Absci Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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November 12, 2024

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Absci Q3 2024 Business Update Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

Operator

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Alex Kahn, VP, Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Earlier today, Absa released financial and operating results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. 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 e mail to investorsabscai.com. An archived webcast of this call will be available for replay on Absci's Investor Relations website at investors. Abscai.com for at least 90 days after this call.

Speaker 1

Joining me today are Sean MacLean, Absci's Founder and CEO and Zach Jonasson, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer. Christian Stegman, Absci's SVP of Drug Creation, will also join for Q and A following prepared remarks. 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 securities laws. 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 forward looking statements. Additional information regarding these risks, uncertainties and factors that could cause results to differ appear in the section entitled Forward Looking Statements in the press release AbsaI issued today and the documents and reports filed by AbsaI from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Speaker 1

Except as required by law, AbsaI disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any financial or product pipeline projections or 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, November 12, 2024. With that, I'll turn the call over to Sean.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Alex. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our Q3 business update call. Today, we are excited to discuss some of the latest progress we have made throughout our portfolio programs, both partnered and wholly owned, and share some additional information ahead of our 2024 R and D Day next month. Towards the end of last year, we entered into a collaboration with AstraZeneca to deliver an AI designed antibody against oncology target. This collaboration combines Absci's integrated drug creation platform with AstraZeneca's expertise in oncology with the goal of accelerating the discovery of a potential new cancer treatment candidate.

Speaker 2

We are proud to have recently announced approximately just 6 months after starting this program, achievement of the first milestone under our collaboration having delivered AI de novo antibody sequences designed using our integrated drug creation platform. In addition to the progress we have made on our collaboration with AstraZeneca and with other partners, we are pleased to be adding another new partner to our diverse list of collaborators, Twist Bioscience. As we recently announced, Absci is collaborating with Twist to design a novel antibody using generative AI. We are very excited to be working with Twist on this innovative program. In fact, we'll share additional details on this new partnership later in the call.

Speaker 2

1 month from today, on December 12, we are excited to be hosting our 2024 R and D Day in New York City. At this event, you will hear from our executive leadership and our scientific team as well as a series of distinguished guest speakers. We plan to share additional information about our existing internal asset programs and unveil one new asset program. For those not attending in person, a live broadcast of the full presentation and a replay will be available on our website. But before then, I'd like to take a moment now to provide an overview of the current state of each of our proprietary programs.

Speaker 2

Starting with ADS-one hundred and one, our potential best in class TL1A antibody. A few months ago, we shared results from our non human primate studies of this program demonstrating 2x to 3x extended half life as compared to 1st generation antibodies in clinical development and further supporting this program's potential best in class profile. In our studies, ABS-one hundred and one is also observed to have an increased biodistribution in NHPs as compared to 1st generation TL1A antibodies in clinical development. And CMC studies verifies the ability to formulate CVS-one hundred and one at high concentrations of 200 milligrams per milliliter, which supports further development of subcutaneous formulation. And last month, at Sustival Biologics Europe 2024, Absci has presented titled Development of AI Designed Therapeutic Anti TL1A Antibody for IBD.

Speaker 2

Additional data for the ABS-one hundred and one program was shared at this event and can be found on Absci's website within our updated corporate deck and a copy of the poster shared at the conference. We continue to advance ABS-one hundred and one through IND enabling studies as planned and are confident in our program's ability to potentially demonstrate a truly differentiated product profile. We plan to initiate Phase 1 clinical studies of ABS-one hundred and one in the first half of twenty twenty five and continue to expect an interim data readout in the second half of twenty twenty five. Turning to ABS-two zero one, our potential best in class dermatology program. ABS-two zero one is designed from an undisclosed dermatological indication with significant unmet need, where the efficacy of the pharmacological standard of care is not satisfactory.

Speaker 2

We believe that the target for this program is underappreciated as we could potentially be second to clinic. And as we continue to anticipate selecting a development candidate for this program this year, we look forward to sharing some additional data and information for this program, including the target and its potential markets and indications with you all at our R and D Day next month. Finally, ABS-three zero one, our potential 1st in class immuno oncology program. ABS-three zero one is a fully human antibody designed to bind against a novel target discovered through Absci's reverse immunology platform. We anticipate completion of mode of action validation sites for ABS-three zero one in the first half of twenty twenty five with plans to share data for this program shortly after.

Speaker 2

As you can probably tell, we at Absahe are all very excited about the updates that we'll be sharing next month at our R and D Day. Until then, as always, we remain focused on continued innovation and execution on all aspects of our platform and portfolio, all with the mission to create better biologics for patients faster. And as always, the progress we are able to achieve is a testament to the work our team does each and every day at Absci and reflects our platform's differentiated capabilities and AI drug creation for biologics. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Zack to walk through our new partnerships, our outlook and provide an update on our financials. Zack?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Sean. As Sean mentioned, we recently entered into an exciting new partnership with Twist Bioscience. This collaboration brings together Absci's generative AI drug creation platform with Twist DNA synthesis platform to accelerate the design and preclinical development of a novel therapeutic antibody for a biological target implicated in multiple disease areas. For this collaboration, Twist silicon based synthesis platform will help power early stage R and D, including testing and validation of antibody candidates designed using Absci's generative AI technology platform. Following the planned early development of this program, Twist and Absci intend to seek a partner for further human clinical development and commercialization.

Speaker 3

We are proud to add another great partner to our list of collaborators, which includes AstraZeneca, Merck, Almirall, NVIDIA, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and others, and we look forward to working together with Twist on this important program. Looking to the remainder of this year and into 2025, we continue to see a robust and diverse pipeline of potential partners for new drug creation programs. Hence, we continue to anticipate signing partnerships with 2 more partners in addition to our previously announced partnerships with MSK and Twist this year. As Sean discussed, our portfolio of proprietary programs includes 3 diverse wholly owned assets, ABS-one hundred and one, ABS-two zero one and ABS-three zero one, all of which were generated using our integrated drug creation platform. We continue to advance each of these internal programs according to plan.

Speaker 3

We also continue to make progress on new internal programs and expect to advance at least 1 additional internal therapeutic program to the lead stage this year. As a reminder, our business model is focused on out licensing or selling our internal programs and co develop programs following value inflection proof points, anywhere from preclinical proof of concept to Phase 2 clinical proof of concept. Turning now to our financials. Revenue in the Q3 of 2024 was $1,700,000 as we continue to progress our partnered programs. Research and development expenses were $18,000,000 for the 3 months ended September 30, 2024, compared to $11,000,000 for the prior year period.

Speaker 3

This increase was primarily driven by increased lab operations, including approximately $3,000,000 in direct costs associated with IND enabling studies for ABS-one hundred and one and an increase in stock compensation expense. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $9,300,000 for the 3 months ended September 30, 2024, compared to $9,500,000 for the prior year period. This decrease was due to lower personnel costs and continued reductions in administrative costs, offset by an increase in stock compensation expense. Turning to our balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $127,100,000 in cash, cash equivalents and short term investments, compared to $145,200,000 as of June 30, 2024.

Speaker 3

We continue to enhance 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. We believe this strategic and balanced approach will provide us with the best ROI rather than simply pursuing a higher volume of programs and best positions us for further success in the future. For 2024, we now expect the gross use of cash, cash equivalents and short term investments of approximately $75,000,000 which is approximately $5,000,000 below our previous expectation of $80,000,000 This estimate includes the expected costs associated with advancing the IND enabling studies for ABS-one hundred and one with a third party CRO. 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 twenty twenty seven. Altogether, we are very pleased with the progress we have made on our internal programs, and we are confident in our ability to execute on these and on our partnered programs over the rest of this year and beyond.

Speaker 3

With that, I'll turn it back to Sean.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Zach. Over the course of this year, we have demonstrated solid execution across all aspects of our business and throughout our portfolio of proprietary and partner programs. As we continue to execute on our strategic objectives and ultimate mission, we see a number of potential catalysts in the next 6 to 12 months and beyond, and look forward to sharing additional updates with you all at our R and D Day next month on December 12. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator to begin Q and A. Operator?

Operator

Our first question comes from Kripa Divarikonda with Truist Securities. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Hey, guys. Thank you so much for taking my question and congrats on all the progress this year. I had a question about the AstraZeneca milestone that you mentioned. First of all, congrats on delivering another AI de novo designed antibody sequence. Just can you remind us of the economics of this partnership and when we can expect further updates from it?

Speaker 4

I know you're probably partly restricted. And also does this you said that this is an oncology target, but does this in any way validate the potential of what Absci's platform can do, not just in terms of de novo design, but also targeting different classes of targets? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes, absolutely. Thanks, Kripa. Yes, so we think that this is a a really great validation of the platform. We are able in 6 months to deliver on a binder that could bind to a target where there was no binder. And we see this as, again, I think really great validation.

Speaker 2

And Zach, I'll hand it over to you to talk a little bit about the economics of the deal. Thanks, Sean. Yes, as you may recall, the

Speaker 3

partnership with AstraZeneca, the one target deal, dollars 147,000,000 bio deal value, including all of the upfront research fees, milestones. There's a royalty associated, but that's not disclosed. And so it's a fairly traditional structure for a partnership at the drug creation stage.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Brendan Smith with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Hi, this is Jackie on the line for Brendan. Thanks so much for taking my question. I guess just looking at both your R and D Day and the upcoming updates that you have for the first half of twenty twenty five, can you give us any expectations on what we can reasonably expect data wise? What kind of data, which assets will be involved and how much data do you plan on discussing?

Speaker 2

Yes, absolutely. So with ABS-two zero one at RNG Day, this will be a very similar data package to what we presented for ABS-one ABS-one hundred and one, our TL1A asset. And so that will be a robust preclinical data package, and we plan to with this announce a drug candidate on that. And then later in the first half, we do plan on presenting efficacy data on ABS-three zero one. And so those are kind of the, I would say, the 2 major data readouts at R and D Day and in the first half.

Speaker 5

Great. That's super helpful. And then just one more. As you near IND stage for your ABS201, are you also planning on using the same manufacturers for the second asset as you did for ABBS 101? And when we're looking at expected R and D, should we kind of picture that ramping similar to 101 over 2025?

Speaker 2

Yes. We are using the same manufacturer, WuXi, for ABS 201. And in terms of overall expense, I would assume similar expenses.

Speaker 5

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes

Speaker 2

from Sorry,

Speaker 3

just before the next question, just a quick correction. I think I believe I gave the wrong number in the prior answer around AstraZeneca partnership. It's a $247,000,000 deal. I believe I misspoke and said $147,000,000 So just a correction to that.

Operator

Our next question comes from George Farmer with Scotiabank. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Couple more partnerships you're expecting this year. Can you say anything more about that? These large pharma partners or on the smaller side?

Speaker 2

Zach, you want to take that question?

Speaker 3

Sure. Thanks, George. What I can say, George, is we continue to advance several discussions with the prospective partners here in Q4. It's a mix of different types of companies and sizes. That's probably all I can say at this point.

Speaker 6

Okay. And just noticed with ABS-three zero one, is that a slight delay? I think you've been guiding to provide a little bit more insight into that program by the R and D Day, but now it looks like it might be delayed?

Speaker 2

That is correct. We are seeing a slight delay on ABS-three zero one and where we're running it at our CRO. This has nothing to do with the actual efficacy of the study itself, but the studies have been delayed just slightly on that.

Speaker 6

Okay, great. Thanks very much.

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you, George.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Vamil Divan with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open.

Speaker 7

Good morning. This is Arseniy on for Vamil. Thank you for taking our question. Our question is on the planned healthy volunteer study for ABS-one hundred and one next year. Understanding that you may be providing additional detail about that program at your R and D day next month and maybe limited to what you

Speaker 2

can share today, what would you like

Speaker 7

to see from that study in terms of antibody half life? What do you believe the bar is there?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thank you. Christian, do you want to take that question?

Speaker 8

Sure. Thank you for the question. Indeed, as you correctly mentioned, this will be healthy volunteer study and our intention is to measure pharmacokinetics in this study as is usual in such a healthy volunteer setting. In terms of our expected half life, we expect to achieve a profile that is similar for half life engineered antibodies. At a minimum case, we expect to have dosing levels that allows once monthly dosing, potentially up to once quarterly.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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