An Open Letter from Uzi Sofer, Alpha Tau’s CEO
Dear Alpha Tau Team,
As we prepare to welcome the Jewish New Year, I want to pause and reflect with you on the journey that we have made over the past year.
Thank God, it has been an extraordinary year for Alpha Tau. Many years of research, development, perseverance, and hard work by each and every one of you have come together in a remarkable series of scientific, clinical, regulatory, and business achievements. Step by step, these accomplishments bring us closer to the purpose for which this company was founded: to offer a new way to treat cancer for patients around the world.
There are too many accomplishments from this past year to review in detail. Here’s a brief look highlighting just a few:
We launched the REGAIN study in the US for patients with recurrent glioblastoma, and in December, the first patient in the world was treated with our technology for a brain tumor. We subsequently reported interim results from the first three patients from this study: local disease control was achieved in all three, including complete responses in two. Following a review of this highly promising data, we received FDA approval to continue enrollment and to expand the study to additional leading medical centers across the US.
The first patient in Israel with recurrent glioblastoma was treated with our technology at the Hadassah Medical Center, the first such treatment performed outside the United States. As an Israeli company, seeing a technology developed by our team being used to treat such a complex brain tumor here in Jerusalem was a moment of particular significance for me.
Another historic first for the Company: We completed enrollment in our first US pivotal trial of 88 patients in the ReSTART recurrent cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma study. This is an important milestone on our path towards potential U.S. marketing approval.
We achieved significant results in our immunotherapy combination study for the treatment of head and neck cancer: an objective response was observed in all nine evaluable patients, with a median overall survival of 18.2 months. The study exceeded its predefined threshold for success and was stopped after enrolling 11 patients.
Last year this time, the first patient was treated in the IMPACT study in the United States. This week, we completed enrollment in the study with 48 patients, after expanding enrollment three times in response to keen interest from physicians and patients. In parallel, we have opened our France and Italy pancreatic cancer trials, and we hope to see continued results building upon our very promising local disease control and survival outcomes data presented earlier this year.
We opened and expanded several additional programs. We initiated a U.S. study in immunocompromised patients with recurrent skin cancer; received approval to begin a study in patients with recurrent prostate cancer; and entered into an important strategic partnership in prostate cancer with Tolmar in the United States. The collaboration includes an investment in Alpha Tau, funding to expand our manufacturing capabilities, and potential future payments tied to clinical, regulatory, and commercial progress.
One of the most exciting milestones of the year was receiving marketing approval in Japan of our technology for the treatment of locally advanced or recurrent head and neck cancer that cannot be surgically removed. This is the first marketing approval for our technology outside of Israel and an enormously important regulatory achievement for the company and for all of us.
We became a dual-listed company, listing our shares for trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange alongside our U.S. Nasdaq listing, while continuing to build the infrastructure and capabilities needed to evolve from a development-stage company into one that can ultimately deliver treatments on a commercial scale.
And the world outside Alpha Tau is taking notice.
We have seen a meaningful and positive response from the capital markets to Alpha Tau’s progress. Just in recent days, we received another remarkable indication of that recognition: Barclays, one of the world’s largest and most influential financial institutions, increased its price target for Alpha Tau shares from $17 to $30. That represents an exceptional increase of approximately 76% in the price target and implied more than twice the share price around the time the recommendation was published. It is another indication of the growing confidence in our company, our technology, and the journey we are taking together.
But behind every number, every study, every patient, every regulatory approval, and every announcement we made this year are all of you.
These achievements are the result of the hard work, professionalism, creativity, determination, and commitment of Alpha Tau employees in Israel and around the world. They were built day by day, often over many years, including during the times when the road was long and the results were not yet visible.
I wish all Alpha Tau employees and your families a happy and sweet New Year – a year of health, success, growth, meaningful work, and good news.
God willing, may the coming year be one of continued breakthroughs for all of us, and above all, a year in which we are able to make a meaningful difference in the lives of more and more patients and families around the world.
I would like to close with a brief thought as we leave one year behind and enter a new one.
On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, we ask God to grant us another year of life. But perhaps, before asking for the year ahead, we should first stop and give thanks for the year that has passed – for every breath, for our families, for our health, for our livelihoods, for the miracles we can see, and for those which we may never even realize have occurred for us.
When we enter the New Year with gratitude, our prayer takes on a different meaning:
God, thank You for everything You have given us until today and grant us another year in which we may continue to have reasons to thank You.
Shana Tova and Happy New Year,
Uzi Sofer, CEO
