Cerenome’s New CNS Cancer Platform Combines Drugs, Diagnostics & AI

Welcome back to Market Movers, the opening bell in partnership with Cerraome.

FinTech TV's Johnny Fernandez sat down with Doctor Mark Hetrick to hear about the company's Medtech progress and rebrand.

Take a look.

Cerronome, formerly known as Plus Therapeutics, is rebranding as it moves from single drug developer to a full CNS cancer platform, combining therapeutics, diagnostics, and AI.

The new ticker is CNSY and it takes effect on August 3rd.

So, joining Me to talk more about this and the rebrand is Doctor Mark Hedrick from uh the Cerronome.

So Doctor Mark, thank you so much for joining us.

Welcome to the show.

Yeah, thank you.

So why the rebrand?

Kind of walk us through the rebrand and what does this mean versus, uh, plus therapeutics.

Kind of walk us through the differences and what's changing.

Well, it's really the name change is a capstone from things that we've been doing over the last 2 or 3 years.

So the company's evolved from a single drug, a radiotherapeutic company to adding up essentially a CSF diagnostic platform, and then now AI leveraging both enormous data sets that are, are, we've kind of merged together, the therapeutic and the diagnostic data set.

So we can really, as an integrated company, do everything.

I mean, and you have to because CNS oncology, uh, is a really tough space.

So, yeah, so I think we're, we're, we think this is the way to solve these issues.

Let's talk about the lead drug that you have for radiotherapy for cancer.

So kind of walk us through where that stands right now, how close you are to it, uh, and having the trial data, and can investors act on it.

Yeah, so Rayobic is our lead drug.

Uh, we are studying it for 3 different kinds of cancer, primary brain cancer, metastatic brain cancer, and pediatric brain cancer.

And in terms of the, the therapeutic development, where we are is we're going from phase 2 to pivotal trial or phase 3 trial.

And our goal is to have Rybk ready for pivotal trial next year for glioblastoma, which is primary brain cancer, the most common type, and lepto meningeal cancer, which is the most common metastatic cancer for patients that have other cancers.

So let's talk a little bit.

More about see inside right now.

It's uh the spinal fluid diagnostics test.

Uh, it saw the insurance coverage uh roughly double this year.

Um, you also just announced a partnership.

So how does this, uh, actually add more to the actual test?

Why does it matter for patients and for the business?

So C Inside is a diagnostic platform.

It's meant to be a one-stop shop for physicians who want data, knowledge, insights about their patients that have central nervous system cancers or might be at risk for those.

And need help and, and those physicians need help in making the diagnosis.

So we started off with a tumor cell uh assay or test that tells uh doctors and patients whether they have cancer in the, in the fluid around the brain, and then it tells how much cancer is there.

And so we're expanding that now to a 500 genome panel.

Uh, to tell whether they're genomic mutations that might influence treatment or, or the prognosis of the, of the tumor, and then we're going to continue to add on new knowledge-based assays so physicians can tell increasingly more about the tumor that can derive, can drive their actions in terms of drug selection, uh, drug change.

Is the patient getting better?

Is the patient getting worse?

So really, they send us the sample and we can really test for everything.

So, really interesting with, with the rebranding, you're pitching therapeutics, diagnostics, and AI under one roof.

So let's talk about the AI piece.

How does the AI piece work into this rebranding?

So, let me tell you what's not, first of all, this is not a, a bolt-on uh artificial intelligence solution that, you know, it's probably in every, uh, public company in, in the US.

This is a native AI system, and we partnered with a company called Ephemeral.

It was a spin-out of Palantir.

Uh, and so they're developing essentially a corporate operating system.

So they're taking, uh, our, uh, our workflows that are proprietary, uh, the, the types of, of, uh, specific information that we use within the company that are unique to us, putting those together in a system that then trains on the unique data that comes from our therapeutic trials and also from the diagnostics.

So, it's really, we're, we're, you know, one of the few companies, uh, particularly at our size in the US that's going native, literally going native.

And we think it's gonna create a lot of value in the near term, in terms of improving our margins.

Uh, improving, uh, the economics of our diagnostic and therapeutic, but longer term in products that are more external facing things that leverage that unique data that we have that we think creates durable value for stockholders.

So let's talk about the rebranding.

Uh, does this change anything for the current stakeholder?

The only thing that really changes the ticker, but if that happens all kind of seamlessly in in an automated fashion behind the scenes.

But it, uh, as I mentioned before, it's the capstone of what we've been doing for the last 2 or 3 years.

And there, there's really only one other company that's tried to be an integrated company, integrating diagnostic and therapeutics, and that's Roach.

So we're certainly a far cry from Roche in terms of size, but it's the same concept.

We're a mini Roche, uh, niche focus on CNS oncology indications, which is where, honestly, that's the biggest need in oncology today.

All right.

And, and looking forward into the future, the next 5 years, kind of what's the plan and what's the vision right now?

Well, I mean, the, the plan is to be the leader in CSF, cerebrospinal fluid diagnostics.

That's the window into the brain, frankly, and that's the one place where you can get reliable tissue and cells and genetic data from the patient.

So lead in diagnostics, bring one of the, the only approved drugs, first.

Approved drug for uh metastases to the brain, uh, in the fluid called lepto meningeal cancer.

So having the, the first approved drug for that indication, a CSF diagnostic platform, and then having an AI spine going across both businesses.

Awesome, it's definitely gonna be exciting to see how the future unfolds for you guys. with Doctor Mark, thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks, Johnny.

Appreciate it.