Q2 2023 OmniAb Inc Earnings Call
Good afternoon, and welcome to M D.
The second.
Second quarter, 'twenty 'twenty financial results and business update conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode.
A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation.
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the call over to Kurt Gustafson.
<unk>, Inc. Chief Financial Officer, you May begin thank you.
Thank you operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for joining our second quarter 2023 financial results Conference call.
There are slides to accompany today's remarks and they are available in the investors section of our website at <unk> Dot com.
Before we begin I'd like to remind listeners that comments made during this call will include forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal Securities laws. These forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from any anticipated results.
These forward looking statements are qualified by the cautionary statements contained in today's press release and our SEC filings.
Importantly, this conference call contains time sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of the live broadcast today August 10, 2023, except as required by law on the Abbott undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances. After the date of this call.
Joining me on the call today is Matt for on the Abbs President and CEO .
During today's call, Matt and I will provide highlights on the company's operations partner and technology updates and our recent financial results at the conclusion of the prepared remarks, we'll open the call to questions with that let me turn the call over to Matt.
Thanks, Curt and good afternoon, everyone and thanks for joining our second quarter conference call.
I'll start today with an overview of our business here on slide number four of the deck.
At the core of <unk> business model is our proprietary discovery technology platform. That's designed to help partners discover innovative therapeutics quickly and efficiently.
In a simple sense its a model based on licensing innovative technologies to partners.
Omnipod is differentiated in the marketplace by having the most diverse host systems for fully human Bispecific.
We humans and bi specific antibody discovery with the industry's only four species platform that includes transgenic mice rats chickens and Cal based technologies.
Our partners have an increasing number of antibodies in clinical trials that are from our technology and the versatility of our platform continues to be demonstrated in the number of modalities and formats being employed by our partners, both pre clinically and clinically.
We offer flexibility to meet our partners' evolving scientific needs as we believe generating large and diverse repertoires of high quality antibodies increases our likelihood of success in optimizing desired therapeutic characteristics.
Our technology and our core capabilities are driven by what we call. The biological intelligence of our transgenic animals and are further strengthened by our innovative high throughput screening and other technologies.
There are 74 partners with access to our technology, our <unk> antibodies with over 300 programs in various stages of research and development.
The antibody space as one of the fastest growing parts of the drug industry with a market size is expected to be larger than 250 billion within a couple of years.
We believe we're in a great position to capitalize on this opportunity with our unique and expanding technology offerings.
We're constantly innovating our technology stack and this past may we introduced our newly branded omni deep offering which is a suite of silicone capabilities, including structural modeling large multi species antibody databases molecular dynamic simulations artificial intelligence and machine and deep learning sequence models that are applicable across our technology.
<unk> platforms to further enhance our partners' discovery process.
In addition, we plan to introduce our novel heavy chain only omni chicken that will we will be branding as omni Dab in the fourth quarter of this year and I'll say more detailed constant comments and and perspectives on omni Dab and our excitement around that technology until later this year when we launch it.
Okay.
On this next slide I, just want to reiterate that as a company and as a team. We are mission driven to enable the rapid discovery of innovative suitable products by pushing the frontiers of drug discovery technologies.
We are poised for continued growth as shown here on slide number six by the new license agreements, we signed during the second quarter.
In Q2, our team closed four new platform license agreements.
With Merck, Inc, and one with Neurocrine biosciences, as well as platform deals with Stanford University, and Seattle Children's Hospital.
Mark This is a new agreement and as with the U S. Merck and company not to be confused with the German Merck K G. A a with whom we also have an agreement.
We reached a total of 74 active partners at quarter end up from a partner count of just slightly more than 60 as of a year ago.
Our discovery platform continues to garner interest in the industry among a diversified group of leading global pharmaceutical companies, allowing us to leverage our highly scalable business model, adding partners like Merck, Inc, who are global leaders in the industry and who are committed to using the power of leading edge science to improve lives.
Bolsters, our growing list of partners.
We believe this is a testament to our effective and efficient discovery technologies to our in house expertise for scientific collaboration services, our mindset for developing a deep understanding and also prioritizing our current and future needs of our partners as well as our commitment to continued innovation.
Here on slide number eight our portfolio of active programs increased to 305 with two with 29 programs in clinic in the clinic under regulatory review or approved for commercialization at the end of Q2.
During the second quarter, we added a net total of four new programs to our portfolio importantly, I want to note that when we report program count we do so net of attrition as attrition is expected in the pharmaceutical industry and this quarter attrition was seen only in the discovery stage of our partnered pipeline.
The Pie chart on the right hand side of this slide breaks down our 305 programs by stage of development.
Discovery Phase consists of 261 programs. In addition to 15 programs now in the preclinical stage in.
In the clinic at the end of June our partners had 22 programs in phase one and two programs in phase two one in phase III as well as one program currently under regulatory review.
There are three approved drugs utilizing on the App derived antibodies and we're recognizing royalty revenue from commercial sales of zoom barrel of map and sue them Allomap in China, both of which are also being pursued in other geographies.
We saw some nice progression of programs in the quarter as well with three programs transitioning from the discovery stage to the preclinical stage with two programs moving from the preclinical stage into their first human clinical trials and with one phase III program moving to a regional filing for approval.
<unk> shown here on this slide number eight pie chart on the right as BLA stage.
Our large and growing portfolio features a diversified set of partners utilizing a variety of formats and modalities as I mentioned earlier.
I'd also like to note here that the count of active programs has increased from 270 in the year ago period up to 305 programs at the close of the second quarter, noting again that this is net of program attrition.
Despite some of the industry's challenges, including evolving financing environment and funding constraints, especially for some of the smaller players in our industry. Our portfolio continues to expand from a combination of new and existing partners.
We don't feel that it's entirely unexpected that macro factors can influence the velocity of growth of some of our business metrics and although we see a slightly lower number of net new program additions compared to last year.
<unk> is in a very solid position for continued growth with an increasing number of both active programs and active partners.
Moving now onto slide number nine as I mentioned in the second quarter, two new programs entered the clinic with immune events, who initiated a phase one clinical trial of <unk> 14, O two which is a sub Q F. C. R. N inhibitor also Gloria pharmaceuticals initiatives initiated a phase one two study to <unk>.
Westgate the safety Tolerability and preliminary efficacy of G. L. S 012, as a monotherapy in combination with G. L. S 010 in subjects with advanced solid tumors that had progressed following standard treatment.
Okay.
We've now had three new programs enter the clinic in the first half of this year and we expect a potential one to two more to enter the clinic before year end I want to note that when 2023 began we indicated that we expected three to five new programs to enter the clinic. This year by the end of June we had already reached three and where.
Now focused on an upward range of four to five new clinical programs for the year.
Our partners made numerous public announcements about their clinical and commercial progress during the second quarter and in recent weeks and I'll highlight a few of them on this slide slide number 10, starting with that format. During the second quarter. We earned milestone revenue related to advancement of <unk> into pivotal studies in two additional.
Indications of see IDP and T D.
These are additional indications from the phase III work that was started in generalized myasthenia gravis earlier in the year. In addition harbor Biomed announced that China's N M. P. A accepted its biologics license application for the treatment of generalized myasthenia gravis and for the same indication handle announced that theyre progressing towards initiation of a <unk>.
Phase III trial in Japan later this year.
As for the next generation anti F. C. R. N I M V. T 14, O too I mentioned that immune of and initiated a phase one trial to evaluate safety tolerability and pharmacodynamics and they've communicated that initial data are expected in the second half of this year.
One of our newer partners cessation therapeutics announced that they've received authorization to initiate a phase one clinical trial.
<unk> 1004 was first discovered via collaboration with Scripps Research Institute and subsequently licensed to cessation for development.
Station is developing this compound for the prevention of Fentanyl overdose, which is an indication that obviously has an important and urgent unmet medical need.
Ah chemotherapy announce data for its by specific AML drug candidate a P V O 436, and that it plans to initiate two phase two clinical trials in AML populations and lastly, we achieved a research progression milestone for small molecule inhibitors of a genetically validated.
Target relevant to neurological diseases in one of our ion channel collaborations with GSK.
This triggered a $2 million progression payment for Omnia and Curt will discuss the accounting for this.
We're particularly excited about this program with GSK as it demonstrates the capabilities of our highly differentiated ion channel and transporters technology platform.
I am channels are key components in a variety of biological processes that involve rapid changes in cells and they hold therapeutic potential in a broad range of indications, including neurological and metabolic diseases pain cancers infectious diseases and many others as a result ion channel drug discovery provides a compelling opportunity.
<unk>, although it's been a challenging area for the industry to identify drugs to these high value targets.
Our ion channel platform and on the AD Leverages, our proprietary expertise in a combination of biological assays medicinal chemistry and in silica and computational chemistry applications to enable the discovery of ion channels targeting therapeutics.
In a variety of formats and modalities, we believe our differentiated core capabilities can assist partners and their advancement of drug discovery against this target class, we're continuously expanding our capabilities in this area and we believe we have one of the most experienced teams of ion channel experts anywhere.
We have an extensive bank of custom cell lines reagents and assays that are designed to accelerate ion channel drug discovery and development and that's what attracts partners to this element of our technology and capabilities.
As these are higher value and more difficult targets to identify we structure our collaboration agreements accordingly.
These deals provide for exclusivity on various targets and as a result have higher milestone payments and higher royalty percentages and we typically get for standard platform access agreements.
We have agreements with GSK for two neurology targets that are in discovery phase and another partner as Roche for three undisclosed targets that are also in the discovery phase.
In total we're eligible to receive a $1 billion in milestones on these five programs alone along with royalties should program be commercialized.
Yeah.
And this last slide for me, which is slide number 13 in our deck highlights our key areas of focus going forward and it describes why we believe we're well positioned for future growth and can make an enduring impact on our industry and ultimately on global human health.
Our business is highly scalable and we're focused on increasing partners and expanding programs by continuing to invest in technologies and innovations to power the discovery and development of effective therapeutic candidates.
A focus on stakeholders and building value for stakeholders is that the foundation of what we do at.
And that focus has guided in collaboration with our board of directors and it's present in every employee here as well.
While I mentioned, our board of directors I do also want to acknowledge on today's call that earlier this week.
With heavy Hearts, we announced the passing of our beloved board member here at Omni App Cineole Patel.
So Neil was accomplished biotech executive who was a longtime colleague and a co architects of what we're building here at Onvia and allowed that the team here is honoring <unk> contribution and legacy as we continue to do our important work expand our technology and grow our business.
And now before I hand, the call back over to Curt I'll finish by saying that we look forward to keeping the investment community updated as we execute on our strategy and with that I'll pass it back over to Curt now for a discussion of our second quarter financial results occur.
Thank you Matt.
As a reminder, the financial results reported for the prior year periods are prepared on a carve out basis, which were derived from <unk> historical accounting records as if <unk> were an independent company.
As a result certain comparisons to prior periods aren't reflective of true underlying business changes. This is primarily true for operating expenses given the differences in corporate structure and the methodologies for reporting.
Youll recall that derives revenue from several sources, including upfront payments for partners to access our technology stack payments related to service contracts. When we do discovery work for our partners.
Milestone payments typically related to progress in the clinic and royalties on net sales of our partners' programs.
So moving specifically to our second quarter results total revenue for the second quarter of 2023 was $6 9 million compared to $7 2 million in the prior year quarter.
We saw an increase in license and milestone revenue based on milestones that were hit this quarter, mostly related to progress with the Taco map specifically the start of additional pivotal studies for two new indications.
The increase in milestone revenue was offset by a decrease in service revenue.
This decrease was related to a few different things.
We've completed our portion of the work on certain programs and these programs have been handed off to the R&D teams at our partners. As a result, we are no longer earnings service revenue for these programs, but would still have the opportunity to earn milestones and royalties should these programs advance.
Second the research period for one of our GSK ion channel programs was extended by approximately one and a half years.
The accounting impact of this extension is that the initial $7 million upfront payment that was being amortized over the initial research period had its amortization schedule adjusted to reflect the new length of the research period.
This resulted in a onetime negative adjustment of $1 $7 million this quarter.
The full 7 million will all eventually be recognized it's just that the recognition of the revenue will be spread over the new longer research period.
And third as it relates to the GSK program that achieved a $2 million research progression milestone. This milestone is recognized as service revenue and will be amortized over the research period of this program.
As this program is a bit more than halfway through its research period, we recognized a bit more than half of this milestone in the current quarter and the rest will be amortized over the remaining research period.
Okay.
The net result of the change in the amortization period, and the new milestone recognition created a negative impact of about $500000 in the quarter relative to what the trend would have been.
Turning to operating expense.
Our R&D expense for the second quarter was $14 1 million compared to $11 5 million in the prior year quarter.
Similar to Q1, the increase was primarily due to higher personnel costs and higher costs associated with our new facilities G&A.
G&A expense was $8 7 million compared to 5 million in the prior year quarter with the increase related to increased head count and other costs associated with being a newly established public company.
The net loss for the second quarter was $14 7 million or <unk> 15 per share versus a net loss of $10 3 million or <unk> 12 per share in the prior year period.
Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the second quarter with a total of $103 1 million in cash cash equivalents short term investments.
Our business model is not capital intensive and highly scalable.
And while we are committed to growing the business and keeping our technology cutting edge. We're also committed to deploying our capital efficiently.
Continue to expect that our cash balance at the end of 2023 will be slightly higher than the balance at the end of 2022 and that this cash balance provides a sufficient runway to fund our operations for the foreseeable future.
Turning to our quarterly results I'd like to make a few comments on some of the underlying trends that we see.
Excluding the milestone revenue recognized specifically for daclizumab, we generally expect total revenue to grow however, the majority of our revenue in the near to medium term will come from milestone payments and the exact timing of these milestones can be difficult to predict as a result, our revenue growth will likely be a bit lumpy on it.
Quarterly basis.
As we think about our operating expense going forward I had indicated last quarter that our Q1 2023 actual results would be a good baseline from which we would grow.
The second quarter results were consistent with that expectation and we anticipate this trend will continue going forward as our operating expenses are now more predictable.
We're forecasting that both R&D and G&A will grow slightly in subsequent quarters with the pace of G&A spend being more moderate than that of our R&D spend.
And with that I'd like to open up the call for questions operator.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen, this should you have a question. Please press the star followed by the one on your Touchtone phone you should like to withdraw your question. Please press the star followed by the two if you're using a speaker phone. Please lift the handset before pressing any keys one moment. Please for your first question.
Your first question comes from Puneet Sudan from Leerink partners. Please go ahead.
Yeah, Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the questions So Matt maybe.
First one.
You know, obviously you talked about some of the headwinds in the market.
And as you pointed out.
There is a potential that you could see that but maybe talk to us a little bit about the flip side.
What's happening at the partners and what they are telling you in terms of the.
Projects that they can potentially bring to you because you are providing them value in cost reduction maybe talk to us about what.
Howard how do they think about that.
As they as they think about discovery stages and getting into phase one.
Yeah Puneet. Thanks. This is Matt I appreciate the question.
Yeah, as we I mean, one of the things I'll highlight that obviously this quarter.
We entered into four new platform license agreements with new partners right, Merck and Neurocrine, Merck, obviously is a well known player.
Global force in the industry that is really committed to leading edge science and leveraging cutting edge technologies to to develop new medicines Neurocrine of course is a 30 year plus history in innovation and success of pursuing.
Really what had become a life changing medicines and in the neurology and neurological disease space.
But also new partnerships with Stanford and Seattle children's both of which are leading academic centers, both of which are focused on translating their novel biology into into new medicines. So.
It's not only the existing partners that tell us a lot about how we're bringing value to them, but it's the new partners as well right. So to your question of how we do that.
We obviously get into a lot of deep discussions with our partners of areas that we're interested in and why they see our technologies unlocking opportunities for them.
That obviously translates into a potential for increased success rates and faster pace in terms of finding quality antibodies to then take into the clinic and Thats why they are attracted to do licensing deals with US I think there is also a recognition now more broad.
Recognition of our <unk>.
<unk> continued commitment to innovation.
And that is also I think an important part as well and obviously our innovation is informed by our deep relationships with partners. So there is like what we like to call an intelligent feedback loop, where you get a sense of where the industry is headed and that informs the sorts of innovations and investments we want to make in our technology. So.
So it's really at the end of the day about about speed and opportunity.
In efficiency and quality of the product in this case the antibodies that are coming out of our platform.
Got it.
And with that question.
Australia.
Was trying to get to is that if the biotech funding situations were to get worse is there an opportunity for you to sort of gain more share in the marketplace and then let me just follow up with a question on China.
I mentioned I know you mentioned Gloria.
<unk> III and the phase one trial now.
Wondering if you could update us on what Youre seeing in China. We are all seeing weakness in the discovery stages in China, that's well known at this point, so wondering what youre seeing there any color you can provide geographically. Thank you.
Yeah, Yeah, I'll take that puneet.
Take the China part first.
First and then Kurt maybe can add some color as well.
Obviously, we announced this quarter that Gloria entered the clinic in China. So it was nice to see it's always nice to see clinical progression.
Eight out of our pipeline.
And we obviously have a couple of drugs that are approved in China that Curt can probably comment on as well a lot of that.
In terms of the later stage visible programs out of China really come out of some very early partnerships with omni rat that were struck years ago and those programs progress quickly through the clinic.
And then or or approaching the clinic, which is really a representation.
Of of what you see in our in our pipeline with with some of our assets, but maybe Curt you want to talk a little bit as well, yes, puneet I mean, we don't have any specific knowledge.
Relative to the sales forecast if you will of our partners I know that one of our partners disclosed earlier this year that there've been supply chain issues in the first half of the year in part due to challenges with Covid.
But they also indicated that they expect that those supply chain issues will be alleviated alleviated in the second half of the year and so they were forecasting sales to pick back up and we obviously are in a royalty on that I think the first part of your question.
Our partnerships are designed really to align sort of the economics that our partners pay with with success. So I do think in a difficult if we're in a difficult funding environment.
Our model is conducive.
To have people continue to use it because they are really not paying.
Theyre not theyre not paying for.
For large sums of money until they actually have success.
Discovery to drug and actually moving into the clinic. So I do think that there's opportunities there and we're still continuing to see growth across our key metrics.
Got it Super helpful I'll hop back into the queue.
Thanks, Tony.
Your next question comes from Robyn <unk> from <unk> Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi team. Thanks, so much for taking my question and Mr off with a couple.
Build your answer so.
So can you talk a little bit about how the platform deals with Stanford and those are different than those of the pharmaceutical companies like how are they structured if you can give any color in.
Is there are you.
Ion channel programs have that do they have better economics, given the scarcity of like being able to develop small molecules.
So those are our biologics to those programs I would think that they have better economics, because you are adding a lot more value.
Yeah, Robyn Thanks, I'll I'll answer your second question first on the ion channel programs and really the short answer is is is yes.
Those programs are structured.
We are.
Granting exclusivity to the target to the specific target with that with those partners. They are accessing.
Not only technology and capability, but novel cell lines novel reagents novel screening technologies.
So so that then drives a really a different and a higher economic structure.
On the five programs that are highlighted in the deck today.
For for Ion channel and transporter collaboration both of those are with GSK and with Roche those those five programs alone have a $1 billion in milestones and royalties that are higher than our standard platform license agreements.
So those are those are assets that we're excited about obviously we highlighted.
The GSK.
Program today, but the short answer is yes to your first question about.
The different sorts of deals we have in recent quarters.
Leaned into not only.
License agreements with with leaders in the industry commercial.
Is that are investing a lot in R&D and commercialization like Merck and Neurocrine, but also with.
Academic centers, leading academic centers and.
Just as a general matter of policy and based on confidentiality. We don't we don't disclose specific deal structures, but we have and then in our corporate deck, we've outlined typical deal terms.
For all of our deals when they fall within boundaries that we previously disclosed there are multiple parts of the deals are upfront payments. There are milestones there are royalties and there's an interplay between those but in terms of access to the platform.
There really are not major differences between the deal signed with Sei.
Traditional commercial pharma and the academic centers.
But on the business side, obviously, it would be highly unusual for an academic center to commercialize a drug on its own. Obviously these folks have leading leading edge biology. They generally want to translate that into therapeutics that then gets spun out into companies. So really the only difference is we will have special provisions with that specifically deal with her.
Those economics will work when the academic institution chooses to out license the program or form a company around it but at a at a basic sense, they're very similar or are there just some.
Vic provisions that are more applicable to the academic setting.
That's really helpful and I guess, a follow up it's like $1 billion of the law.
So have you been able to negotiate that you've been working with these companies a little bit more disclosure about what you need to see to get this milestone and then my last question sorry for so many.
You don't talk a lot about on the deep and I know you believe that nature based on your response, there about it but I'm just wondering if youre willing to leverage omni heat platform SKU AI Mlps silicone antibody design, it's a hot topic right now.
That question. Thanks.
Yes sure.
On the first part just financially the way. These deals are structured they are really structured the same way as our other our other deals right. So there are.
Typically clinical stage milestones as they progress through the clinic and royalties.
The difference is the magnitude of the payments are larger.
Mostly because of the function of the exclusivity on which we have written these deals on the antibody side.
All of the things that people are going after those are nonexclusive targets, whereas.
With the ion channels. These targets are being licensed out on an exclusive basis and as a result, that's what triggers the larger economics, but theres nothing theres nothing unusual necessarily about.
The types of things they fall within that same sort of deal structure of upfront payments milestones and royalties.
Yeah.
Happy to comment on that the AI question Robin obviously, given the visibility and use of AI associated with technology technologies are industries that are I'll say highly visible in a popular sensor are accounted in a popular census is obviously a question we do get.
Yes.
And omni deep I'll, just say is our suite of in silicon tools for therapeutic antibody discovery and optimization that are really woven throughout our various technologies and capabilities. In these tools include.
So our modeling and large very large multi species antibody databases, AI and machine learning sequence models and more and it really it allows for optimization of identification of candidates that come out of our technology now there is.
The core of your question, obviously, there's a lot of discussion around AI.
AI and its use kind of sole AI approaches and I think the element of that that might not be as well understood is that they're really some important considerations and limitations of that and that's why we think there is so much power and not only the biological intelligence of our <unk>.
Animals, but also the leveraging our AI capabilities now we've been using in silica and AI tools in our downstream work for a long time actually.
Especially on the screening side.
Some of our work around the iron channels and transporters.
So we have deep expertise here in our organization that.
That we really kind of rolled out in the in the concept of omni deep in Q2, but these had been woven throughout our organization and technology from the spirit of cutting edge and good science for quite a long time and in fact more than a couple of years ago, We actually did a deal with with landing AI for a vision portion of AI that we incorporated into our exploration plan.
Form successfully that has has really been.
Kind of a wild success story around how we leverage our screening but.
I will say on a technical level. There is a lot of limitations to just AI approaches so really the power of omni deep comes from marrying it too.
What I will call the biological intelligence of our of our transgenic animals, because a carefully engineered transgenic animal system really has many of the tests that are needed to select the winning antibody inherently built into them as natural checkpoints. So you can essentially try and test millions of different sequence possibilities.
Rather than just doing it in a in a in a model and obviously the biological system can read those out now we do leverage AI in other ways downstream from that with large amounts of data and I think that's where a lot of that power comes from so I know I got a little technical there, but hopefully that makes sense.
That's great. Thank you Thomas.
Your next question comes from Stephen <unk> from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, thanks for taking the questions.
I appreciate some of the macro commentary that you provided I know some of your peers have been kind of talking about that but I guess have.
Have you seen much in the way of any.
Any uptick of attrition just on the discovery program front end.
Would you expect that to be kind of a better surrogate if some of the macro challenges just given some of the re prioritization of R&D spend in.
And I guess kind of broader pipeline streaming efforts that were starting to see across the space.
Yeah, I mean, a great great question, Steve you know I would say really nothing specific there on the attrition front as we noted.
Obviously, I'll just say at the outset attrition is a natural part of the pharmaceutical industry as we all know.
Many things fail and that's.
The fact that there is attrition is obviously expected this last quarter.
We only saw attrition in the discovery phase.
And just in discovery stage assets looking back a little bit.
In the fourth quarter of last year, we saw first program attrition.
At the clinical stage two partners had exited.
Certain therapeutic areas or specific therapeutic areas.
Those assets themselves.
<unk> may have potential in other hands, but are not included in our program count anymore.
I bring that up as an example, it's difficult to say is that a macro thing is that just a larger partners focusing in the in those specific instances it very difficult to say so I think it's hard to answer your question specifically, but these are all metrics that we always monitor all the time and and obviously keep having deep dialog with our <unk>.
So hopefully that gives you a little more color.
Okay, and I guess the work that's ongoing in the ion channel space. Another these again are being kind of.
Licensed on a on a target exclusive basis, but I guess for those targets that have already been claimed by either she is care Roche and I understand that all these are are difficult to drug, but I guess, how would you kind of characterize these targets that they have selected.
The hierarchy of things that are difficult to do within the ion channel space itself.
How much more kind of green space.
And in the target Universe do you think that you have over the next kind of 135 years. Thanks.
Yeah, Great Great question Steve.
The description I, obviously, theres, a substantial amount of confidentiality considerations and other things with partners that we always respect of course, but the the the GSK relationship is around.
Specific targets for neurological disorders.
And this is at the discovery phase. It was an agreement that was originally struck a couple of years ago. So it's progressed well, obviously, we announced the milestone.
In this quarter and I'll, just say when when when folks are pursuing ion channels and transporters. These are generally considered high value targets right and I'll just comment generally I think GSK has a really ambitious innovation agenda in this.
Area.
They've stated publicly a goal to positively impact the health of $2 5 billion people by the end of 2030, so that's it.
A really aggressive goal and an ambitious one end and.
We're excited to be collaborating with them I think these are programs, where we've got.
Hi, distinct capabilities and cell lines, and reagents and other things as well as high throughput screening.
As well as the ability to leverage multiple modalities, which I think are the kinds of things that can attract more of these sorts of partnerships potentially in the future.
Great. Thanks for taking my questions.
Your next question comes from Matt Hewitt from Craig Hallum. Please go ahead.
Hi, This is Jack on for Matt Thanks for taking my questions.
We've recently, just launched omni deep and I just kind of curious what the initial reception has been for your customers. Thanks.
Yes, Thanks Jack.
I'll say very positive we launched it at the pegs conference in Boston in May.
And.
The feedback in the room is a big area of Big Big presentation, very well attended and the feedback from partners who were sitting in the room was almost immediate.
And it continues to be an area of focus in terms of.
Not only new programs, but potentially taking.
Taking different approaches to increase the success the potential success rate of some existing programs with partners and our obviously our research and innovation team.
And our BD team continues to partner on that is as we talk with partners about it. So the feedback has been quite positive.
Thanks for taking my question.
Your next question comes from Chad <unk> from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Hey, Matt Hey, Kurt it's Chad on for Stephen.
Hey, Chad.
Yes, congrats on the GSK milestone could you give some more detail as to what differentiate your tech stack from peers, who also claim at the historically difficult targets such as ion channels are an opportunity that they are pursuing as well.
Yeah, Yeah sure happy to talk more about it I think one of the few things differentiate our technology right at the core is the foundation of the multi species approach that we can present, but beyond that.
We highlighted a little bit about.
Our commitment to continually expanding our capabilities around the ion channel space, we have a long history here.
That really dates back decades in terms of building high throughput screening.
That can be applicable to a variety of modalities I think that is extremely important in this space where.
And especially in the industry overall, where the.
The lines between different approaches and modalities are becoming creatively blurred intentionally and I think we are really at a at a spot where we can leverage that different than others. We've also built up an extensive bank of custom cell lines that are specifically.
<unk> designed to.
Facilitate.
The discovery in these areas and some of these specific areas. That's something that's been built up over many years and when you marry that with our other discovery and repertoire.
Generation and screening technologies. It really does I think position us in a pretty unique fashion and I think that's why folks like like GSK and Roche are attracted to us for these sorts of partnerships.
Really helpful and I appreciate the improved downstream economics regarding iron channels.
But there is sort of precedents that exclusivity or targets has led to some significant upfront payments. So is there an opportunity here to drive some upside in the near term.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All deals are becoming negotiation right and so I think to the extent that we show success that.
We always try to leverage that for higher payments.
I think as we as we look historically a lot of this the difference between this and the antibody business has been.
More just on the exclusivity.
The other thing that I would point out on the channel side, Matt talked a little bit about the expertise that we have.
And so for the most part with these ion channel programs.
There is a license fee.
We're targeting on an exclusive basis, but then we are continuing to do all of that work and so a big portion of the service revenue that we generate comes from the ion channel side of the business in many cases.
The partners are prepaying for that sort of gave the example today on the specific GSK program, where.
They paid $7 million upfront that was being amortized over the research period. So we are able to generate relative to the antibody side of that business.
Call It outsized economics, just on a relative basis.
A lot of that is just the function of that its on an exclusive basis.
Thanks for taking the questions guys.
Thanks, Ed.
Yes.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question. Please press the star followed by the one your next question comes from UNC from B Riley. Please go ahead.
Hi, This is Brendan on for you on thanks for taking our questions.
You've talked to.
Something about the trends you've been seeing in the discovery stage can you comment on the clinical stage.
Regarding delays or cancellations of clinical trials can you comment on what you observed so far related to the projects you're tracking on the biologics development.
Yeah. This is Matt I'll comment Curt may have some some com.
Commentary, we started the year, we said we.
<unk> three to five new clinical entrance this year.
At the end of Q2, we were actually already at three and today we.
We're focused now on a higher <unk>.
Higher area there are four to five this year.
And so we're seeing nice.
Clinical progression or graduation and into the clinical stage. We were pleased this quarter to see.
Some assets move out of discovery into preclinical which means that they are then preparing to enter the <unk>.
Clinics. So we are seeing nice progression in the in the portfolio I don't I've heard anything you'd want to add to that.
<unk>.
We have not actually seen a lot of clinical attrition and in terms of the clinical nutrition that we have seen it.
It's really not it's been a function of partners exited in therapeutic areas as opposed to sort of any failure of a study or something like that.
As Matt said attrition as part of this business and it will happen.
But our experienced thus far in the clinical side has actually been.
Pretty pretty darn good relative to industry averages.
Thanks, that's helpful.
And then one last one from US have you noticed any shifts in interest in biologics development.
<unk> reduction right.
I mean, I'll just make a comment I mean, our business is mostly on the antibody business is on the antibody side. So.
It is probably a more attractive place to develop drugs just given the benefits.
That had been afforded by the inflation reduction act, but given that we if we had a small molecule offering in antibodies offering would we see more people moving over the antibody I don't know.
It's tough to say, we believe that we've got a great platform and we are continuing to attract new new players as evidenced by the four new deals that we signed this quarter. So Matt I don't know if you have.
Yeah, I think I mean, I would add that.
Because of the higher success rates of antibody based medicines as compared to small molecules.
Scientific and technical perspective, there has been an evolving shift in the industry.
Because of those higher success rate so that's something obviously.
We see and hear and know now the IRA obviously legislation allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers.
For a select number of high cost drugs, starting I believe in 2026 and there are exceptions.
All of those negotiations can happen and that sort of thing, but there are I'll say.
Longer tail, that's afforded to biologic medicines, which is something that may accelerate the interest in the industry and a shift towards biologic medicines that we saw happening already in advance of Iras. So I think if anything it can help.
Accelerate the interest there, but I think that the science and.
The probability of success and medical benefit in terms of the specificity that antibody based medicines provide and predictability for development was already starting that shifts. So if anything it just may accelerate it.
Okay. Thanks for that commentary and thanks for taking our questions.
Okay. Thank you.
There are no further questions at this time I will turn the call back over to the CEO Matt for.
Great. Thank you and I'd like to thank everyone for participating in today's call and for your questions. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress and speaking with you next quarter and at various investment conferences, we'll be attending in the coming weeks and in the fall we will be at the Stifel Conference.
Coming up will also be at H C Wainwright cancer as well as the Craig Hallum capital conferences in New York in the fall. So in the meantime, we appreciate your interest in <unk> and thanks again have a great day.
Okay.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today, we thank you for joining and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.
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Okay.
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