Q4 2020 Alpine Immune Sciences Inc Earnings Call

Alpine cautions you not to place undue Reliance on forward-looking statements and undertakes no Duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or changes in its expectations with that. I will now turn the call over to Alpine's executive chairman and CEO Doctor Mitchell Gold.

Thanks, Alex. Welcome to our fourth quarter and year-end 2020 Financial results conference call.

2020 was truly a Transformer of year for Alpine immune Sciences at the company going forward. We look to build on the strong momentum to accelerate development of our pipeline of innovative therapies. Our patients living with cancer and autoimmune inflammatory diseases.

Operator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining the Alpine Immune Sciences Fourth Quarter 2020 Financial Results and Corporate Update conference call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode.

I would like to dive into a three most advanced programs starting with alpine 101 LCD 28. I close inhibitor.

Operator: Following the management prepared remarks, we will hold a Q&A session. To ask a question at that time, please press star followed by one on your touchstone telephone. If anyone has difficulty hearing the conference, please press star zero for operator assistance. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, Thursday, March 18th, 2021. I would now like to introduce Alex Charisse, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead.

In June of last year following a highly competitive process. We entered into an option and license agreement with for worldwide rights to Alpine 101.

Matthew provided an upfront payment of $60 and is a total potential deal value of up to $865 in Milestone payments as well as royalties.

Alex Charisse: Thank you, Josh. With me on today's call from Alpine Immune Sciences are Executive Chairman and CEO, Dr. Mitchell Gold, President and Head of Research and Development, Dr. Stanford Peng, Chief Financial Officer, Paul Rickey, and Chief Business Officer, Dr. Remy Durand. This afternoon, Alpine Immune Sciences issued a press release announcing the company's fourth quarter and year-end 2020 financial results and corporate update. If you have not received this news release and would like to read it, or if you would simply like to be added to the company's distribution list, you can do both on the investor relations page of the company's website at www.alpineimmunesciences.com.

Importantly there is up to 75 million dollars potential option payments related to our development of Alpine 101.

We anticipate achieving the first of these milestones in the middle of this year as we progress Alpine 101 program with a V and lupus.

Moving next the Alpine to our first-in-class conditional cd28 stimulator and dual checkpoint inhibitor.

As many of you know cd28 has emerged as a potentially key or a pathway for overcoming resistance to checkpoint blockade and we are encouraged by the strong interest in the space.

Alpine 202 Remains the only therapeutic candidate that we are aware of that combines conditional cd28 costimulation with pdl1 ctla-4 blockade in a single molecule.

Alex Charisse: During the course of today's conference call, Alpine's management will make forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the company's preclinical and clinical development plans and the timing thereof, expectations regarding the sufficiency of cash to fund operations, including any cash received from potential milestone payments under Alpine's collaboration, the timing and publication of future clinical data, expectations regarding Alpine's ongoing collaborations and potential future collaborations, including the anticipated strategic Alpine's ability to successfully develop its product candidates and achieve milestones under its collaboration with AbbVie and others, and the Financial and Business Outlook for Alpine.

Gena of last year, we initiated neon one the phase one study of Alpine 202 in patients with advanced malignancies.

We will have a presentation at aacr next month as a trial in progress poster and we anticipate presenting initial interim data from the dose-escalation cohorts later this year.

The high-level trial continues to enroll. Well, we are seeing signs of potential cd28 engagement and we'll continue working to identify a dose regimen to move forward in our expansion cohort by the end of this year as well as initiating a combination study with pd-1 therapies, and we are calling me on to

Anticipate there are third development candidate to enter the clinic will be a LPN 303.

Do obese sweaty kind of tagonist fast and crashed potential for the treatment of cell mediated inflammatory diseases. We are particularly excited about this program and are targeting you initiate the phase one study and healthy Volunteers in the fourth quarter of this year.

Alex Charisse: These forward-looking statements are based on the company's current expectations and inherently involve significant risks and uncertainties. The actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties.

As we advance our clinical and Discovery programs, we continue to strengthen key functional areas of the company as evidenced by the recent hiring of Pam Holland as senior vice president of research and the promotion of Remy Durant's Chief business officer.

Alex Charisse: Factors that could cause results to be different from these statements also include factors the company describes in the section entitled Risk Factors in its annual report on Form 10-K for the period that ended December 31, 2020 and filed with the SEC on or about March 18, 2021. Alpine cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and undertakes no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events, or changes in its expectations.

You're also please have appointed Natasha Hyundai to our board of directors. The tax is deep experience in strategic Insight will be beneficial to us as we develop our programs. Globally. Would you consider various business opportunities for the company?

With that, I'll turn the call over to our president and head of research and development stand for Bank to provide an update on our research and development Stanford.

Thank you, Mitch.

As much mentioned 2021 looks to be an exciting and busy year for allergy. We expect to have at least four active clinicaltrials by the end of the year and we are evolving into a global development company and 101.

Alex Charisse: With that, I will now turn the call over to Alpine's Executive Chairman and CEO, Dr. Mitchell Gold. Thanks, Alex, and welcome to our fourth quarter and year-end 2020 financial results conference call. 2020 was truly a transformative year for Alpine Immune Sciences as a company. Going forward, we look to build on the strong momentum to accelerate the development of our pipeline of innovative therapies for patients living with cancer and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

This first-in-class do inhibitor of the sea 28 and I Costa matori Pathways was conceived of for multiple potential autoimmune inflammatory diseases and we are now very actively engaged and started up for an international phase II study and systemic lupus erythematosus with an intent to initiate the study by the middle of the year.

Collaboration with Abby is quite active and we have enjoyed productive discussions over the past several months as we continue to advance this program as efficiently as possible.

Alex Charisse: I would like to dive into our three most advanced programs, starting with Alpine 101, our dual CD28-ICOS inhibitor. In June of last year, following a highly competitive process, we entered into an option and license agreement with AbbVie for worldwide rights to Alpine 101. That deal provided an upfront payment to Alpine of $60 million and has a total potential deal value of up to $865 million in milestone payments as well as royalties. And, most importantly, there is up to $75 million of potential pre-option.

Cory look into it to its first and human monotherapy study me on one continues to progress through its throat escalation cohorts and we've been pleased with his progress overall as a reminder. This study is killing adults with Advanced solid tumors for them, refractory or resistant to standard therapy including checkpoint Inhibitors went indicated.

At next month's meeting. We will present a trial in progress poster which will reiterate the current design the study. In the meantime, we continue to collect and analyze data from the dose-escalation cohorts would encourage light early analyses the date and look forward to an opportunity to share the data in an appropriate form later in the year.

Mitchell H. Gold: It's related to our development of Alpine 101. We anticipate achieving the first of these milestones in the middle of this year as we progress the Alpine 101 program with AbbVie and Lupa. Moving next to Alpine 202, our first-in-class conditional CD28 co-stimulator and dual checkpoint inhibitor. As many of you know, CD28 has emerged as a potentially key co-stimulatory pathway for overcoming resistance to checkpoint blockade, and we are encouraged by the strong interest in the space.

In previous preclinical presentations, we demonstrated significant advantages when is administered in combination with other therapeutic modalities such as Platinum chemotherapy or even other checkpoint Inhibitors may be some such prior observation experience the date in neon one and in particular our interest in treatment of cancer that earlier lines of therapy. We have begun planning a pd-1 inhibitor combination studies me onto with an intent to start this trial later this year will provide additional details as planned for the mature.

Mitchell H. Gold: Alpine 202 remains the only therapeutic candidate that we are aware of that combines conditional CD28 co-stimulation with PD-L1 CTLA-4 blockade in a single molecule. In June of last year, we initiated NEON-1, a Phase 1 study of Alpine 202 in patients with advanced malignancies. We will have a presentation at AACR next month as a trial and progress post, and we anticipate presenting initial and interim data from the dose escalation cohorts later this year. At a high level, the trial continues to enroll well.

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He'll be in 303 is a dual bath April and tagging is designed for multiple be cell mediated inflammatory diseases our confidence in this program continues to grow as there continues to be transmission and clinical validation of this pathway by others including the recent approval of teletech accept another duel bass April inhibitor in China for lupus.

In addition our preclinical studies continue to adjust superiority of a LPN 303 over other available antagonist in this Pathways as we partially disclosed at the u l r e Congress last year long. We have initiated clinical trial in dealing activities and Target being ready to enter the clinic in the fourth quarter.

Mitchell H. Gold: We are seeing signs of potential CD28 engagement, and we'll continue working to identify a dose regimen to move forward in our expansion cohorts by the end of this year, as well as initiating a combination study with PD-1 therapies that we are calling NEON2. We anticipate that our third development candidate to enter the clinic will be ALPN 303. Dual B-Cell Split Echinotag, The Fasting Class Potential for the Treatment of B-Cell Mediated Inflammatory Diseases

Finally we met we remain enthusiastic about multiple ongoing Discovery efforts for both auto immune and inflammatory diseases as well as oncology at next month's aacr meeting. We will present data from one of our novel efforts in oncology demonstrating that fusions are various domains are capable of combining checkpoint inhibition and or two more energy and specificity with cd28 customer relations these efforts leverage the extent of knowledge. We have gained in this complex yet compelling field to our efforts with LP and 202 and are expanding the potential additional applications.

Mitchell H. Gold: We are particularly excited about this program and are targeting being ready to initiate a phase one study in healthy volunteers in the fourth quarter of this year. As we advance our clinical and discovery programs, we continue to strengthen key functional areas of the company, as evidenced by the recent hiring of Pam Holland as Senior Vice President of Research and the promotion of Remy Durand to Chief Business Officer. We are also pleased to have appointed Natasha Hernday to our Board of Directors.

No hand to call over to our CFO Ricky to discuss our financial results of the quarter call.

Thank you Stanford turning to our financial results for the fourth quarter Alpine's Cash Cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled 131.4 million as of December 31st twenty this compares to our cash balance of 141.3 million on September 30th, 2020 Revenue recognized under our collaboration agreement with approximately 9.3 million in 2020 compared to approximately 1.7 million the prior year the increased primarily relating to our collaboration. We entered into with a B.

Mitchell H. Gold: Natasha's deep experience and strategic insight will be beneficial to us as we develop our programs globally and consider various business opportunities for the company. With that, I'll turn the call over to our President and Head of Research and Development, Stanford Peng, to provide an update on our research and development. Thank you, Mitch.

Research and development expenses were 27.2 million in 2020 compared to thirty five point eight million the prior year. The decrease was primarily attributable to decreases in contract factoring and process development of our product candidates partially offset by increases in clinical trial activity to support me on one in 2020 General and administrative expenses 4024 10.9 million compared to nine point five million in the prior year. The increase was primarily attributable increases professional install services and admin costs to support growth and expansion of our business.

Stanford Peng: As Mitch mentioned, 2021 looks to be an exciting and busy year for R&D at Alpine. We expect to have at least four active clinical trials by the end of the year. And we are evolving into a global development company through AOPN 101, a first-in-class dual inhibitor of the CE28 and ICOS co-inflammatory pathways designed for multiple potential autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

Stanford Peng: And we are now very actively engaged in start-up activities for an international phase two study in systemic lupus erythematosus with an intent to initiate the study by the middle of the year. Our collaboration with AbbVie is quite active, and we have enjoyed productive discussions over the past several months as we continue to advance this program as efficiently as possible. For ALPN202, its first in human monotherapy study, NEON1, continues to progress through its dose escalation cohorts, and we have been pleased with its progress overall. As a reminder, this study is enrolling adults with advanced solid tumors or lymphoma, refractory or resistant to standard therapy, including checkpoint inhibitors when indicated.

Alpine recorded a net loss 27.9 million in 2020 compared to forty one point nine million in 2019 in terms of our cash Runway, please log on hand combined with potentially 75 million and three options exercised Milestone under our collaboration with a beat. This is sufficient to fund Alpine's planned operations through 2018 with that. I will turn the call back.

Thanks, Paul.

As you heard from our team 2020 was a transformative year for Alpine. If we continue to make excellent progress across the company's pipeline of clinical and Discovery programs. We have several program Milestone opportunities this year including initiation of our phase II study for Alpine 101 and potential achievement of our first Milestone Under The Abbey collaboration.

Stanford Peng: At next month's AACR meeting, we will present a trial in progress poster, which will reiterate the current design of the study. In the meantime, we continue to collect and analyze data from the dose escalation cohorts. We are encouraged by the early analyses to date and look forward to an opportunity to share the data in an appropriate form later in the year. In previous preclinical presentations, we demonstrated significant advantages when ALPIN202 is administered in combination with other therapeutic modalities, such as platinum chemotherapy or even other checkpoint inhibitors. Based on such prior observations, we experienced a date in NEON1 and, in particular, our interest in treating cancers in earlier lines of therapy.

Grail Pine 2023 expect updates on the dose-escalation cohorts from me on one at a scientific meeting and the initiation of the neon to study.

We also anticipate the initiation of our Phase 1 first-in-human trial for Alpine 303 the first clinical step towards establishing a potential best-in-class position after this important program.

Stanford Peng: We have begun planning a PD-1 inhibitor combination study, NEON2, with an intent to start this trial later this year. We will provide additional details as plans further mature. Our third development candidate, AOPN303, is a dual BAS-APRIL B-cell cytokine antagonist designed for multiple B-cell-mediated inflammatory diseases.

With that, I'm not open the call for questions from the operator.

Thank you, as a reminder to ask a question. You need to press star one on your telephone to withdraw your question. Press the pound key, please standby for barbecue and a roster.

Stanford Peng: Our confidence in this program continues to grow as there continues to be translational and clinical validation of this pathway by others, including the recent approval of telepecicept, another dual BAS April inhibitor in China for lupus. In addition, our preclinical studies continue to suggest superiority of ALPIN303 over other available antagonists in this pathway, as we partially disclosed at the U of R e-Congress last year. We have initiated clinical trial enabling activities, and we target being ready to enter the clinic in the fourth quarter.

Our first question comes from type 10 top with 5% You may proceed with your question great. Thank you very much and really exciting time for the company. I want to get a sense for the clinical update that you might be able to present on 202 later this year. Can you give us a sense in terms of where you are with dosing off indoor how many patients we might be expecting and then I also have a second question with respect to the ability to combine with anti pd-1 Inhibitors. You know, that's going to be a pretty powerful shot. Obviously, you know, what should we be looking for just with respect to safety from 202 as it gets combined with the pd-1. Thanks guys make that Sanford you want to take that?

Stanford Peng: Finally, we remain enthusiastic about multiple ongoing discovery efforts for both autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, as well as oncology. At next month's AACR meeting, we will present data from one of our novel platform efforts in oncology, demonstrating that fusions of our variant domains are capable of combining checkpoint inhibition and or tumor antigen specificity with CD28 co-stimulation.

Sure, you know so we would like to have the opportunity to present this initial data in an appropriate scientific Forum. So, you know, it will depend on of course except the appropriate, um conferences and so on but we're optimistic that we'll be able to do that sometime this year with regard to the overall number of subjects. I think, you know, we've been allowed we have a lot of fair amount of flexibility and enrollment in terms of over and rolling cohorts, um, and so on to gain additional experience with the therapy and also gain additional Sonic the dynamic damage that will help us identify the the best dose to take forward into expansion cohort. So, um as you probably recall from the original design of the study is designed to the three plus three, but expect them to be exceeded in some cohorts just based on how enrollment is gone.

Paul Rickey: These efforts leverage the extensive knowledge that we have gained in this complex yet compelling field through our efforts with ALPN202 and are expanding to potential additional applications. I'll now hand the call over to our CFO, Paul Rickey, to discuss our financial results for the fourth quarter. Thank you, Stanford. Turning to our financial results for the fourth quarter, Alpine's cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled $131.4 million as of December 31, 2020

Paul Rickey: This compares to our cash balance of $141.3 million on September 30, 2020. Have you recognized, under our collaboration, approximately 9.3 million in 2020, compared to approximately 1.7 million the prior year? The increase primarily relates to the collaboration we entered into with AbbVie. Research and development expenses were $27.2 million in 2020, compared to $35.8 million the prior year. The decrease was primarily attributable to decreases in contract manufacturing and process development of our product candidates, partially offset by increases in clinical trial activity to support NEON1 in 2020. General and Administrative Expenses for 2020 were $10.9 million compared to $9.5 million the prior year. The increase was primarily attributable to increases in professional and legal services and administration costs.

With regard to the pd-1 combination, you know overall we don't necessarily expect the safety to be necessarily excessive come.

Baird to what? We know already from other checkpoint inhibitor or even checkpoint a word combinations, um, since the molecule is designed to go to that is is designed to localize this activity to the tumor marker bulb and based on our preclinical studies. We haven't seen excessive toxicities or reassure and we've seen cords just generally seeing reassuring data to support that thesis. So, um, but you know, we'll of course the the attention that a pretty closely in that trial awesome. I really appreciate it and excited for the progress this year. I think that

Thank you for next question comes from Mark breidenbach with Oppenheimer. You may proceed with your question. Hey guys, thanks for taking the question. You know, I was wondering maybe this is directed to Stanford since to to kind of has its own intrinsic pdl1 pd-1 blockade component of objectivity why am combining with with pd-1 the right thing to do? Maybe maybe you can you can provide some some mechanistic justification for for wire going after that combination birth, and I'm also wondering if it neon to expect to n Roll on all patients with prior pd-1 exposure or or what kind of patient population. You should be Target in in the neon to study.

Paul Rickey: Growth and Expansion of Our Business. Alpine recorded a net loss of $27.9 million in 2020 compared to $41.9 million in 2019. In terms of our CAS runways, we expect that our CAS runways... Combined with potentially 75 million in pre-option exercise milestones under our collaboration with AbbVie, it's sufficient to fund Alpine-planned operations through 2023. With that, I will turn the call back. Thanks, Paul. As you heard from our team, 2020 was a transformative year for Alpine.

Yeah, so the the answer is kind of wrapped up in both questions. That is we as you may recall we have disclosed some of our preclinical data showing that at least in certain situations combination with a pd-1 inhibitor is certainly not antagonistic and in many cases maybe, tutorial or maybe not synergistically at least common tutorial wage. But um from a development perspective, we're particularly interested to get a LPN 202 into patients in earlier lines of therapy. And in the neon to trial we anticipate the opportunity to do just that I'm kind of leveraging the ability to treat patients with the pd-1 inhibitor knowing that they open 202 is not antagonists is activity and if anything should be beneficial that may allow us to get that experience much earlier than we would if we simply took the monotherapy approach as we currently are doing so to be clear me on one is enrolling patients that have failed all standard therapies and includes checkpoint failures. Whereas birth

Mitchell H. Gold: We continue to make excellent progress across the company's pipeline of clinical and discovery programs. We have several program milestone opportunities this year, including initiation of our phase 2 study for Alpine 101 and potential achievement of our first milestone under the AbbVie collaboration. For Alpine 202, we expect updates on the dose escalation cohorts from NEON1 at a scientific meeting and the initiation of the NEON2 study.

Mitchell H. Gold: We also anticipate the initiation of our Phase 1 First In Human Trial for Alpine 303, the first clinical step towards establishing a potential best-in-class position for this important program. With that, I'll now open the call to questions from the operator. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. To withdraw your question, press the pound key.

Plans for me on to our to Target patients that are in earlier lines of therapy.

Okay, super helpful. I appreciate the clarification and thanks again for taking the question.

Thank you. And as a reminder to ask you a question, you will need press star one on your telephone. Our next question comes from Japan Guinness with you may proceed with your questions. Good afternoon. Thanks taking the question was hoping to dive a little deeper into your 303 comments specifically, maybe if you could give a little more about it's a differentiated profile while also do is you set it, you know validation by others with the China approval for a telepath telepath except as well. Thanks. Thanks. Joe Sanford God. Yeah, so I may refer you to a poster that we presented at U of our last year where we compare European 3032 other wild-type tacky Fusion package, which includes structures that resemble if not articulate a cassette and in in those essays both in each row and in Vivo, we saw more potent activity with a open 3:03.

Operator: Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Ted Tintle, who is with Sandler. You may proceed with your question. Great, thank you very much, and a really exciting time for the company. I wanna get a sense for the clinical update that you might be able to present on 202 later this year. Can you give us a sense in terms of where you are with dosing and or how many patients we might be expecting? And then I also have a second question with respect to the ability to combine it with anti-PD-1 inhibitors. You know, that's gonna be pretty powerful.

Ted Tintle: Shot obviously, you know, what should we be looking for just with respect to safety from 202 as it gets combined with the PD-1s? Thanks, guys. Thanks, Ted. Stanford, do you want to take that?

both in terms of just simply

Pharmacological blocking activity but also translating in Vivo to a few different physiological consequences like um, more potent or durable effects on D cell populations as well as antibodies exclamation. So we're of course, we don't know yet without the human data, but we are optimistic that that will translate into more potent pkpd which at least as a base case would suggest an advancement agent advantages with regard to dosing regimen

Stanford Peng: Sure. You know, so we would like to have the opportunity to present this initial data at an appropriate scientific forum. So, you know, it will depend, of course, on acceptance at the appropriate conferences and so on, but we're optimistic that we'll be able to do that sometime this year. With regard to the overall number of subjects, I think we've been allowed a fair amount of flexibility in enrollment in terms of over-enrolling cohorts and so on to gain additional experience with the therapy and also gain additional pharmacodynamic data that will help us identify the best dose to take forward into expansion cohorts.

got it. Thank you. That's very helpful.

Joel only thing I would add on top of that is, you know, we think that doing the addition of April and back is going to be coming under increasing Focus for the treatment of lupus and other inflammatory diseases and Stanford mentioned. We think we're sitting in a very good position there to create a best-in-class program. Appreciate it makes Mitch. Thanks. Yep.

Stanford Peng: So, as you probably recall from the original design of the study, it's designed as a 3 plus 3, but expect those to be exceeded in some cohorts just based on how enrollment has gone. With regard to the PD-1 combination, you know, overall, we don't necessarily expect the safety to be necessarily excessive compared to what we know already from other checkpoint inhibitors or even checkpoint inhibitor combinations since the molecule is designed, 202, that is, to localize its activity to the tumor marker environment.

Thank you, and I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I would not like to turn the call back over to Mitch Gould for any further and works.

Thank you operator next monthly plan represent posters at ACR for both Alpine to an additional programs from our research platform. Welcome your request for upcoming meetings with the team. Please feel free to reach out to Alex if you'd like to schedule some time with that. Thank everyone for participating in today's call and have a great day.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating you may now disconnect.

Stanford Peng: And based on our preclinical studies, we haven't seen excessive toxicities or just generally seen reassuring data to support that thesis. So, but, you know, we'll, of course, be paying attention to that pretty closely in that trial.

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Stanford Peng: Awesome, guys. I really appreciate it and am excited for the progress this year. Thanks, Ted. Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Redenbach with Oppenheimer. You may proceed with your question. Hey guys, thanks for taking the question. You know, I was wondering, maybe this is directed to Stanford. Since 2.0.2 kind of has its own intrinsic PD-L1, PD-1 blockade component of its activity, why is combining with PD-1 the right thing to do? Maybe you can provide some mechanistic justification for why you're going after that combination first.

Mark Redenbach: And I'm also wondering if in NEON-2 you expect to enroll all patients with prior PD-1 exposure or what kind of patient population you would likely target in the NEON-2 study. Yeah, so the answer is kind of wrapped up in both questions. That is, as you may recall, we have disclosed some of our preclinical data showing that, at least in certain situations, combination with a PD-1 inhibitor is certainly not antagonistic and, in many cases, may be combinatorial or maybe not synergistic, but at least combinatorial.

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Mark Redenbach: But from a development perspective, we're particularly interested in getting ALPN202 into patients in earlier lines of therapy, and in the NEON-2 trial, we anticipate the opportunity to do just that, kind of leveraging the ability to treat patients with a PD-1 inhibitor, knowing that ALPN202 is not an antagonistic activity and, if anything, should be beneficial. That may allow us to get that experience much earlier than we would if we simply took the monotherapy approach as we currently are doing. So, to be clear, NEON-1 is enrolling patients that have failed all standard therapies and includes checkpoints and failures, whereas our plans for NEON-2 are to target patients that are in earlier lines of therapy.

Thursday Thursday, Thursday, Thursday Thursday

Stanford Peng: Okay. Super helpful. I appreciate the clarification, and thanks again for taking the question. Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Our next question comes from Joe Pantginis with H.C. Wainwright. You may proceed with your question. Hey, everyone.

Joseph Pantginis: Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the time to answer the question. I was hoping to dive a little deeper into your 303 comments, specifically maybe if you could give a little more about its differentiated profile, while also having, as you said it, you know, validation by others with the China approval for teletassassept as well. Thanks, Joe. Stanford. Yeah, so I may refer you to a poster that we presented at U of R last year where we compared AOPN303 to other wild-type tachy-IG fusion proteins, which include structures that resemble, if not are, teletachycepts.

Joseph Pantginis: And in those assays, both in vitro and in vivo, we saw more potent activity with AOPN303, both in terms of just simply pharmacological blocking activity but also translating in vivo to a few different physiological consequences, like more potent or durable effects on B-cell populations, as well as antibody formation. So we, of course, we don't know yet without the human data, but we are optimistic that that will translate into more potent PKPD, which at least as a base case, suggests advantages with regard to the dosing regimen.

Stanford Peng: Thank you. Joe, the only thing I would add on top of that is, you know, we think that dual inhibition of APRIL and BAP is going to be coming under increasing focus for the treatment of lupus and other inflammatory diseases, and as Stanford mentioned, we think we're sitting in a very good position there to create a best-in-class program. Appreciate it, Mitch. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you, and I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mitch Gold for any further remarks. Thank you, Operator. Next month, we plan to present posters at AACR for both Alpine 202 and additional programs from our research platform. We welcome your requests for upcoming meetings with the team. Please feel free to reach out to Alex if you'd like to schedule some time.

Mitchell H. Gold: With that, I'd like to thank everyone for participating in today's call and have a great day. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Operator: Physicist, Dr. James Tumlin, Robert Driscoll, Alpine Immune, Michael Ulz, Jonathan Barratt, Gregory Renza, Michael Ulz, Alpine Immune, Alpine Immune Physicist, Dr. James Tumlin, Robert Driscoll, Alpine Immune Physicist, Dr. James Tumlin, Alpine Immune Physicist, Alpine Immune Physicist, Dr. James Tumlin,