Lisata Therapeutics - Q3 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Welcome to the Lisata Therapeutics Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following management's prepared remarks, we will hold a Q&A session. To ask a question at that time, please press star one, one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. As a reminder, this call is being recorded today, Thursday, November 2, 2023. I will now turn the call over to John Menditto, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at Lisata. Please go ahead, sir.

John Menditto (VP of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications)

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Lisata's Third Quarter 2023 Conference Call to discuss our financial results, and the opportunity to provide a business update. Joining me today from our management team are Dr. David Mazzo, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Kristen Buck, Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer, and James Nisco, Vice President of Finance and Treasury. Shortly before this call, we issued a press release announcing our third quarter 2023 financial results, which is available under the investors and news section of the company website, along with a webcast replay of this call. If you have not received this news release, or if you'd like to be added to the company's email distribution list, please email me at [email protected].

Before we begin, I remind you that comments made by management during this conference call will contain forward-looking statements that involve risks, and uncertainties regarding the operations and future results of Lisata. I encourage you to review the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, its Forms 10-Q, 8-K, and 10-K, which identify specific risk factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Furthermore, the content of this conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of this live broadcast, Thursday, November 2, 2023. Lisata Therapeutics undertakes no obligation to revise or update any statements to reflect events, or circumstances after the date of this conference call. With that, now I will turn the call over to Dr. David Mazzo. Dave?

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Thank you, John, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today as we provide an overview of recent business highlights, discuss our third quarter 2023 financial results and give an update on the progress of our various development programs. The third quarter was another productive quarter for Lisata, as we added to the momentum of the first half of 2023, with the initiation and advancement of new clinical development programs targeting a variety of advanced solid tumors using LSTA1, our lead product candidate, in combination with multiple anticancer agents of differing modalities.

As we have previously reported, we have both preclinical data, and early clinical data in humans that we believe demonstrates the potential of LSTA1 to become an integral part of a revised standard of care treatment regimen for many difficult-to-treat cancers. During this call, our Chief Medical Officer, Dr.Kristen Buck will provide an update on our clinical programs following the review of our financial results. With that, I now will turn the call over to James Nisco, our Vice President of Finance and Treasury. James?

James Nisco (VP of Finance and Treasury)

Thanks, Dave. Good afternoon, all. I'm pleased to join you today to present a summary of our third quarter 2023 financial results. Starting with operating expenses. For the three months ended September 30, 2023, operating expenses totaled $6 million, compared to $37.7 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022, representing a decrease of 84.2%. Excluding the in-process research and development expense of $30.4 million related to our merger with Cend Therapeutics in September 2022, operating expenses decreased by $1.4 million or 18.6% compared to the three months ended September 30, 2022.

Operating expenses comprise the following, research and development expenses were approximately $3.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $3.3 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022, representing an increase of 1.3%. Expenses this quarter were primarily due to study activities associated with the BOLSTER trial here in the United States, enrollment activities for the ASCEND study in Australia, startup activities for the glioblastoma multiforme study in Europe, and general chemistry, manufacturing, and control activities for LSTA1 to support all development activities. General and administrative expenses were approximately $2.6 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $4.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022, representing a decrease of $1.4 million or 35.3%.

This was primarily due to non-recurring merger-related costs in the prior year, a decrease in equity expense due to prior year performance stock unit vesting, merger option assumption expense, and departing board member restricted stock unit vesting and timing of our annual stockholder meeting versus the prior year. Overall, net losses were $5.3 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $37.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022. Excluding the in-process research, and development expense of $30.4 million related to our merger with Cend Therapeutics in September 2022, net losses for the three months ended September 30, 2023, decreased by $1.7 million or 24.7% compared to the three months ended September 30, 2022. Turning now to our balance sheet and cash flow.

As of September 30, 2023, the company had cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of approximately $54.4 million. The company remains confident that its projected capital will fund its current and proposed operations into early 2026, encompassing anticipated data milestones from all its ongoing and planned clinical trials. This completes my financial overview, and I will now turn the call over to our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kristen Buck for the review of our clinical development pipeline. Kristen?

Kristen Buck (EVP of Research and Development and CMO)

Thank you, James, and good afternoon, everyone. As those who have been following us know, Lisata's pipeline is built on a portfolio of proprietary, and patented technology that is grounded in strong scientific rationale and a body of published preclinical and early clinical data. Our platform technology is designed to address major impediments to the successful treatment of advanced solid tumors, in an environment of increasing pharmacoeconomic pressures. Generating meaningful clinical data is critically important in this field, and I can assure you that our entire organization has this goal top of mind in everything we do. With that, I will now provide an overview of LSTA1, for the treatment of advanced solid tumors in combination with other anticancer agents. Despite advances in cancer therapy today, many solid tumors remain difficult to treat effectively.

Cancers such as pancreatic cancer, gastric cancers, and other solid tumors are surrounded by a dense fibrotic tissue known as the stroma, which limits access of most pharmacotherapies to the tumor. Many tumors also have a hostile tumor microenvironment or TME, which suppresses the patient's immune system, and makes it less effective in fighting cancer. The combination of a dense stroma and a hostile tumor microenvironment, prevents many chemotherapies and immunotherapies from being optimally effective in treating these cancers. This, coupled with the fact that most anticancer therapies are not efficient in targeting only cancerous tissue, defines the major challenge of maximizing effectiveness and safety in the treatment of solid tumors. To combat this, Lisata's approach is to activate the C-end rule or CendR system, a naturally occurring active transport system to selectively deliver anticancer drugs through the stroma and into the tumor.

Lisata's lead product candidate, LSTA1, the recipient of multiple orphan designations, including for pancreatic cancer in both the United States and Europe, as well as for malignant glioma in the United States, is an investigational drug that actuates the CendR active transport mechanism, while also having the potential to modify the tumor microenvironment and make it less immunosuppressive. LSTA1 targets tumor vascular endothelial cells, as well as tumor cells themselves, based on its affinity for alpha V, beta 3, and beta 5 integrins that are selectively upregulated on these cells in comparison to healthy tissue. LSTA1 is a 9-amino acid cyclic internalizing RGD peptide that once bound to these integrins, is cleaved by proteases expressed in the tumor microenvironment to release a linear peptide fragment called a CendR fragment.

The CendR fragment has high affinity for and then binds to an adjacent receptor called Neuropilin-1, also upregulated on tumor vascular endothelial cells and tumor cells. To activate the C-end rule active transport pathway, and ferry anticancer drugs more efficiently into solid tumors. Additionally, LSTA1 has been shown in a range of preclinical models to modify the tumor microenvironment, making it less hostile to immune cells, reducing tumor resistance to anticancer medications, and impeding and/or preventing the metastatic cascade. These results come internally from Lisata and from collaborators and research groups around the world, and have been the subject of over 300 related scientific publications. Along with our collaborators, we also have amassed significant non-clinical data demonstrating enhanced delivery of a range of emerging anticancer therapies, including immunotherapies and RNA-based therapeutics.

To date, LSTA1 has demonstrated favorable safety, tolerability, and activity to enhance delivery of standard-of-care chemotherapy for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. Our development programs are designed to exploit the potential of LSTA1, to enhance a variety of anticancer treatment modalities in a range of solid tumors. Currently, LSTA1 is the subject of about a dozen planned or active clinical trials globally for the treatment of various solid tumors. Let me touch on a few of these individually. The ASCEND trial is a 155-patient, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating LSTA1 in combination with gemcitabine, and nab-paclitaxel in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, also known as mPDAC.

The trial is being conducted at up to 40 sites in Australia and New Zealand, led by the Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group or AGITG, in collaboration with the NHMRC Clinical Trial Center at the University of Sydney. As previously reported in September, a positive outcome from the planned interim futility analysis was announced by the study's independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee, which recommended continuation of the study without modification. In addition, we are excited to report that full enrollment in cohort A of ASCEND has been achieved, and that overall enrollment in the study is now approximately 95% complete. With that, we now project to have top-line data from cohort A as early as the fourth quarter of next year, a full year earlier than originally anticipated.

We plan to use the results of the ASCEND trial to explore possible conditional approvals in several jurisdictions, and to design an optimized phase III program in mPDAC. The BOLSTER trial is a phase IIA double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, randomized basket trial with investigational sites planned in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Asia, evaluating LSTA1 in combination with standards of care in advanced solid tumors, including head and neck, esophageal, and cholangiocarcinoma. This trial will include both cytotoxic and immunotherapy standards of care. As previously announced, patients have now been treated in the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma cohorts, and we expect a first patient in the esophageal cancer cohort by early next year.

CENDIFOX, the phase IB/IIA open-label trial in the United States, evaluating LSTA1 in combination with neoadjuvant FOLFIRINOX-based therapies in pancreatic, colon, and appendiceal cancers, continues to make steady progress, with approximately 80% of the overall target number of subjects in the study enrolled. We expect enrollment completion of the pancreatic cohort during the fourth quarter of this year and completion of the remaining two cohorts over the next two quarters, with data readout in pancreatic cancer in late 2024. This trial will provide us with pre- and post-treatment biopsy immunoprofiling data, as well as long-term outcome data. LSTA1 is also being evaluated in combination with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel in a phase IB/IIA open-label trial in China, led by our licensee in that territory, Qilu Pharmaceutical.

During the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting, Qilu Pharmaceutical presented an abstract sharing preliminary data from the study, which corroborated previously reported findings from the phase IB/IIA trial of LSTA1 plus gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel, conducted in Australia in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Final data are expected by the end of the second quarter of 2024. In collaboration with our funding partner, WARPNINE, the iLSTA trial is a phase IB/IIA randomized, single-blind, single-center safety and pharmacodynamic study in Australia, evaluating LSTA1 in combination with the checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab, plus standard of care chemotherapy, nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine, versus standard of care alone in patients with locally advanced non-resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Enrollment completion is expected during 2024.

iGoLSTA, a phase 1B/IIA proof of concept, safety, and early efficacy study evaluating LSTA1 in combination with nivolumab and FOLFIRINOX as a first-line treatment in locally advanced non-resectable gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, is still pending initiation as a function of availability of funding by our partner, WARPNINE. We hope to have further update on timing related to the execution of this study in coming quarters. We are also poised to initiate the study of LSTA1 in combination with temozolomide in glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM. This study is designed as a phase IIA double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized proof of concept study evaluating LSTA1 when added to standard of care temozolomide versus temozolomide, and matching LSTA1 placebo in subjects with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme.

It will be conducted across multiple sites in Estonia and Latvia, and is targeted to enroll 30 patients with a randomization of 2-to-1, LSTA1 plus standard of care versus placebo plus standard of care. We are pleased to report that the E.U. clinical trial application has been approved, and we expect the first patient treated before the end of this calendar year. Importantly, as recently announced, LSTA1 has been granted orphan designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for malignant glioma. This action by the FDA not only highlights the unmet medical need, but also recognizes the potential of LSTA1 to benefit patients in this indication. Lastly, we also plan to initiate a study of LSTA1 in combination with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, more commonly referred to as HIPEC.

Intraoperative intraperitoneal lavage in peritoneal carcinomatosis, a cancer that develops as a result of contiguous spread of primary cancers such as ovarian, colorectal, and appendiceal, along the peritoneum. The study will be a phase I, single-center, unblinded, randomized controlled trial to determine the safety, and tolerability of LSTA1, administered intraperitoneally in patients with peritoneal metastases from colorectal, appendiceal, or ovarian cancer undergoing cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC.

21 total participants will be randomized 2 to 1 to receive LSTA1 with HIPEC versus HIPEC alone after cytoreductive surgery. We anticipate the first patient will be treated in the fourth quarter of 2023. For those who are interested, a more complete description of each of our trials is available in the appendix section of the corporate presentation on our website. Additionally, in the body of the presentation, there are two milestone slides that depict the anticipated timing of key execution milestones and data readouts from our trials. With that, I will now turn the call back to Dave.

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Thank you, Kristen. In the last three and nine months of 2023, we have made notable progress on several fronts, including the broad application of LSTA1, in combination with a variety of anticancer agents for the treatment of a variety of solid tumor types. To maximize impact and confidence in the results, we have designed our studies to be scientifically and medically rigorous and to provide results expeditiously, while also assuring that we are operating in a maximally capital-efficient manner. Now, with more than two years of capital available on our balance sheet, we believe we are well-positioned to focus on the execution of our development plans and to achieve our goal of getting meaningful clinical data readouts as soon as possible. With that, operator, we're ready to take questions.

Operator (participant)

[audio distortion] As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one, one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. Each listener will be permitted to ask one question at a time, and will return to the queue for any additional questions. Your question comes from the line of Steve Brozak of WBB Securities. Your line is now open.

Steve Brozak (Managing Partner and President)

[audio distortion] for taking the question. I actually have one, but a follow-up as well, because they're related. You've gone over a lot of trial descriptions. How would you describe as the meaning, the import of what these designations that you've been describing are to the trialing system? I've got a follow-up after that, please.

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Thanks, Steve. Appreciate the question. You know, I think actually it's a very pertinent question because in the industry, we toss around the nomenclature of Orphan Drug Designation and Fast Track Designation pretty freely. I think most people might have at least a partial understanding, but I think it's worthwhile explaining. Let's start with Fast Track Designation. Fast Track Designation allows the applicant, that would be for the, you know, given product and a given indication, to be eligible for accelerated approval consideration and for a more rapid review cycle with the FDA, both of which are extremely beneficial in terms of getting to market faster. It also allows for more interaction with the FDA in a specialized way.

Similarly, Orphan Drug Designation, first of all, it points to the fact that the indication will have less than 200,000 patients in a given year diagnosed with that particular indication. As a result, it's also eligible for more rapid review cycles, more rapid and consistent interaction with the agency. Importantly, you're also eligible to receive grants from the Orphan Drug Division of FDA to develop your products, because often they're not as commercially lucrative.

Finally, you get an extended period of exclusivity in the market. That is in addition to patent protection, you have some market exclusivity. They're actually quite valuable designations. They're not given out freely. It's not something that you just make an application, and you're guaranteed a result. There's a pretty critical review process, and we were very pleased that the FDA and the EU have granted orphan drug designation for mPDAC to Lisata, and also for GBM for LSTA1 here in the United States.

Steve Brozak (Managing Partner and President)

Okay. That actually highlights the next follow-up, and I'll hop back in the queue. Thank you. You've got these, you know, designations, which are obviously significant. You've got multiple programs running with quantifiable endpoints. You've been pretty much delivering on everything you said you were looking to do. Yet obviously, the market isn't really viewing or understands this. What are your thoughts on your market cap and specifically your stock price, given your execution? What do you think it is? Thanks, and I'll hop back in the queue.

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Okay, well, thanks, Steve. I actually appreciate the opportunity to address that somewhat forthrightly, because it's something that's on everybody's mind. There's a clear inconsistency with the advanced stage of our clinical programs, the positive data we've generated, our financial position, and the fact that we continue to execute according to plan, and that the plan is rather comprehensive and a rather low market cap. In fact, that, you know, anyone can look and see we're trading, you know, roughly at, you know, somewhere between 35%-40% of our cash on hand, which is, you know, just irrational. I think we have a couple of explanations for that. I mean, part of it is that the entire biotech market has suffered considerably since the beginning of the year with high interest rates, and everybody's stock is down.

In our particular case, there are a few unique characteristics that I think are impeding a stock advance within the short term, but that I think are available to be overcome in the long term. One of those is that, you know, we are fortunate to have a large body of our shareholders. You know, by our calculation, in rough terms, about 2/3 of our shareholders are long-only holders. These are people who have bought into the company, either when it was in its private stages or at the time of our recent merger or in recent financings, but did so because they believe in the potential of the programs. In order to see the programs reach their maximum value, they are not trading the stock. They're ignoring the fluctuations in stock price and in the market.

They're treating us much like they would treat an investment in a private company, and they're sitting back and waiting for the, "pivotal data to come out of these trials." With a very, you know, little float, that is, a very small fraction of our shareholders trading actively on any given day, there's not really an opportunity for a market to be made for our stock. There's not a lot of people who are buying or selling, and those very few who do, we trade on average 20,000-25,000 shares a day out of over 8 million outstanding. It's a very volatile situation.

I think, you know, our opinion is that that will change it based on two things, as we get to data, which as those who have looked at our milestone slide will see, is going to be occurring throughout 2024 and 2025. Also, as we then are able to announce additional business development deals and ultimately do another financing, which will allow larger funds to enter the stock because they can't do so on the market because of the low trading volume. I think we'll see that all change.

Most people right now in the biotech world, the real focus is on impeccable execution to data, generating as close to unambiguous data as possible, and then letting the product speak for themselves. That's what we believe is the problem. There's certainly no issue with the fundamentals of our company, the execution or our plan which has been scrutinized pretty thoroughly by a lot of potential partners who are also just sitting there waiting for us to show data.

Steve Brozak (Managing Partner and President)

Got it. All right, let me hop back in the queue. Thank you for taking the questions.

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Thanks, Steve.

Operator (participant)

Thank you so much. Your next question comes from the line of Kemp Dolliver from Brookline Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Kemp Dolliver (Director of Research and Senior Analyst, CFA)

Hi, good afternoon, and thank you for taking the question. First question, you know, regards the ASCEND trial, and admittedly, it may be too early to provide any insight on this, but you know, the trial has enrolled very consistently and ahead of the original plan. Other than unmet need and potentially a great drug, which we'll just lay out as givens for now, what are your thoughts with regard to why this has worked so well? You know, is it a function of the populations in Australia and New Zealand being relatively treatment naive, and there's less competition for trials? Or you know, what have you seen going on that has worked to your benefit here?

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Thanks, Kemp. Appreciate that. I think, you know, we see a couple of factors that are helping the trial enroll very, very rapidly. First of all, you know, it is a randomized and blinded trial, but you know, in this particular trial, the people who receive the control arm are still receiving standard of care. There's no downside to joining this trial. It's not as if you would be put on, you know, a true placebo, and you would not get any treatment, which would obviously be unethical in an oncology trial. I think you've already touched on one of the situations there. There seems to be a large, and growing presence of pancreatic cancer in this part of the world.

There are relatively few treatment centers, because the population of Australia is concentrated around the edges of the country. The country is enormous, but as you all know, the interior is referred to as the outback because it's a desert-like area, and there's really very little populations. People are concentrated in areas, and they go to, you know, these larger centers pretty regularly. It's not as if there are many, many centers around the country for them to go. The people who are at those centers have been actively involved in the development of our trial of our drug from the beginning. It was in Australia that the early phase 1B, phase 2A, very compellingly positive data were generated, and so there's an enthusiasm that I think is moving forward.

The fact that the addition of LSTA1 to standard of care doesn't seem to exacerbate the safety side effects of the standard of care, is another reason why people are very eager to take on this particular trial. As you pointed out, it's enrolling very rapidly. Cohort A has been enrolled since the May, June timeframe, and we're about 95% of the way there. The official projections we'll be done by second quarter of next year, but I think anybody can, you know, do a quick extrapolation and recognize that it's likely to be done very, very much sooner than that.

Kemp Dolliver (Director of Research and Senior Analyst, CFA)

Right. Thank you. You know, just looking at your spending guidance and you know, which honestly looks pretty level over, you know, the course of the runway period. How sensitive would that be to the ebb and flow of enrollment in your trials? Because, you know, you have ASCEND wrapping up sooner than expected. It's probably one of your larger trials at this point. You know, how should we think about the correlation between those two things from here?

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Well, like all trials, your spending is correlated. You know, except for startup at the beginning and close out at the end, you know, the steady state costs are per patient costs. As you enroll, you incur expense. Then when you stop enrolling, you know, you stop those types of expenses. We also have to recognize that we have organized these trials, almost all of our trials, but ASCEND specifically, to be done, first of all, in Australia, where the costs generally are lower than they might be in the United States, and where we get about 48% of all R&D dollars spent, rebated back to us as cash at the end of the year. Also, we are essentially co-funding this trial, if you will.

I mean, we're providing the maximum amount of funding, but a number of the standard of cares, you know, from the hospitals, are being funded by those hospitals. There will be a reduction in expenditure relative to ASCEND once full enrollment is completed, but it may not be of the same magnitude that one might expect for a trial being completely funded by a sponsor here in the United States. We still should see a reduction in costs associated with that.

Kemp Dolliver (Director of Research and Senior Analyst, CFA)

Got it. I'm assuming those rebates are, would show up as a contra to the expense line as opposed to coming in on the top line. Is that right?

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

I'll ask our head of finance. James, what's the accounting on the rebate?

James Nisco (VP of Finance and Treasury)

Yeah, that's correct. We do have for qualifying research and development activities in Australia, we are eligible to receive refundable tax incentive between 43.5%-48.5%. That does, you know, largely offset, you know, let's say half of the expenses for the ASCEND study in Australia.

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Is that accounted for as a reduction in expense or as revenue?

James Nisco (VP of Finance and Treasury)

That is accounted for as a reduction in expense. That would be a reduction to the R&D expense, so it's incorporated therein.

Kemp Dolliver (Director of Research and Senior Analyst, CFA)

Thank you for that.

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Okay. Thanks, Kemp.

Operator (participant)

Thank you so much. Your next question comes from the line of Pete Enderlin of MAZ Partners. Your line is now open.

Pete Enderlin (Portfolio Manager)

My first question is a follow-up of an earlier one about the valuation of the LSTA stock, and that is, since LSTA1, you know, seems to enhance the efficacy of a wide variety of oncology drugs and a variety of different modalities as well, the question is, have you guys experienced any increase in inbound inquiries from bigger pharmas that are interested in collaborating with you?

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Hi, Pete, and thanks for the question. It actually gives me a chance to talk a bit about you know, the business development activities. The simple answer to your question is yes. I mentioned earlier, the confirmation of a lot of those, you know, potential deals is going to be based very, very much so on the delivery of the data that will come out over the course of these years. I think, you know, all of these companies have products that, you know, do well by a variety of different definitions, but could clearly do better. You know, and as the implication so far, with the data that's been generated to date, that LSTA1 can allow them all to do better.

That should lead us to a number of possibilities for either exclusive or non-exclusive deals, both on the R&D and the commercial side, with, you know, a lot of players in the oncology world, or just simply the ability to market LSTA1 more broadly and have it utilized, you know, more broadly in the market when that time comes. Yes, we've had, you know, quite a lot of interest shown, and I think an expectation that that interest will continue to increase as data is generated.

Pete Enderlin (Portfolio Manager)

If I can qualify that a little bit in terms of drilling down, do you see different levels of interest depending on, you know, the types of cancer, or also since there are varying side effects in a lot of these treatments, does it vary somewhat by the type of modality like chemo, RNA, immunotherapy, or whatever? Or is it pretty much across the board?

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

I would say it's reasonably distributed. The interest is reasonably distributed among people who are either developing new cytotoxics, or already marketing the chemotherapeutics or immunotherapeutics. We've even had discussions with radiopharmaceutical companies, companies that have antisense products, even companies with cellular therapies and nanoparticles. I think there's a broad level of interest because the mechanism of action of LSTA1 in theory, should help all of those better target solid tumors and infiltrate those tumors.

Pete Enderlin (Portfolio Manager)

Also, reduce side effects, I guess, is an important part of it as well.

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Well, I don't know if it'll reduce side effects. I want to be very careful what we say. That would be wonderful, but what we will say is that the evidence to date shows that LSTA1 will not increase the side effects of those agents. You should get better efficacy with the same level of side effects. Normally, to get better efficacy, you increase concentration, and that leads to greater side effects. I think we're going to be able, but I wouldn't say that we eliminate side effects. We're not that far along yet.

Pete Enderlin (Portfolio Manager)

Okay. No, thank you. Then, just one quick one for Kristen. Did you mention the number or the percentage of enrollment so far in the BOLSTER trial? I didn't get it if you did.

Kristen Buck (EVP of Research and Development and CMO)

No, I did not. The BOLSTER trial recently opened, and we're early in enrollment.

Pete Enderlin (Portfolio Manager)

Okay. Thanks a lot. I'll get back in the queue.

Kristen Buck (EVP of Research and Development and CMO)

Thank you.

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Thanks, Pete.

Operator (participant)

Thank you so much. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one, one on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions. This concludes the question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back to Dr. Mazzo for closing remarks.

David Mazzo (President and CEO)

Well, again, thank you all for participating in today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again during our next quarterly conference call, and to continue to provide updates on our achievements and progress. We remain grateful for your continued interest and support. Stay well, and have a good evening.