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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about Candel. We are happy to hear that you find our technology exciting and you are enjoying the relaxed and flexible environment. We hope the additional information below clears up some misconceptions stated above which could be leading to unnecessary concerns. As always, feel free to reach out to any member of the Leadership Team directly with questions/concerns.
1. Intratumoral delivery of our systemic immunotherapy is not aggressive and is aligned with routine medical practice. For example, injection into the prostate takes 15 minutes in an outpatient setting and is comparable or better tolerated than standard diagnostic prostate biopsy. This is supported by extensive key expert and payor interviews as well as patient questionnaires.
2. People work hard in our Company to develop transformative medicines for patients with cancer. We embrace a hybrid way of working and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
3. All pre-commercial public biotech companies raise money over time as the company grows. They do so at appropriate times, based on data and other value infection points and when the market conditions warrant. Our cash runway funds the company’s current operating plan into Q1 2024, which is equivalent to, if not better, than the majority of pre-commercial public biotech companies. Such a runway will enable the company to achieve five clinical inflection points.
4. In early 2022, the two founders were invited by the Company to step down from their roles on the Leadership Team to make it possible to appoint very senior successors who bring a lot of valuable experience in relation to the current needs of the company. When a small, private biotech company grows into the next stage of development and becomes a public company, it is quite common for the founders to move on. With regard to the CFO who recently stepped down, we have known since we had hired him in 2020 that he wanted to retire after 2 years, as he did; his departure is not related to the financial runway in any way, and we are very pleased that we have been able to attract another very senior CFO and have a seamless transition. Overall, our voluntary turnover is only 8%, which is well below the current biotech average of 18%.
5. Regarding benefits, the company currently pays 80% of the health and dental premiums, which is the average percentage for our industry. We offer a large choice of plans through an outside vendor and the rates for these plans vary; some are below market, some are at the market, and others are above market. We participate in two annual benefit surveys, and we are continually analyzing our benefits and striving to make them as competitive as possible.
