Bioatla - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Executive Summary

• Q4 printed in line on revenue ($0.00) and ahead on EPS: Primary EPS was -$0.30 vs -$0.38 consensus, helped by materially lower R&D and G&A from program prioritization and restructuring measures. EPS/consensus values marked with * reflect S&P Global data (see Estimates Context).
• Operating spend continued to trend down: R&D fell 49% YoY to $11.6M and G&A declined 22% YoY to $4.6M; net loss narrowed to $14.9M vs $26.9M a year ago.
• Liquidity/runway: Cash was $49.0M at year-end; management executed a >30% workforce reduction (one-time cash cost ~$0.6M in Q2’25) and expects runway to key clinical readouts in 1H26.
• Clinical catalysts: BA3182 (EpCAM x CD3 TCE) Phase 1 dose-escalation readout mid-2025; Mecbotamab vedotin (CAB-AXL-ADC) mKRAS NSCLC data show exceptional OS (66% at 1-yr, 58% at 2-yrs) in Q2W regimen; Ozuriftamab vedotin (CAB-ROR2-ADC) shows differentiated activity in HPV+ SCCHN; evalstotug (CAB‑CTLA‑4) demonstrates high responses with lower imAEs in melanoma.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Clear OpEx discipline: R&D down 49% YoY and G&A down 22% YoY drove narrower loss and extended runway to 1H26; mgmt further streamlined opex with >30% headcount reduction and expects additional savings.
• Strong clinical signals: Mec-V Q2W showed exceptional OS in mKRAS NSCLC (66% alive at 1-yr; 58% at 2-yrs; median OS not reached at 35 months) with only 7% discontinuation; supports pan‑mKRAS strategy.
• Strategic partnering momentum: Ongoing and newly initiated discussions across Phase 2 assets; evalstotug “best-in-class” potential; HPV+ SCCHN OZ‑V data drawing interest; mgmt open to mid‑tier partners to align on opportunity size.

Quotes

• “We remain on track for [BA3182] clinical data readout in mid-2025… we restructured the organization to further reduce costs, extend runway and prioritize new patient recruitment”.
• “Exceptional overall survival…66% and 58% of patients with mKRAS NSCLC alive at 1 and 2 years”.
• “We are encouraged by the differentiated findings…particularly in both HPV-negative and HPV-positive patients” (Oz‑V).

What Went Wrong

• No recurring revenue model yet; quarterly revenue was $0 (FY24 revenue was one-time collaboration in Q3), so valuation remains tied to clinical/regulatory milestones and financing risk.
• Cash burn remains material despite progress: FY24 net cash used in operations was $72.0M; Q4 cash used was $7.5M; execution risk persists until partnerships or pivotal progress secure funding.
• Workforce reduction highlights resource constraints and going‑concern risks flagged in forward-looking statements; mgmt must execute on partnering to support pivotal programs.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Mr. Bruce Mackle of LifeSci Advisors. Please go ahead, sir.

Bruce Mackle (Managing Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon, everyone. With me today on the phone from BioAtla are Dr. Jay Short, Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder, and Richard Waldron, Chief Financial Officer. Following today's call, Dr. Eric Sievers, Chief Medical Officer, and Sheri Lydick, Chief Commercial Officer, will join Jay and Rick in a short Q&A. Earlier this afternoon, BioAtla released financial results and a business update for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2024. A copy of the press release and corporate presentation are available on the company's website.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during this conference call will include forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding BioAtla's business plans and prospects and whether its clinical trials will support registration, plans to form collaborations and other strategic partnerships for selected assets, results, conduct, progress, and timing of its research and development programs and clinical trials, expectations with respect to enrollment and dosing in its clinical trials, plans and expectations regarding future data updates, clinical trials, regulatory meetings, and regulatory submissions, the potential regulatory approval path for its product candidates, and expectations about the sufficiency of its cash and cash equivalents to fund operations and expected R&D expenses.

These statements are subject to various risks, assumptions, and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially and are described in the filings made with the SEC, including the most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today, March 27, 2025, and BioAtla disclaims any obligation to update such statements to reflect future information, events, or circumstances except as required by law. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Dr. Jay Short. Jay?

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

Thank you, Bruce, and thanks to everyone for joining us for our Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 BioAtla Earnings Call. Additional details related to what we will share today are available in today's press release and our updated company presentation, which are available on our website. Also, the posters which were recently presented at the Mayo Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium and the European Lung Cancer Congress on our phase II assets, ozurithamab vedotin, or Oz-V, and mecbotamab vedotin, or Mec-V, respectively, are also available on our website. I will begin with updates on our conditionally active biologic, or CAB, platform clinical programs that we are advancing internally at BioAtla. All of these CAB-based programs are designed to efficiently increase the potency and safety of our therapeutic candidates targeting solid tumors in areas of high unmet medical need.

Beginning with our first-in-class dual conditionally binding CAB, EpCAM, and CAB-CD3 bispecific T-cell engager antibody. EpCAM is an attractive therapeutic target because it is widely expressed in most solid tumors. However, it has been a difficult target to drug with traditional antibody technologies because it is also widely expressed in normal epithelial tissues. EpCAM's ubiquitous expression in both tumors and normal tissues makes it generally undruggable without a differentiating technology like CABs. Successfully enabling the selective targeting of solid tumors with CAB technology offers the potential for developing one of the first pan-cancer therapies outside of immune checkpoint inhibitors. To date, our dose escalation is progressing well. As hoped, the maximally tolerated dose has not yet been reached, and multiple patients are already experiencing tumor reduction, including one colorectal cancer patient with continued stable disease for more than one year.

At present, three patients have received the target dose of 100 micrograms weekly. Two of these three patients have already cleared the dose-limiting toxicity period, and the third patient is on track to clear the DLT period on April 8th. We are now also screening patients for the next cohorts who are anticipated to receive the target dose of 300 micrograms. Details about the dosing schematic can be found in our corporate deck. It's worth noting that animal modeling data indicate that significant tumor reduction is expected to occur at target doses of approximately 200 micrograms and above, so we believe that we are reaching exposures where we will start observing formal objective responses. We remain on track for a data readout of the dose escalation portion of the study in mid-2025.

We also anticipate a data readout for the cohort expansion portion of the study in the first half of 2026. CAB T-cell engager bispecifics represent a novel approach to harnessing the body's immune system to target and destroy cancer cells, offering the promise of more precise and effective treatment options for cancer patients. We believe our dual CAB, EpCAM, and CAB-CD3 T-cell engager has the potential to be at the forefront of this exciting and powerful approach and has the potential to treat a wide range of metastatic tumors, including cancers of the colon, lung, breast, pancreas, and prostate, among others. Now moving on to CAB AXL ADC, Mec-V. Last quarter, we announced that we are observing ongoing anti-tumor activity with multiple confirmed responses among 21 evaluable patients with tumors expressing mKRAS across nine different KRAS mutations.

As part of today's update, we are excited to share promising results from the 1.8 mg/kg Q2W dosing cohort. From the 16 evaluable patients in this cohort, we have observed multiple confirmed responses across different mKRAS variants while also demonstrating an encouraging clinical benefit risk profile, as well as a patient who had a prior failure of sotorasib who experienced a partial response. In addition, a patient who achieved a complete response remains in complete response now for over two years. Importantly, our initial findings for overall survival continue to be compelling, as we are now seeing an exceptional overall survival with 66% and 58% of patients with mKRAS non-small cell lung cancer alive at a landmark of one year and two years, respectively, which we believe exceeds what has been observed with the standard of care.

The median overall survival has not been reached at 35 months from the first dose, with continued follow-up ongoing. Mec-V is associated with a generally well-tolerated safety profile, both with and without nivolumab, and no new safety signals have been identified. Notably, the drug-related treatment discontinuation rate was only 7%. We are presenting these data at the European Lung Cancer Congress and encourage you to visit the poster on our website. Based on our evaluation of patients with mutant KRAS non-small cell lung cancer, we continue to observe a high correlation of AXL and mKRAS expression and believe the mechanistic link between AXL and mKRAS that drives tumor resistance, coupled with the exceptional overall survival that we are seeing in the Q2W dosing cohort, supports a potential anti-AXL pan mKRAS strategy.

Now I'd like to pivot to the phase II clinical programs that we are currently advancing toward corporate partnerships, beginning with our CAB ROR2 ADC, Oz-V, which is being evaluated as a monotherapy in treatment refractory head and neck cancer patients. Last quarter, we reported an emerging clinical profile in treatment refractory patients with a median of three prior lines of therapy, with the potential to become the standard of care in the second-line plus head and neck cancer population. Additionally, we shared that we received a fast-track designation and actionable guidance from the FDA on our proposed randomized pivotal trial design with Oz-V monotherapy versus investigators' choice among patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer with disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy and PD-1 antibody therapy.

As part of today's update, the fully enrolled phase II study using Oz-V monotherapy continues to demonstrate new responses in treatment refractory second-line plus head and neck cancer at the 1.8 mg/kg Q2W dosing regimen. We also continue to capture efficacy data for several endpoints, including overall response rate, duration of response, progression-free survival, and overall survival. A particular interest is that we have observed a compelling signal in patients with metastatic HPV-positive head and neck cancer who represent a high unmet need as they are poorly served by agents that inhibit EGFR. These new data, as well as evolving data in the overall head and neck cancer cohort, were presented as a poster today at the Mayo Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium.

To highlight, among the 11 patients with HPV-positive head and neck cancer treated with 1.8 mg/kg Q2W, there was a 100% disease control rate, a 45% overall response rate, and so far a 27% confirmed response rate with a duration of response greater than 5.3 months that is ongoing. Multiple patients remain on treatment and have the potential to have responses that deepen with time. It is noteworthy that an HPV-positive patient achieved a complete response that continues in complete remission, now at greater than 16 months and ongoing. We believe Oz-V, especially at the 1.8 mg/kg Q2W dose, has been remarkably well tolerated, and there are no new identified safety findings.

Further, these results in HPV-positive head and neck cancer are mechanistically supported by recent literature showing that HPV-associated oncogenes upregulate ROR2 expression, driving proliferation and invasiveness, thus now providing a compelling rationale for also targeting ROR2 in cancers associated with human papillomavirus infection. We believe our extended experience with Q2W dosing of Oz-V also has the potential to satisfy Project Optimus requirements, and we plan to share our results with the FDA to seek confirmation regarding our proposed recommended phase III treatment regimen. We are encouraged by the differentiated findings in second-line plus head and neck cancer patients, particularly in both HPV-negative and HPV-positive patients. For partners, the second-line plus population represents a worldwide commercial opportunity of greater than $1 billion in peak sales, with upside opportunity in the first-line setting, as well as in other HPV-positive cancers. Moving now to our CAB-CD4 antibody evalstotug.

Evalstotug is similar to Ipi with respect to epitope, affinity, and half-life, but differs from Ipi with respect to its ability to avoid binding in the normal tissue environment. As part of today's update, we have dosed a total of 12 patients with unresectable and/or metastatic melanoma, eight of whom received 5 mg/kg, three were dose escalated to 10 mg/kg, and one dose escalated all the way to 14.3 mg/kg. While we continue to observe compelling anti-tumor activity with a differentiated safety profile, 10 of the 11 evaluable patients showed tumor reduction, and with the 11 showing no growth to date. Of these 11 evaluable patients with unresectable and/or metastatic melanoma treated with evalstotug in combination with the PD-1 antibody, so far we observe across multiple doses an overall response rate of 64% and disease control rate of 100%.

Notably, we observe a partial response in a patient with acral, subungual, or under-the-fingernail melanoma, which is a rare and difficult-to-treat form of melanoma that generally has a poorer prognosis than cutaneous melanoma. The safety profile of evalstotug continues to be differentiated with a relatively low incidence and severity of immune-mediated AEs, particularly among patients who received 5 mg/kg for less than or equal to 18 weeks in a total of 17 patients. Focusing on these 17 patients, we observed 18% grade 3 immune-mediated adverse events and no grade 4 events while maintaining strong efficacy. This safety profile compares favorably to ipilimumab with a reported rate of 40% grade 3 and 4 immune-mediated adverse events. We believe evalstotug has demonstrated a differentiated clinical profile relative to other CTLA-4 antibodies and has the potential to be best in class.

As such, we have recently initiated partnering discussions with the intent to align with a partner that can maximize the value of this asset. Onto our ongoing clinical communications. I am pleased to report our progress with the medical and scientific communities, as acknowledged with numerous publications and presentations at prestigious conferences, including the European Lung Cancer Congress, Mayo Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Symposium, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Finally, for our corporate updates, BioAtla is further extending our runway beyond key clinical readouts in the first half of 2026 by streamlining and realigning resources, which includes a workforce reduction of over 30%. We estimate that we will incur approximately $0.6 million of one-time cash payments related to the workforce reduction, which will mostly be paid in the second quarter.

We intend to retain all employees essential for advancing our two internal priority programs, as well as supporting partnering of other clinical assets, which are improving with the ongoing data readouts. I also wish to express my deep appreciation and respect to our employees, both past and present, who have contributed so much with their creativity and hard work to advance these important cures for patients. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Rick to review the fourth quarter and full year 2024 financials. Rick.

Richard Waldron (CFO)

Thank you, Jay. Research and development, that is R&D, expenses were $11.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, compared to $22.7 million for the same quarter in 2023.

The decrease of $11.1 million was due to lower clinical development expenses in 2024 from the lower overall targeted enrollment across our clinical trials in 2024, resulting from our program prioritization in 2023. We expect our R&D expenses to continue to decrease overall in the first half of 2025 due to our recent restructuring and as we complete phase II trials for several indications and focus our ongoing development on our prioritized programs. General and administrative expenses were $4.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, compared to $5.9 million for the same quarter in 2023. The $1.3 million decrease was primarily due to lower stock-based compensation, personnel-related costs, and D&O insurance premiums. Net loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, was $14.9 million compared to a net loss of $26.9 million for the same quarter in 2023.

Net cash used in operating activities for the full year ended December 31, 2024, was $72 million compared to net cash used in operating activities of $104 million for the same period in 2023. Cash used for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, was $7.5 million. Cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2024, were $49 million compared to $111.5 million as of December 31, 2023. Excluding any potential future milestones, we believe that cost reductions to be subsequently realized from the realigning of resources and focus on our two internal priority programs further extends our runway beyond key clinical readouts in the first half of 2026.

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

Thank you, Rick. We are encouraged by the clinical outcomes observed from our evolving CAB program data sets, which continue to be differentiated in some of the most challenging solid tumor types.

As a result, we continue to advance multiple discussions with potential collaborators on our phase II assets, as well as initiate new ones. We believe the compelling results we are obtaining will serve as important catalysts, including our EpCAM T-cell engager program, and have the potential to be transformative for our patients and shareholders alike. Thank you for your attention and continued support. With that, we will turn it back to the operator to take your questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. You may remove yourself from the queue at any time by pressing star two. Once again, that is star one to ask a question. We will pause for a moment to allow questions to queue. We will go first to Jeet Mukherjee at BTIG.

Jeet Mukherjee (VP and Biotechnology Analyst)

Great. Thanks for taking the question. Just in terms of the partnered programs, I noticed in the corporate deck you had mentioned the ROR2 program is in the process of partnering while CTLA-4 is initiating partnering. Could you perhaps just give a bit more color on where you are on these discussions and what's perhaps needed to get one or both across the finish line? Thank you.

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

This is Jay. We have both advanced discussions and newer discussions. This HPV-positive data is pretty new to most of the people we're in discussions with, except for just a small number. We also expect additional interest prior to this report. We're pretty encouraged with the discussions that are underway. I think it covers a range, and I'm expecting some new participants to get involved as well. Because I think this has been a significant problem in the treatment of head and neck cancer is being able to add in effective treatments in these refractory HPV-positive patients.

Jeet Mukherjee (VP and Biotechnology Analyst)

Understood. Maybe if I could just ask a follow-up for the AXL program. I believe last time you were still analyzing some patient samples for both AXL and KRAS expression. In your hands, what percentage of patients are double positive for mutant KRAS and AXL? Have any patients on the study to date been treated with a pan-RAS inhibitor? Thank you.

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

I'll share some of this question with Eric. I'll just start off by saying in our immunohistochemical analysis, we saw a bit over 70% that were positive across all types of mKRAS mutants. I think the G12C was, I think, 100%.

Also, we know that if you look at mRNA levels, that it's much, much higher than even that. It's a very strong correlation, keeping in mind that mRNA is likely to be more sensitive than immunohistochemical data. It's a very strong correlation. Further, there's a fundamental mechanistic alignment. You'll see if you refer to the corporate deck, you'll see that laid out there on slide 23 within that deck. Eric, you want to add anything to this?

Eric Sievers (Chief Medical Officer)

Sure. Thank you, Jay. Thanks for the question, Jeet. On slide 24, we indicate that one of the patients had prior treatment with sotorasib, and they did experience a response. We did not treat anyone with a known prior exposure to a pan-KRAS inhibitor, which was your question.

Jeet Mukherjee (VP and Biotechnology Analyst)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

We will move next to Kelly Shi with Jefferies.

Hi. This is Humphrey for Kelly. Thanks for taking my question. As you near-term data coming up with BA3182, just curious what kind of data we're expecting and have you reached a recommended phase II dose and what we're looking for in the next follow-up data and expansion portion of the study. Thank you.

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

Eric, you want to take that one?

Eric Sievers (Chief Medical Officer)

Sure. Thank you, Kelly. I appreciate the question. On slide 19 of our recently released corporate deck, we have the BA3182 dose escalation schema. Just to remind everyone, this is the EpCAM targeted T-cell engager where it's conditionally binding both on the EpCAM arm and the CD3 T-cell binding arm to really drive the therapeutic window even further to benefit. This gives you a sense of the dose escalation. We've achieved cohorts A1, B1, and B2, and then we're moving up with a one-step priming dose and a two-step priming dose.

We're doing that concurrently. You can see there's a schema for cohorts C and D that are both enrolling concurrently. You asked about the recommended phase II dose. We think we're in a zone where we're seeing meaningful tumor control. As the animal model suggests that tumor reduction would occur right around 200 micrograms given weekly, it's really consistent with that. We are enthusiastic to be able to report more fully on this phase I data set in the coming months. I'll note that two of the three patients in cohort C4, as you see on the slide, have already cleared the DLT observation window, and the third patient will clear very shortly, as Jay just mentioned, in early April.

Operator (participant)

We'll move next to Reni Benjamin with Citizens.

Hi. This is Simon for Reni. Just a quick one on 3182 as well. Are there any partnership discussions ongoing for this asset? If so, are these contingent upon the mid-2025 data?

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

Sheri, you want to touch on that one? Sure.

Sheri Lydick (Chief Commercial Officer)

Sure. Hi there. Thanks for the question. We currently have had interest in this program. Our goal is to get through phase I and also the expansion cohorts so that we have a data set that can really drive a lot of value for this program. While we've had interest, we're not at a point where we necessarily would engage in discussions until we have a look at what the dose escalation and expansion data look like.

Got it. Thank you for the color.

Operator (participant)

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We will go next to Tony Butler with Rodman & Renshaw.

Tony Butler (Senior Managing Director)

Thanks very much. Eric, one question on the HPV-positive patients for the head and neck cancer program. Were all of those patients that responded smokers? That's actually somewhat important. Jay, you had mentioned a partnering program, but in the deck again, it makes reference to moving toward discussions with mid-tier companies. I just wonder why that strategy, or is it in fact an argument such that the market opportunity may be somewhat smaller than a large pharma would engender and a mid-tier company would like very much? Thank you.

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

Why don't I start with the last one, and then we'll go to the other one? We think that it's a billion-dollar opportunity, over a billion dollars in the second line. We did experience one larger company that indicated that they were wanting a multi-billion dollar opportunity.

We recognized from that discussion that maybe we'll add in more of the mid-tier companies. That is really where that is derived from. Let's face it, a $1 billion opportunity in a refractory patient population with a fairly efficient trial and a big differential from the standard of care is still pretty exciting. I would also note, even in the HPV-positive subpopulation, it is over $500 million risk-adjusted. I think either way you cut it, it is pretty good. You still have the opportunity to advance to first line, have the opportunity to advance to other indications as well. You are right in this regard, Tony, that we said we recognize that adding in some of these mid-tier players matters.

Actually, I would say it does matter because we're seeing some people that have capital but have really not been able to perform with their late-line drugs and are very interested in getting into some strong phase II compounds that can move to efficient phase III. Hopefully, that helps address some of it. It does.

Tony Butler (Senior Managing Director)

Thank you, Jay.

Eric Sievers (Chief Medical Officer)

Hey, Tony. You have a really interesting question about smokers amongst the patients that have the p16 positive protein on the HPV analysis. We have a total of 26 patients in this that had the HPV of 40 total. As you know, the HPV-negative patients were really more associated with smoking and alcohol exposure, the environmental exposure form. HPV is much more the oncogene-driven side with a particular unmet need amongst patients when they reached second and third line setting because of the lack of EGFR benefit.

I do not have the smoking correlation set up, but that is something I can try to obtain for you after the call. Thank you. I appreciate that. The key is whether it is smokers and non-smokers. That is really where I want to go with that HPV-positive cohort. Thank you. Yes, we have the smoking data. It is just we have not made a correlation with the HPV. It is a great question, and we will get right on it.

Tony Butler (Senior Managing Director)

Thank you.

Eric Sievers (Chief Medical Officer)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

We will move next to Arthur He with HC Wainwright.

Arthur He (VP of Equity Research)

Hey, good afternoon, Jay and team. Thanks for taking my question. I have three quick questions. First, for the EpCAM program, regarding the data coming this year, which kind of dose level of the data can we see? Can we go up to the 3,300 micrograms, sorry, microgram cohort data, or it's probably more at the lower dose levels?

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

Certainly the 300 we should have, assuming all the dosing goes well. Is there a chance to see 900 possibly if we do it in July? We'll just make sure. It also depends a little bit on patient recruitment, but I'm very comfortable that the 300 will be there and potentially higher.

Arthur He (VP of Equity Research)

Gotcha. Jay, when you're talking about 300, you mean 300 from both C and D arms, or just the C arms?

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

No, I'm talking about C. I think the D formally is just behind the other, but tends to reinforce. Yeah, I'm focused on C right at the moment.

Arthur He (VP of Equity Research)

Gotcha. Thanks for that. My second question is regarding the AXL program. Maybe correct me if I was wrong. Are you guys going to treat more patients in terms of the AXL program, or I mean, is there any more additional patient data we can see in the future?

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

I think our hope is, I mean, EpCAM is a priority right now because of many reasons and because of the safety that we're seeing, which we're liking, and the broad applicability. I mean, it's a pan-cancer drug, and it's hard to ignore how big this could be. With AXL, though, we see some advantage of being able to do a few more patients on that. Our hope is to add in a few more patients. They haven't been added yet. We're in the process of amending our trial to allow more patients. We're going to have a pretty good picture of what happens on EpCAM.

Our intent is to drive some additional patients there, but I will allow that EpCAM could turn into something so exciting that we may decide to double down there. For now, yes, that's our plan.

Arthur He (VP of Equity Research)

Gotcha. Thanks for that. My last question is regarding the BD or strategic-wise. Besides you think about to part out the ROR2 and CTLA-4 program, are you open to any other strategy to maximize the shareholder value?

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

Oh, yeah. I mean, we certainly would be open if a partner decided that they want to drive AXL instead of Oz-V, and both are pretty exciting. We're also always looking at backup strategies where partnering timing sometimes, as we've learned, can be hard to exactly forecast, but we're definitely doing both of those things.

Arthur He (VP of Equity Research)

Gotcha. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on the progress.

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

I think they're coming in very nicely. I think it's kind of rare in this world where everything is working. Thank you.

Arthur He (VP of Equity Research)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. It appears that we have no further questions at this time. I will now turn the program back over to Jay Short for any additional or closing remarks.

Jay Short (Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder)

I just want to thank you all for your time. I think hopefully you've heard some of this data. We're pretty excited about the differentiation we're seeing in the ROR2 programs. EpCAM, we think we're pioneering there. We also think AXL is also, as well as CTLA-4, are showing the differentiation that we expected from CAB. I think that's going to translate into partnerships sooner than later. Thank you for your time.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.