Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

When you look at a clinical-stage oncology company like Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT), with a market capitalization of just $6.61 million as of late 2025, you have to ask: is this a high-risk penny stock or a deeply undervalued engine for next-generation cancer treatment? The company is laser-focused on overcoming tumor immune evasion and drug resistance, evidenced by its $10.5 million cash position-enough to fund its pipeline, including the promising CAPTN-3 tri-specific antibody platform, into the first half of 2027. Honestly, the story of Purple Biotech isn't about current sales, which are non-existent; it's about how their innovative approach to cancer's toughest problems could defintely create value through future licensing deals and collaborations, and that's what we need to unpack.

Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) History

Purple Biotech Ltd.'s story is one of significant corporate transformation, shifting from its original focus to a dedicated, clinical-stage oncology company. The company, which trades on the NASDAQ, has undergone a fundamental strategic pivot over the last decade to concentrate on therapies that overcome tumor immune evasion and drug resistance.

We need to look past the current name to see the full picture, as the company was established decades before its current identity. This evolution is key to understanding its current pipeline strategy and financial positioning into late 2025.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

The company was initially founded in 1968, though its operations in the biotechnology sector formally began in 2001. The current name, Purple Biotech, was adopted much later in 2018.

Original location

The company has consistently maintained its headquarters in Rehovot, Israel, a central hub for the country's life sciences and technology industry.

Founding team members

The founder associated with the original 1968 establishment is John Paul Waymack. However, the strategic pivot to oncology in 2012 involved new leadership, including Isaac Israel, who served as CEO until 2022. Another critical figure is Dr. Hadas Reuveni, the founder and Chief Technology Officer of TyrNovo, a subsidiary central to the NT219 asset.

Initial capital/funding

Specific information regarding the initial capital or funding at the company's founding in 1968 is not readily available in public filings. Like many clinical-stage biotech firms, the company relies on financing activities to support its pipeline development, securing funds to maintain a cash runway expected into the first half of 2027 as of the end of Q3 2025.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The single most transformative decision was the 2012 shift to oncology, which completely redefined the company's mission and pipeline. This move set the stage for its current focus on overcoming tumor immune evasion, a major hurdle in cancer treatment. The subsequent 2018 name change simply formalized this new direction.

The current transformative moment is the aggressive advancement of the CAPTN-3 tri-specific antibody platform, which engages both T cells and Natural Killer (NK) cells. This is defintely a high-risk, high-reward bet. The company is directing its limited resources here.

• Financial Re-focus: For the three months ended September 30, 2025, the company reported a reduced Operating Loss of $1.4 million, down from $2.1 million in the same period of 2024, primarily by decreasing Phase 2 study expenses for CM24. Here's the quick math: that's a 35.8% reduction in operating loss year-over-year.
• Pipeline Prioritization: Research and Development Expenses for Q3 2025 were just $0.6 million, a 56.4% decrease from Q3 2024, showing a clear shift in spending to the newer CAPTN-3 platform and away from the CM24 Phase 2 study.
• Cash Position: As of September 30, 2025, the company held $10.5 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term deposits, which is a critical metric for a clinical-stage firm. What this estimate hides is the continued need for non-dilutive financing or partnerships to fund the larger, later-stage trials for their assets.

This disciplined focus on the CAPTN-3 platform, while managing cash, is the current strategic playbook. You can read more about the long-term strategic goals in Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT).

Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) Ownership Structure

Purple Biotech Ltd. is a publicly traded, clinical-stage biotechnology company, and its ownership structure reflects a high degree of retail investor interest, which is common for smaller-cap biopharma firms with high-potential pipeline assets.

This structure means strategic direction is heavily influenced by the Board and executive decisions, but major capital raises or significant corporate actions must navigate a diverse, diffuse base of individual shareholders, making a clear, transparent communication strategy defintely crucial. You can find more details on who is accumulating shares here: Exploring Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Given Company's Current Status

As of November 2025, Purple Biotech Ltd. is a dual-listed public company, trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol PPBT and on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). This dual listing provides access to both US and Israeli capital markets, but it also subjects the company to regulatory oversight from both the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Israeli authorities. The company's market capitalization was approximately $6.50 million as of the Q3 2025 reporting period.

The company's focus is on developing first-in-class therapies to overcome tumor-immune evasion and drug resistance, with key programs like NT219 and the CAPTN-3 tri-specific antibody platform advancing through Phase 2 and pre-clinical stages, respectively.

Given Company's Ownership Breakdown

The ownership breakdown for Purple Biotech Ltd. as of late 2025 shows a significant portion of shares held by non-institutional, or retail, investors. This is a critical factor for volatility and price action, as individual investors often react quickly to clinical trial news or regulatory updates.

Here's the quick math based on the latest available financial data from the Q3 2025 period, showing who controls the shares and, by extension, the voting power.

Given Company's Leadership

The company is steered by an experienced leadership team and an independent board, a structure designed to maintain strong governance and focus on clinical execution. The average tenure for the management team is approximately 3.3 years, suggesting a stable core.

The key executive and board members responsible for the company's strategy and financial health as of November 2025 include:

• Gil Efron: Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He was appointed in July 2022 and has been instrumental in focusing the pipeline.
• Shai Lankry: Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Appointed in May 2025, he oversees the company's capital structure and financial reporting.
• Michael Schickler: Head of Clinical & Regulatory Affairs. He manages the critical clinical trials for programs like CM24 and NT219.
• Eric Rowinsky, M.D.: Independent Chairman of the Board.
• Isaac Israel: Director.

The Board is composed primarily of Independent Directors, which helps ensure that major decisions, like the approval of equity-based awards planned for a December 2025 meeting, are scrutinized for shareholder benefit.

Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) Mission and Values

Purple Biotech Ltd. is fundamentally driven by a singular, patient-focused mission: developing first-in-class therapies to overcome the most stubborn problem in oncology-tumor resistance to treatment. This commitment is reflected in their core values of scientific rigor, strategic efficiency, and a relentless focus on biomarker-driven precision medicine.

Given Company's Core Purpose

You're looking for what truly drives a clinical-stage biotech beyond its stock price, and honestly, it's the science and the patients. For Purple Biotech, their entire operational structure is built around solving the problem of drug resistance, which is why so many promising cancer treatments eventually fail. They don't just chase targets; they focus on the tumor's defense system, the tumor microenvironment (TME).

Here's the quick math on their focus: their Q3 2025 R&D expenses were $0.6 million, a 56.4% decrease year-over-year, which shows incredibly disciplined capital management while still advancing three distinct pipeline assets. That's efficiency in service of their mission. To be fair, this reduction is largely due to the completion of major Phase 2 costs, not a slowdown in development.

Official mission statement

The company's mission is precise and focused on a first-in-class approach. It's a commitment to fighting the cancer's ability to evade both drugs and the immune system.

• Commit to the development of first-in-class, effective therapies.
• Harness the power of the tumor microenvironment (TME).
• Overcome drug resistance and improve treatment outcomes for cancer patients.

This mission isn't just a poster on the wall; it's what guides their clinical trials. For example, the CM24 Phase 2 trial data showed a remarkable 90% reduction in death risk in a specific, biomarker-enriched subgroup of pancreatic cancer patients. That's a defintely concrete result of their commitment to precision.

Vision statement

While Purple Biotech doesn't publish a single, formal vision statement, their long-term goal is clearly to fundamentally change the prognosis for difficult-to-treat cancers. Their vision is to move cancer from a death sentence to a manageable, chronic condition.

• Transform the cancer treatment landscape.
• Significantly improve the prognosis and quality of life for cancer patients.
• Create durable, long-lasting therapeutic responses.

Their pipeline reflects this vision, with the NT219 Phase 2 trial in head and neck cancer starting in the first half of 2025 and the CAPTN-3 platform advancing toward an IND (Investigational New Drug) application in 2026. This focus on multiple, novel mechanisms-like dual inhibition and tri-specific antibodies-shows a long-term commitment to overcoming resistance in various tumor types. If you want to dive deeper into how they fund this ambitious vision, you should check out Breaking Down Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Given Company slogan/tagline

Purple Biotech does not currently use an official, public-facing slogan or tagline. Instead of relying on marketing fluff, the company lets its scientific focus speak for itself.

• The core message is: Overcoming tumor immune evasion and drug resistance.

The lack of a slick slogan actually reinforces their identity as a science-first organization. They are a clinical-stage company, so their focus is on getting their drugs, like CM24 and NT219, through trials and to patients, not on branding. As of September 30, 2025, their cash and short-term deposits stood at $10.5 million, giving them a runway into the first half of 2027 to execute on this mission.

Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) How It Works

Purple Biotech Ltd. is a clinical-stage oncology company that creates first-in-class therapies to defeat two major hurdles in cancer treatment: the tumor's ability to evade the immune system and its resistance to existing drugs. It does this by developing a focused pipeline of novel small molecules and antibody-based platforms that target unique biological pathways, not just the tumor itself. Breaking Down Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors

Given Company's Product/Service Portfolio

Given Company's Operational Framework

Purple Biotech operates on a lean, clinical-stage development model, focusing capital on high-potential, biomarker-driven trials rather than broad, costly studies. This approach is why the company reported a Q3 2025 Operating Loss of only $1.4 million, a significant decrease from the previous year. Honestly, that level of financial discipline is defintely rare in early-stage biotech.

The company's value creation process centers on three core pillars:

• Biomarker-Driven Precision: Use specific patient biomarkers (like CEACAM1 levels) to select the most responsive patient subgroups for trials, increasing the probability of success and accelerating regulatory review.
• Strategic Collaboration: Partner with major pharmaceutical companies, like the collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb Company, to evaluate CM24 in combination with their anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, Nivolumab.
• Platform Diversification: Maintain a pipeline spanning three distinct modalities-monoclonal antibodies, small molecules, and tri-specific antibodies-to mitigate single-asset risk and create multiple shots on goal.

Given Company's Strategic Advantages

The company's competitive edge comes from its focus on the most difficult-to-treat cancers and its reliance on novel mechanisms of action (MOA) that competitors are not yet addressing. This is a high-risk, high-reward strategy, but the early clinical data suggests it's paying off.

• First-in-Class MOAs: CM24 and NT219 are both first-in-class assets, meaning they target novel pathways (CEACAM1, IRS1/2, and STAT3) that are central to tumor resistance and immune evasion, giving them a unique market position.
• Extended Cash Runway: As of September 30, 2025, the company held $10.5 million in cash and equivalents, providing an expected cash runway into the first half of 2027. This capital efficiency ensures the clinical programs can advance without immediate, dilutive financing pressure.
• Tri-Specific Antibody Technology: The CAPTN-3 platform is a next-generation approach to immuno-oncology, designed to safely engage both the innate (NK cells) and adaptive (T-cells) immune systems simultaneously, which could lead to superior efficacy over traditional bi-specific antibodies.

Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) How It Makes Money

Purple Biotech Ltd. is a clinical-stage oncology company, so it does not generate revenue from commercial drug sales yet. The company's financial engine is driven by R&D investment and strategic capital raising, aiming for future revenue from lucrative licensing deals or commercialization of its pipeline assets like CAPTN-3, NT219, and CM24.

You're looking at a classic biotech model: spend heavily now on research to capture massive returns later. The immediate 'money' comes from selling equity and managing cash, not selling product.

Purple Biotech Ltd.'s Revenue Breakdown

As of November 2025, Purple Biotech Ltd. is a pre-revenue company. Its Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) revenue is $0.00 as it has no approved commercial products on the market. The table below represents the potential revenue streams for a company in this stage, which are currently at zero.

Business Economics

The core economic reality for Purple Biotech is that it is a pure-play research and development (R&D) company. Its primary cash flow is outflow, funding clinical trials and preclinical work, not inflow from sales. This means the key to its financial health is its cash runway and its ability to raise capital without excessive dilution.

• Pricing Strategy: The company has no current pricing strategy for its drug candidates like NT219 or CM24, as they are still in clinical development. Future pricing will be based on a value-based model common in oncology, reflecting the high cost of development and the significant clinical benefit for patients with tumor immune evasion and drug resistance.
• Funding Model: The business operates on a venture-style funding model, relying on strategic public offerings. For instance, in September 2025, the company announced the closing of a public offering that could yield up to $18 million in gross proceeds, including short-term warrants. This is how they fund the burn rate.
• Non-Core Income: The company does generate small amounts of non-core income, such as Finance Income, net, which was $0.1 million for the third quarter of 2025. This income is mainly from interest on cash and equivalents, plus non-cash gains from warrant revaluation, not from core operations.

Purple Biotech Ltd.'s Financial Performance

The latest financial results, reported in November 2025 for the third quarter, show a company focused on capital preservation while advancing its pipeline. The trend is a sharp reduction in R&D spending, which extends the cash runway.

• Cash Position: As of September 30, 2025, Purple Biotech had cash and cash equivalents and short-term deposits of $10.5 million. This is the most critical number for a pre-revenue biotech.
• Cash Runway: Management projects this cash balance will sustain operations into the first half of 2027. That's a defintely solid runway for a clinical-stage firm.
• Net and Operating Loss: The net loss for the third quarter of 2025 was $1.3 million, and the operating loss was $1.4 million. For the first nine months of 2025, the net loss totaled $2.84 million.
• R&D Expense Management: Research and Development expenses were aggressively managed, dropping to $0.6 million in Q3 2025. This represents a significant 56.4% decrease from the same period in 2024, primarily due to reduced costs associated with the CM24 Phase 2 study.
• Administrative Costs: General and Administrative expenses remained stable at $0.8 million for Q3 2025, showing consistent cost control.

Here's the quick math: with a quarterly operating loss of $1.4 million, the $10.5 million cash balance gives them roughly 7.5 quarters of operating cash, which aligns with the projected runway into the first half of 2027. You can dive deeper into the implications of this burn rate here: Breaking Down Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors

Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) Market Position & Future Outlook

Purple Biotech Ltd. is positioned as a high-risk, high-reward clinical-stage oncology firm, with its future trajectory hinging entirely on the successful advancement of its innovative CAPTN-3 tri-specific antibody platform and its two Phase 2 assets. The company's immediate focus is on converting promising early-stage clinical data into definitive, registrational trials, maintaining a cash runway that extends into the first half of 2027 based on its Q3 2025 financial position. Breaking Down Purple Biotech Ltd. (PPBT) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors

Competitive Landscape

As a pre-revenue, clinical-stage company, Purple Biotech Ltd. competes on pipeline innovation and platform differentiation, not current market share in drug sales. The true competition is for capital, talent, and successful clinical trial outcomes against much larger, established pharmaceutical giants and smaller, nimble biotech peers.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's strategy maps directly to its unique pipeline, but the inherent risks of clinical development still loom large. Here's the quick math: a Q3 2025 Operating Loss of $1.4 million means the existing cash must deliver significant clinical progress before the runway ends.

Industry Position

Purple Biotech Ltd. is a nano-cap company in the highly competitive and capital-intensive oncology-focused biotechnology sector. Its industry standing is defined by its innovative platform technology, not commercial success.

• Technology Leader in a Niche: The CAPTN-3 platform, with its masked CD3 and NKG2A arms, is a defintely differentiated approach in the crowded T-cell engager space.
• High-Risk Profile: The company is pre-revenue, reporting $0 in sales, and its valuation is almost entirely tied to the perceived value of its intellectual property and pipeline success.
• Prudent Cash Management: R&D expenses were cut by 56.4% year-over-year in Q3 2025, demonstrating cost management discipline to extend the runway.
• Next Action: Finance and R&D must align on the budget for the IM1240 IND-enabling studies to ensure the 2026 Phase 1 start remains on track.