that Formycon's ACE2 antibody fusion protein effectively binds to SARS coronaviruses and completely prevents infection of the cells. That sounds brilliant!

Compared to vaccines and therapeutic antibodies, the ACE2 antibody fusion protein is maximally protected against virus evasion by mutation. The risk of infection amplification by vaccines and IgG1 antibodies described for coronaviruses is minimized by using the IgG4 portion in the fusion. FYB207 also has inherent enzymatic activity that may provide additional protection for the lungs and cardiovascular system in symptomatic patients. Furthermore, FYB207 can potentially be used against all coronaviruses that use ACE2 as an entry point.

Formycon, together with its research partners, is receiving a grant of €290,000 from the Bavarian Research Foundation for this project. The share price went through the roof today with a plus of 75%, bringing the market capitalization to almost EUR 600 million in one go.

CureVac - Ingeniously placed

CureVac is a biopharmaceutical Company and has been owned for years by the Hopp family (known through the success story SAP). From the very beginning, the declared goal was to carry out research in precisely those areas which, for various reasons, the highly commercial pharmaceutical companies, in particular, leave out. It is an ironclad goal to take care of things that seem to promise little profit, but in the end, are a useful achievement. Again I am thinking of the cuckoo clock!

CureVac is a research Company in the field of mRNA technology, an essential part of human protein and immune research. With its expertise, CureVac is working on the development and optimization of the most versatile molecules for medical use. The principle of CureVac's proprietary technology is based on the use of mRNA as an information carrier to guide the body to produce appropriately encoded proteins that can be used to fight a variety of diseases. The Company applies its technologies to the development of prophylactic vaccines, cancer therapies, antibody therapies and protein therapies.

With approximately 500 employees today, CureVac has been researching difficult issues since 2000 and has not brought to light much of the essential research until early 2020. From 2006 to 2014, CureVac was financed solely by Dievini Hopp BioTech Holding, a biotech venture capital Company owned by Dietmar Hopp. Through this investment, CureVac's capital grew to a total of EUR 145 million. Then came COVID-19 and the Company, which had been burning money for two decades, was floated on the stock exchange at an initial valuation of USD 2.3 billion. The mission is now to produce a viable vaccine against Corona, and if you believe the stock market, the tenfold increase in the price from USD 14 to USD 140 probably carries the one important message: they can do it!

Regardless of how the story turns out, it was placed 100% ingeniously, because people like Dietmar Hopp are simply ingenious, even if it sometimes takes 20 years before the fruits can be harvested. With a current stock market valuation of EUR 24 billion without product, you will go down in history anyway.