Full Press Release Details
Key Highlights – expected completion in YR 2025:
NEW YORK,March 4, 2025/PRNewswire/ -- Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ORMP) (TASE: ORMP) ("Oramed"), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the development of oral drug delivery platforms, today issued a letter to its shareholders from its President and Chief Executive OfficerNadav Kidron.
Dear Shareholders,
I am happy to take this opportunity to provide our shareholders with an overview of our key accomplishments and outline our future direction.
Oramed-HTIT Joint Venture: OraTech - A Transformational Partnership
We are excited about our joint venture, OraTech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("OraTech"), which we believe represents a significant step forward in advancing our proprietary oral drug delivery technology. This company will serve as the foundation for developing, marketing, and commercializing innovative treatments leveraging Oramed's oral insulin and POD™ platform.
The collaboration combines Oramed's innovative drug delivery technology with Hefei Tianhui Biotech Co., Ltd's ("HTIT") state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities, creating a powerful synergy that we believe positions OraTech as a true game-changer in the pharmaceutical industry. This integration of cutting-edge technology and advanced manufacturing expertise will enable us to ensure consistent, high-quality production at scale, setting new standards for oral protein delivery.
OraTech is backed by a substantial capital and operational commitment. These resources are earmarked to support the initiation of a Phase 3 clinical trial in the U.S., a key milestone in bringing oral insulin to market. By leveraging insights from prior clinical studies, we have strategically designed this refined Phase 3 trial to focus on key patient subpopulations that we believe have the highest potential to demonstrate efficacy.
In parallel, HTIT has already submitted a Marketing Authorization Application toChina'sregulators for the oral insulin capsule inChina. Commercialization preparations are underway, and OraTech is expected to receive royalties from sales inChina.
The establishment of OraTech represents a unique opportunity to build a company focused on advancing next-generation therapies, unlocking new market potential.
Stock Dividend and Strategic Opportunities
OraTech has initiated work on the Securities and Exchange Commission registration process with the goal of achieving Nasdaq trading status later this year. As part of this strategic initiative, Oramed plans to distribute OraTech stock to its shareholders via a dividend, granting them the majority of Oramed's ownership in OraTech. This distribution is expected to coincide with OraTech's public trading debut on Nasdaq.
Cash Dividend
Oramed is evaluating an opportunity to issue cash dividends of approximately$0.25per share intended to help offset any potential tax liabilities associated with the OraTech stock distribution. Beyond mitigating potential tax concerns, this initiative underscores our commitment to maximizing shareholder value.
Strategic Scilex Financing : Delivering Tangible Value
Our investment in Scilex Holding Company ("Scilex") underscores our commitment to generating meaningful value through well-structured financial transactions. To date, we have received$70 millionfrom our$99.5 millionsecured loan agreement, with additional payments of approximately$53 millionexpected over the next two years.
Beyond these direct financial returns, the transaction has provided us with 12.25 million shares of Scilex common stock, which will increase to 18.75 million shares this month as a result of warrant vesting. Additionally, we structured this deal to include meaningful upside through ongoing royalty streams from the following Scilex products:
Strong Balance Sheet: Positioned for Growth and Value Creation
Oramed maintains a robust financial position, strengthened by our strategic Scilex transaction and the OraTech joint venture. Our disciplined approach to cash management includes CDs, bonds, real estate and equities. We believe that our disciplined capital allocation strategy enables us to maintain sufficient liquidity for both our core operations and strategic initiatives, positioning Oramed for sustainable long-term growth.
Looking Ahead: A Commitment to Strategic Growth
Looking forward, we are actively pursuing acquisitions and partnerships that leverage our expertise in technology development and strategic dealmaking. We have identified several promising opportunities across multiple innovation ecosystems and expect to announce additional strategic initiatives in the coming quarters.
