Q1 2025 Absci Corp Earnings Call
Thank you for standing by and welcome to Absci's first quarter, 2025 Business Update and Financial
At this time, all participants aren't able to listen only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session.
To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. To remove yourself from the queue, you may press star 1-1 again. I would now like to hand the call over to Alex Khan, VP, Finance and Investor Relations. Please, go ahead. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Earlier today, Absci released financial and operating results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025.
If you haven't received this news release, or if you would like to be added to the company's distribution list, please send an email to investors at absci.com An archive webcast of this call will be available for reply on absci's investor relations website at investors.absci.com for at least 90 days after this call.
Speaker Change: Joining me today are Sean McClain, Absides Founder and CEO , and Zach Jonasson, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Fitness Officer.
Speaker Change: Christian Stegmann, Absci's SCP and Drug Creation will also join for Q&A following prepare remarks.
Speaker Change: Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will make statements during this call that are forward looking within the meaning of the federal security flaws.
Speaker Change: These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated and you should not place undue reliance on borrowed
Speaker Change: Additional information regarding these risk uncertainties and factors that could cause the results to differ, appears in the section titled, Forward Looking Statements in the press release, Absci-issued today, and the documents reports filed by Absci from time to time with Securities and Exchange Commission.
Speaker Change: Except is required by law, outside explains any intention or obligation to update or revise any financial or product pipeline projections for other forward-looking statements, either because of new information, future events, or otherwise. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast May 13, 2025.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Sean.
Sean McClain: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining our Q1 2025 Business Update call.
Sean McClain: Today marks a significant milestone for Absci. We've initiated our first and human clinical trial for ABS 101, officially making Absci a clinical stage biotech company.
Sean McClain: It's incredible to see how far we've come in just a short time. [inaudible]
Sean McClain: About two and a half years ago, Andreas Busch, an experienced drug hunter, joined Adidas as our Chief Innovation Officer.
Sean McClain: Under Andreas' leadership and with the talented team he assembled, we quickly leveraged our AI platform to create a robust pipeline of potential best in class and first in class therapeutics.
Sean McClain: Today, I'm proud to announce the start of our phase one clinical trial for ADS 101, our potential best-in-class anti-xia1a in the body.
Sean McClain: This randomized double blind placebo controlled trial of single sending doses, a baby S101 will evaluate its safety, polarity, polarity,
Pharmacoconetics, and Pharmacode Dynamics, an approximately 40 healthy adult volunteers.
Sean McClain: The primary focus is safety and polar ability, with PK, PD, and immunogenicity as secondary end points.
Sean McClain: We expect interim results later this year from this ongoing study in Australia.
Sean McClain: As a reminder, ABS-101 is a potential testing class, KEL-1A antibody, demonstrating high affinity, potency, ability to bind both KEL-1A monomer and trimmer.
Anticipated low-minchnessity and high-biased abilities shown in non-human primates.
Sean McClain: Additionally, it's formulated for convenience sub-Q administration with an anticipated dosing
Sean McClain: Recon data indicates ADS 101 may have a lower chance of developing anti-drug antibodies in clinical settings compared to a competitive molecule with high clinical ADA rate. [inaudible]
Sean McClain: Our recent NHP studies confirmed prolonged dose dependent target engagement with a clear ceiling effect. An ADS 101 was well tolerated in a 13-week GLP study in NHP.
Interest from Potential, partners remain high for this program.
Sean McClain: Additionally, we are progressing on a bi-specific program with a novel arm in conjunction with our PL1A antibody. We'll share more details on this program at a later date for competitive reasons.
ABS 101 exemplifies the power of our generative AI platform.
Demonstrating our capability to rapidly engineer therapeutics with precision.
Sean McClain: With a growing pipeline of AI design antibodies, we're accelerating our mission of bringing better biologics to patient faster.
Sean McClain: Turning to EBS 201, our potential ground-grating anti-prolactin receptor antibodies for intergenetic alopecia, commonly known as male and female patterned hair loss.
Sean McClain: This condition affects approximately 80 million adults in the US alone and hasn't seen significant therapeutic innovation in nearly 30 years.
Sean McClain: ABS 201 represents a potential new category of therapy, offering durable, effective care
Sean McClain: We recently nominated a development candidate with strong, Greek, clinical evidence that we believe supports hypotency,
Sean McClain: We believe ADS-201 could offer significant improvements over current standard of care treatments like sonasteride and monocidil, known for their side effects and variable or limited efficacy.
Sean McClain: We have previously shown in pre-clinical models that EDF 201 outperform the Knoxville and Hair Regrowth.
Sean McClain: Today, we're pleased to share results from our recent NHP study confirming ABS-201's extended half-life and potential to translate into the dosing interval of every 8 to 12 weeks in humans.
Sean McClain: The data also indicates excellent subcutaneous bio-buildability of greater than 90% in NHP.
Sean McClain: The observed PK profile is projected to result in substantial exposure in skin and hair follicles of clinically-relevant doses.
Sean McClain: We believe ABS-201 also supports high concentration formulation potential of greater than 150 makes per
Facilitating patient convenience. [inaudible]
Sean McClain: We're dancing rapidly towards the clinics with guidance from a network of weeding hair and dermatology experts.
Sean McClain: ABS 201 continues, I'm Dean Abelian studies, for the phase one trial expected in early 2026 and interim efficacy data and since the pay good later that year.
Sean McClain: Given its potentially promising profile, defined development path and large market, we plan to develop ABS-201 internally through later stage clinical development and proof of concept to retain maximum value.
We're also progressing on two other additional programs.
Sean McClain: ABS31, a potential first-in-class antibody targeting an undisclosed immune-hung apology target identified through our reverse immunology platform.
Sean McClain: Early data indicate potential broad applicability to squamous cell carcinoma and other indications.
Sean McClain: DBS-501, a potential best-in-class ASI HER2, Anabody, identified using our deer shot,
These AI designed at least display novel epitope interactions.
Increase or equivalent affinity to Traptizimab and Creek Medical Studies,
Ethicacy, again, Prestoosamab Resisting, Genograph, Tumor Expressing, Wild Type, Per-2, and Good Developability.
Sean McClain: Innovation is at the core of outside success, and we must constantly strive for improvement.
Sean McClain: Recent initiatives like the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology Report support U.S. leadership in Biotech, aligning closely with our mission.
Speaker Change: A topic I spoke passionately about at the 2023 US Senate AI Forum on Innovation.
Speaker Change: We were also encouraged by the FDA's recent proposal to reduce or eliminate certain animal tests for monoclonal antibodies, covering advanced technologies like AI and bio-stimulation models.
Speaker Change: This roadmap fits squarely with our approach of using AI models to design and optimize antibodies for safety, specificity, and efficacy.
Speaker Change: Introduced in our 2022 manuscript, evaluates how closely an antibody resembles the natural immune repertoire, and mitigates potential downstream developed ability and immunogenicity issues by prioritizing more natural antibody variants. [inaudible]
Speaker Change: As a leader in AI drug discovery, we are encouraged by this recent announcement from the FDA and look forward to next steps.
Speaker Change: Inclusion. Abside remains committed to reading biosec innovation, harnessing AIs to deliver life-changing
Speaker Change: Thank you to our Town 15, the Dedicated on Limiters at Absci, whose hard work and dedication drive our mission each and every day.
Speaker Change: With that, I'll now turn the call over to Zach to walk through our partnerships, our outlook and provide an update on our financials.
Zach?
Zach Jonasson: Thanks Sean. As Sean mentioned, we continue to execute across all aspects of our business. This includes progressing our internal and partner programs as well as advancing discussions with prospective new high-quality partners.
Zach Jonasson: As our business development discussions remain robust, we continue to anticipate signing one or more drug-creasing partnerships, including with a large pharma company this year.
Zach Jonasson: We also plan to continue providing material updates when possible about ongoing internal and partner programs as they advance through the development.
Zach Jonasson: As we think about the growing capabilities of our AI platform, we believe our greatest value proposition is designing novel and differentiated therapeutic assets that address unmet medical needs. [inaudible]
Zach Jonasson: Accordingly, in addition to leveraging our platform to reduce drug design timelines and costs, we are increasingly focused on applying the platform design therapeutics addressing disease targets, for which legacy drug discovery approaches have been unsuccessful.
Zach Jonasson: The HIV Caldera case study, which we have shared previously, as well as recent successes in several of our partnerships.
Zach Jonasson: Give us confidence in our ability to design therapeutic addressing challenging target classes, both in our own internal program and in our partnerships.
Zach Jonasson: We are pleased to note a growing number of discussions with industry participants who recognized the potential unique value we can bring to drug creation collaborations.
Sean McClain: As Sean discussed earlier, we recently achieved a key milestone in our evolution as we officially became a clinical stage biotech with ADS 101 entering the clinic.
Sean McClain: We are also excited to see ABS-21, our Hair Regrowth Program, accelerating toward the clinic as we anticipate initiation of a first in human trial in early 2026.
Sean McClain: As a reminder, our business model is focused on out licensing or selling our internal programs and co-developed programs, following value inflection proof points.
Sean McClain: These potential transactions could occur as early as pre-clinical proof of concept or at much
Sean McClain: Along those lines, we continue to be engaged with multiple interested parties regarding a potential transaction for our ABS-101 Teal-1A program.
Sean McClain: Meanwhile, as Sean mentioned earlier, we see strong rationale to retain and develop our ABS-201 and our genetic alopecia program through much later stages of development.
Sean McClain: This program offers a straightforward clinical development pathway which includes objective endpoints and the potential for rapid clinical trial recruitment, as well as the potential to achieve a proof of concept in our phase one trial design.
Learning now to our financials.
Sean McClain: Revenue in the first quarter was $1.2 million, as we continue to progress our partner programs.
Sean McClain: Research and Development expenses for $16.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, as compared to $12.2 million for the prior year period.
Sean McClain: This increase was primarily driven by advancement of our internal programs, including direct costs associated with external preclinical development, and an increase in personal and stock compensation expense.
Sean McClain: Selling General and Administrative Expenses were $9.5 million for the three months ended March 31st, 2025, as compared to $8.7 million for the prior year period.
Sean McClain: This increase was due to an increase in stock compensation expense.
Sean McClain: Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $134 million in cash, cash equivalence, and short-term investments, as compared to $112.4 million as of December 31, 2024.
with this strong balance sheet. [inaudible]
Sean McClain: and Linus Leip to multiple potential catalysts in the near term.
We will continue to invest in our internal program portfolio.
Sean McClain: including supporting the acceleration of development for ABS-201, Androgenetic alopecia program, and ensure that we maintain a strong healthy capital position while executing on the strategy.
Sean McClain: Overall, we continue to deepen our focus on high value proprietary internal programs, while also seeking high quality co-development and drug creation partnerships with industry leaders who bring synergistic expertise and technology.
Sean McClain: We believe that this strategy and balanced approach will provide the best return for our shareholders.
Sean McClain: Based on our current plan, we believe our existing cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments will be sufficient to fund our operations into the first half of 2027.
Sean McClain: And as a reminder, we see additional upside to this forecast through non-delutive cash inflows which could come from potential new platform collaborations with large Farmer and or an asset transaction around any of our wholly owned programs, such as our ABS 101 TL1A asset.
Sean McClain: In some, we are very pleased with our recent progress and our confident in our ability to execute across our portfolio programs this year and beyond. With that, I'll turn it back to Sean.
Sean McClain: Thanks, Zach. Today is a deeply gratifying day, not just for me as a founder, but for all of the Absci and the dedicated and limiters who bring our mission to life.
Sean McClain: Fourteen years ago, when we started this journey, we knew nothing would come easy. [inaudible]
Sean McClain: From the beginning, we relied on drive, tenacity, innovation and perseverance.
Sean McClain: Not just to survive, but to thrive in the state of uncertainty.
as we complete our transition to a clinical stage company.
Sean McClain: I think back to those early days in the basement lab, our mission hasn't changed to harness technology and science to improve the lives of patients everywhere. And today, I'm proud to see our continued execution bring us closer to that goal.
Sean McClain: Looking ahead, ABS 101 is now in the clinic and we expect to share interim data in the second half of this year.
Sean McClain: ADS-201, our hair regress program, is also gaining momentum as it moves towards the clinic. We plan to begin first in human studies in early 2026, with an interim efficacy readout expected later that year.
Zach Jonasson: The Honor Internal Programs, and as Zach mentioned, we have a clear line of sights to bring one or more new large farmer partners into our growing ecosystem of collaborators this year.
Zach Jonasson: None of this would be possible without the incredible work of our emulators.
to everyone at AdSci
Thank you for your continued dedication to our mission.
Speaker Change: With that, I'll turn the call back over to our operator to begin Q&A. Operator?
Speaker Change: Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone to remove yourself from the queue you may press star 1-1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.
Speaker Change: Our first question comes from the line of Arsini Shabafili of Guggenheim Securities.
Please go ahead our scene.
Arsenio Fulvamo: This is Arsenio Fulvamo. Thank you for taking our questions and congrats on all your progress.
Speaker Change: Regarding ABS 101, what are you hoping to see in the phase one top line in the second half of the year in terms of decay and regionality and points, both in the other networks here you may be looking at.
Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks, Larson. First off, we're looking to see a really nice safety profile looking at
Speaker Change: The second is looking at target engagement, we're hoping to see similar target engagement. [inaudible]
Speaker Change: Data as what we saw and presented at the Jason Morgan Healthcare Conference.
Speaker Change: earlier this year, and Christian, is there anything else that you'd like to add in terms of what we'd like to see for ABS101?
Krishna: Yeah, absolutely. We would like to, in addition to what Sean mentioned, we would like to validate the extended half-life to really demonstrate that in humans we can potentially support those thing of every two months to every 12 weeks.
and then as Sean mentions, we will continue to observe.
Krishna: and hopefully validate expected lowering in a university, an overall good tolerability and safety profile, and then demonstrate target engagement.
Krishna: over an extended period of time, reading and demonstrating not only an extended half-life in terms of the PK of the antibody, but also the pharmacodynamics.
Krishna: Meaning, we see an elevation of total $1.2.1A in an overnight Senate period of time really demonstrating target engagement and confirming the overall target product profile.
Speaker Change: Thank you. And one more if I may, regarding 201. Obviously, it is the early days, but based on what you now know. Do you think this product can potentially be self administered in the future?
Speaker Change: Yes, we do believe this can be self administered. Right now though, we are working.
Speaker Change: We want to work with dermatologists on being able to make sure that this is effectively administered and so we do think over time it could be self administered but we do think working with the providers initially is likely the best route to go.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question.
Gums from the line of Brendan Smith, up Keely Cohen, please go ahead Brendan.
Brendan Smith: Great. Thanks for seeing the questions, guys. Congrats on all the progress. Maybe just a quick one from us on 201.
Speaker Change: You know, as you look at the data today and think about potential clinical trial ahead, I guess how are you thinking about potential market segmentation here? And I guess maybe just among that 80 to 90 million patient. [inaudible]
Brendan Smith: I think you flagged in the past. I guess who among them do you think we may be, you know, low singing fruit to target first and just kind of you're thinking about that roll out?
Thank you for watching!
Zach, and Christian, do you want to take that? [inaudible]
Yeah, this is going to be happy too.
Speaker Change: It's a great question. Ben and we spend a lot of time with our KOL network evaluating that. At this point, we think this
Speaker Change: This mechanism could be efficacious in almost all of those segments for Andrew genetic alopecia. So we are looking at a phase one trial design where we'll see some breadth in terms of.
Speaker Change: Age, both male and female. We'll put out more data around that trial design later this year.
Speaker Change: But as of today just looking at the mechanism and the strong translational data and including the human genetics that support safety, we don't see any particular segment of that population that could not be treated, but it's certainly something we're going to have to evaluate in the human clinical trial setting. Thank you.
Christian Stegman: and Christian, I don't know if you want to add anything.
Christian Stegman: Yeah, great point, Zach, not much to add. As you're correctly pointed out, we will observe as we go into clinical development.
How this product is best. [inaudible]
Christian Stegman: Administered how it is best served in different populations, and I think this will inform our commercialization strategy.
Christian Stegman: I will flag that beyond undergenic a piece here, there is potential for this mechanism as well, so beyond the market
Christian Stegman: It will also be interesting to look in indications such as endometriosis where this mechanism has a potential and we are actively exploring that as well.
Got it. Okay. Great. Thanks, sirs.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Next question comes from the line of Gil Blum of Needham & Company. Please go ahead, Gil.
Gil Bloom: Good afternoon everyone, and I'm going to add my congrats to the progress here. So maybe a couple of questions on 201. Now that we have some, you know, pharmacokinetics from the non-human primate model, up.
Gil Bloom: Maybe the kind of initial thoughts on this type of dosing you're going to first look at in humans.
Gil Bloom: and kind of the follow on. So, I remember the idea was to inject a compound into the target site. How much systemic exposure did you observe in the NHP model? Thank you.
Christian, you want to take that?
Gil Bloom: Yeah, so we will disclose the full Farmer Cognetic data set at a later point in time at a scientific venue. I will say that we have, as you know, as we've shown, a very attractive Farmer Cognetic profile in non-human primates. We think it is conducive based on the Farmer Cognetic, Farmer Cognomic modeling, we've done to...
Sean McClain: Adolesing of every 8 to 12 weeks, as Sean mentioned earlier.
Sean McClain: We think this is overall a very attractive profile in particular for…
Sean McClain: A Nestatic Indication as Antigenic Opicia, and we anticipate that this product would be those every six, over a six month treatment period, so you could imagine that we can achieve this treatment regimen in just two or three doses.
Sean McClain: So we think that's attractive and with regards to the total exposure, stay tuned we will close the full data at a scientific venue at a later point in time.
Does that answer your question?
Yep.
Thank you.
Sean McClain: Hi everyone. This is Morgan on from Vikram. Thanks for taking our question and.
Sean McClain: Again, wanted to extend our congratulations in all the progress this quarter. Wanted to ask a quick question on ABS 301, and when we can expect that development candidate to be shared. Thank you so much.
Sean McClain: Carter, and we are so progressing towards a D.C. We have not disclosed at this point in time when that D.C.
Sean McClain: We'll be ready, but we are doing Indivo Validation, or Indivo Studies currently, and after that should be ready to nominate a drug candidate.
Speaker Change: Okay, Brigida. And then one last question on ABS 201 for that in serum data readout. I know it's still very early days, but do you have a sense of what kind of data will be? I know it's still very early days, but do you have a sense of what kind of data will be?
Speaker Change: Sherid there and what could be expected based on what you're seeing right now.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yes, we are looking to have that be an interim proof of concept.
Readout from both, potentially both from the...
Speaker Change: Sad Portion, as well as the mad portion of that study, which would be in the second.
Speaker Change: Half of this year. Now as we get closer to that study we will be disclosing more of the study design of that but again we do expect a potential efficacy readout but the second half is next year on that trial.
Excellent, thank you very much.
Thank you for watching!
Thank you.
Next question.
Speaker Change: comes on the line of George Farmer, of Skosha Bank. Your question, please, George.
George Farmer: Hi, and good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Sean, can you elaborate a little bit more on-
this combo strategy that you have with 101.
That sounds pretty intriguing, and regarding...
George Farmer: The partnership that you have with AstraZeneca, I recall that there was a big milestone that you guys had hit with them. Can you give us an indication of like...
George Farmer: Whether you may be getting any milestones in the new near future, maybe just on a qualitative basis, out substantial lows could be. And then number three.
Speaker Change: So, regarding 501, how do you see this drug fitting into the competitive landscape? It's a pretty crowded area and how is this really different? Thanks.
Dr. Prima, Dr. Prima, Dr. Prima, Dr. Prima,
Speaker Change: Yeah, so first up on the combo, what we're seeing, especially as we're engaging with.
Large Farmer on this, there is a push. [inaudible]
Speaker Change: into combo-based approaches, you're seeing Jane J, really weed the way on this, and then you're starting to see also combo-based approaches coming from Abby as well.
Speaker Change: and so we do think that a TL1A combo-based strategy is likely to help increase overall efficacy and durability.
and that's a direction that...
Meow.
potential partners are thinking of with regards to...
101, and then we also have a by specific . . .
Stratagee with A.
Speaker Change: Target, we are pursuing with that specific strategy and I'll let Zach take the easy question and then Christian can take 501.
Speaker Change: George, Zach. Unfortunately, we can't give any specific commentary around any of those partnerships as you'll appreciate they're all under NDA provisions.
Speaker Change: I can share more generally, I think we've mentioned. [inaudible]
Speaker Change: Publicly about some more recent successes in some of our other partnerships, including applying our platform to develop antibodies that actually effectively block an ion channel. It's been one of these targets that's been very challenging to address.
Speaker Change: So, it can make some general comments like that, but I can't give you anything specific specific.
Speaker Change: Professor Christian answering your question on ABS501. Yes, obviously you're correct. The HER2 space is indeed a very competitive space.
Speaker Change: We have currently ongoing a number of pre-clinical studies that will help us to position ABS-501 in this space among them could also be combination approaches.
Speaker Change: and we are exploring precisely where that potential niche is. These places that are currently on-going, we may have a drug candidate this year but potentially also next year depending on the timing of the studies and the data as they emerge.
Speaker Change: Okay, thanks. And Sean, again, back to the combo approach. This bi-specific value referring to is this one of you, an in-house bi-specific that you're making, or is it somebody else who's.
Speaker Change: This is an in-house by specific that we have developed. And so we're in addition to that by specific, we're also developing the other arm of this novel target as well as the monobase therapy, but this is all developed in-house outside. Okay, thanks.
Thanks. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question.
Speaker Change: Come from the line of Kripa Devarakonda, of truest securities, please go ahead Kripa.
Alex Zonfer-Kripa: Hello, this is Alex on for Kripa, first congrats on the progress and become a commercial stage that's fantastic.
Speaker Change: and question from our side as the assets continue in development, ABS101 and ABS202. As they progress, it's also an updated.
Speaker Change: and Smith on how you think about future partnership. Namely, do you think you can command improved economics? Is there any change to that? Or any key differences that you see how your business might evolve, given success in the clinic?
Speaker Change: and then another one from us on your cost structure. Could you speak to how flexible it is with fixed and variable costs? And namely, as many people are concerned about the state of the market,
Thanks.
Yeah, thanks Alex. All it's that takes both those questions.
Speaker Change: Alex, great questions. In terms of the platform and the kind of deal terms that we think we'll see in the future.
Speaker Change: and going forward. I would answer your question by saying yes, but do the two reasons.
Speaker Change: I mean, we do hope to see enhanced deal terms, certainly with some success with ABS 101 and that interim data readout. I think that's an important milestone for the company and helps provide additional validation of the platform. But the other
Speaker Change: A really exciting development on the platform is it now that we're in version three of our models, moving into version four. We've shown an ability to address these very challenging target classes.
Speaker Change: And, you know, as an example, that is the HIV Caldera case study that we've put out publicly at the end of last year.
Speaker Change: But also more recently, some successes in various partnerships that we have ongoing. And so we feel like that is a really significant value proposition that differentiates us from
Speaker Change: for many other players really in the field. And so we're seeing a lot of engagement from Pharma around how they could potentially leverage our platform to address some of these targets that they've struggled with.
Speaker Change: So we're looking forward to advancing these discussions and negotiations over the next year to see what kind of terms we can reach on drug creation partnerships, but we do expect to see them increase materially versus what we've done in prior years. [inaudible]
Speaker Change: and then on your question pertaining to cost structure, I would say, you know, we continually look for ways to leverage more efficiencies out of the AI platform and I just mentioned we've made some advances there and we continue to make advances year on year really on a quarterly basis with the platform.
So we do see opportunities to reallocate.
Speaker Change: resourcing and also to reduce certain areas of resourcing as we leverage more and more of our AI capability. And that's a, you know, for Absid, that's an ongoing process that we evaluate each and every quarter. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question, you come from the lineup.
Debanjana Chatterjee of Jones.
Your question please, Debanjana. Bye.
Hi, thanks for taking my question. So, I have two.
Speaker Change: The first one is that, you know, assuming that you see optimal results as you expect in the phase one leadout for ABS 101, as you think about the phase two, will the study include both open level and randomized arms similar to the design in one of the competitor trials?
Speaker Change: Thanks. That's a great question. At this time, we have not disclosed what the Phase 1-B2-A is going to look like. As the interim data comes out, we'll be sharing more information on what those studies are going to be looking like in the future. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yes, absolutely. We're really excited to see the FDA wanting to leverage AI models to help reduce toxicity and immunogenicity. And as we mentioned on the call, one of the
Speaker Change: models that we developed that we released in 2022 was our naturalness model being able to ensure that the antibodies are as human-like.
as possible, and we see this as a big advantage.
Speaker Change: for us moving forward, you know, in particular, I'm being able to reduce, you know, overall immunogenicity and ensure favorable developability and manufacturability, but also helping to...
Speaker Change: Aline with the FDA on where they're going. And so we see this definitely as a big advantage for us moving forward. And Christian, please add in anything else.
Christian Stegman: Yeah, very well set, Sean. Indeed, I think the developments at the administration are very exciting for us. We will continue to engage and continue to follow the FDA's process and
Advisory Relationships to...
to observe what the next steps are.
Christian Stegman: These things will usually also result in revised global, globally harmonized guidelines.
and this is indeed a very exciting opportunity as...
Christian Stegman: These efforts towards reducing usage of animals are taking, these measures are taking place. We will see a much more broad adoption of AI models and clearly this is a very interesting opportunity for Absci.
Okay, that's very helpful, thank you.
Speaker Change: Thank you. Once again as a reminder to ask a question, you may press star 11 on your telephone.
Our next question.
Speaker Change: Come from the line of Lee Chen, of H.C. Lane White. [inaudible]
Your question please, Lee.
Lee Chen: Hello, hello everyone, congratulations on the quarter, so to extend the T.R. 1.8 questions a little bit, so can you give us some...
Speaker Change: understanding of the strategy behind going up for the novel target of the by-specific, instead of your competitive strategy of going forward, clinical approved target, so what's the other advantage of this?
Novel Target,
Thank you for watching!
Yeah, thank you, Lichram. So, this is a-
Speaker Change: from an antibody standpoint as well as a small molecule. And we have figured out a way to drug it with an antibody. And we do think that it has really strong synergy with our TL1A. [inaudible]
Christian Stegman: at that and I'll hand it over to Christian to maybe go in a little bit more depth on some of the biology.
Christian Stegman: Yes, 100%. So, this target, as Sean mentioned, we have not disclosed this target, so we have to tread a little bit lightly in terms of what I can tell you in terms of the details here, but what I can't say that just like Tier 1A, the mechanism is a pro-inflammatory mechanism that is clinically...
Christian Stegman: Highly relevant in autoimmune diseases, hence we believe there is a very good rationale for combining
Christian Stegman: As Sean mentioned, we are actively working on a bi-specific on this combination.
and we think...
Christian Stegman: This particular combination could indeed be very differentiating from other combinations that others are pursuing, for example, you know, what is already out there, T1A also for beta-7 or T1A, IL-23, we thought rather than following these paths that others have already taken, we are exploring a novel combination here with a difficult to track target, at least historically, we are going to explain it, we are going to explain it,
Christian Stegman: and thereby potentially really have a very differentiated and potentially highly efficacious by specific
Speaker Change: Goddess, thanks for the color, and these are my quick follow-up suits.
Speaker Change: Based, for example, when should we expect to see some go-no-go decision about prioritizing the monoclonal
Thank you for watching!
Speaker Change: So, at this point in time we are planning on pursuing both of these.
Assets and...
Speaker Change: In terms of partners, partners are both interested in the TL1A monotherapy as well as the bi-specific and so we again continue to develop both of these in parallel and see value in both of those and I think it's important to have both of these from a partner in perspective as well.
Okay, thanks for picking the questions.
[inaudible]
Thank you.
Speaker Change: That does end our Q&A session and concludes today's conference call.
Thank you for watching!
Thank you for watching!