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Invion (ASX:IVX) Executive Chair and CEO Thian Chew says the company sees a path to a rerate toward clinical-stage oncology peers — typically valued from AU$30 million to AU$40 million up to several hundred million — if it executes on a trio of near-term priorities: simplifying licencing, cleaning up shareholder financing structures and dialling up investor awareness.

In an interview with the Investing News Network, Chew stressed that Invion’s fundamentals are already in place: a platform therapy being tested across multiple cancers with an active clinical program, and a US Food and Drug Administration orphan drug designation potentially fast tracking approvals.

“The challenge is making sure people invest the time to understand where we're at. So if we solve all those three, even without doing any more development work, then we believe that we can get around the comparable levels of valuation, and that creates some interesting opportunities for us,” Chew said.

Invion is in the clinical trial stage for its novel PhotoDynamic Therapy for the treatment of certain types of cancer, including prostate cancer, non-melanoma skin cancer and anogenital cancer.

Chew also highlighted a strategic emphasis on unmet needs when it comes to cancer treatment for Asian populations, noting that only about 6 percent of patients involved in US drug development are Asian, while treatment costs often hover around US$300,000.

“(Asia) is our neck of the woods, and in fact, 60 percent of the world lives in our neck of the woods, and yet only 6 percent of patients for new drugs are really designed to look after what's in our backyard. So that really gives an important priority for us to look in our backyard, as opposed to trying to look beyond the Pacific Ocean.”

Watch the full interview with Invion Executive Chair and CEO Thian Chew above.