Balancing Narrative and Data: Complement Therapeutics CEO on the Art of Science Communication

During his time at Bayer, Dr. Rafiq Hasan visited a patient being treated with the ophthalmology drug Eylea. Doctors were measuring the drug's effectiveness in their usual data-driven way, but something that had recently happened to this patient was, at least to him, more significant than any data point—on the way home after receiving an eye injection, he could suddenly see the leaves on trees clearly.

"You think, 'Wow, what an impact.' It brings everything to life," Hasan said.

As a trained physician and a longtime pharmaceutical industry executive, Hasan understands the importance of data and complex science. They form the foundation of drug development and are crucial to the work in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. But sometimes, it's not the data that has the greatest impact or leaves the deepest impression—it's the story.

Hasan is now the CEO of Complement Therapeutics, a London-based preclinical biotechnology company incubated out of the University of Manchester. The company is developing therapies for diseases mediated by the complement system, a part of the body's innate immune system whose dysregulation can drive age-related macular degeneration (AMD), kidney diseases, and various hematologic disorders. Its lead candidate, CTx001, aims to treat geographic atrophy (GA)—an advanced form of dry AMD that can lead to irreversible blindness and for which no approved therapy currently exists.

However, since complement dysregulation is not always associated with diseases like geographic atrophy, the company has also developed a so-called "Complement Precision Medicine" (CPM) platform, which measures complement proteins to help identify which patients will benefit from drugs targeting diseases caused by complement dysregulation.

The company has just enrolled the first patient in its one-year natural history study in patients with confirmed geographic atrophy (GA). The study, called i-GAIN (Investigating Geographic Atrophy Insights), will identify and stratify patients with complement-driven AMD/GA, preparing for future interventional studies.

"In geographic atrophy, we know complement is a clear driver of the disease, but there are other factors," Hasan said. "So, screening patients for the study is crucial. If the disease is not driven by complement, then no matter what complement modulator you give, it won't work."

Complement plans to advance CTx001 into clinical trials by mid-2024, using patients identified in the i-GAIN study.

"I think if you identify the right patients for interventional studies... there's a great chance to make a meaningful difference," Hasan said.

A growing market

Although there are currently no approved therapies for geographic atrophy, two competitors' candidates are under FDA review, including Apellis Pharmaceuticals' pegcetacoplan and Iveric Bio's avacincaptad pegol, both requiring frequent intravitreal injections. Hasan said these drugs are exciting for the patient community and for companies working in the space.

"With potential approvals on the horizon, I think this will spark a lot of interest and enthusiasm," he said. "We're about to see approvals, which is good for patients, but (I think) equally important for the whole community is to recognize that modulating complement is an important therapeutic pathway."

"If you identify the right patients for interventional studies... there's a great chance to make a meaningful difference."

—Rafiq Hasan, CEO of Complement Therapeutics

Hasan shares this enthusiasm. As Senior Vice President and Global Head of Ophthalmology at Bayer, he drove the blockbuster drug Eylea from launch to over $2.5 billion in sales within five years, including five indications approved in three years.

"Over the past decade, we've commercially witnessed the success of drugs like Eylea," he said. "We may be on the verge of similar success in geographic atrophy, and I think that's also attracting investors."

In fact, Hasan said Complement Therapeutics is "close" to completing its Series A financing and may announce news soon.

Focusing on the narrative

Although the geographic atrophy market is far from saturated, newly approved therapies will still need differentiating factors, and that's where science and narrative come together, which is particularly crucial for Hasan and Complement. The complement system and its related science are extremely complex, but the message to physicians, patients, and investors doesn't have to be.

"We often think, especially in pharma and medicine, that we need complex science to convey a message," he said. "In reality, some of the most successful approaches are quite simple."

He often recalls the example of the patient who could see leaves clearly and believes it's crucial to figure out what matters most to the end user. With Eylea, for instance, he said clinicians talk most about its flexible dosing regimen.

"The key differentiator was the ability to extend the dosing interval to eight weeks," which is important for patients who may not be able to adhere to monthly eye injections, Hasan said.

For CTx001, communicating complex science in a simple way is also a core strategy for Hasan.

"We often think, especially in pharma and medicine, that we need complex science to convey a message. In reality, some of the most successful approaches are quite simple."

—Rafiq Hasan, CEO of Complement Therapeutics

Unlike other investigational therapies for geographic atrophy, CTx001 is a gene therapy, offering the potential for a one-time administration rather than frequent eye injections. Although eye injections often yield good clinical results, they tend to underperform in the real world due to the challenges of the dosing frequency. Hasan noted not only the discomfort of a needle entering the eye, "but it's not one and done; you have to go back every month."

"The burden of patients coming to the clinic monthly has a huge impact on their lives," and on caregivers as well, he said. "You can get a durable effect lasting years. We have the potential for a single administration."

Ultimately, the science must be sound, but the narrative of the science is equally important to make it relevant to patients. For Complement, the story will revolve around patient burden and simple numbers:GA affectsnearly one million people in the U.S. and five million globally. There is currently no treatment, and therapies nearing approval require frequent eye injections rather than a one-time gene therapy.

"What we do is communicate," he said. "We have the science, but the science doesn't speak for itself."