PureTech Health - H2 2022

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Greetings, welcome to the PureTech Health 2022 annual report and year-end financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Allison Mead Talbot, Head of Communications. Thank you, Allison. You may begin your conference.

Allison Mead Talbot (Head of Communications)

Thank you for joining us today for PureTech's 2022 annual results webcast. Our annual report was made available this morning, portions of which will also be filed today with our Form 20-F. This information is available on the investors' portion of our website at puretechhealth.com. PureTech is led by a proven and seasoned management team with significant experience in discovering and developing important new medicines, delivering them to market, and maximizing shareholder value. Today, I'm pleased to be joined by the senior team, including today's presenters, Daphne Zohar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Bharatt Chowrira, President and Chief Business, Finance, and Operating Officer. Following the presentation, we will be joined by Eric Elenko, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, and Julie Krop, Chief Medical Officer, who will all be available for questions. I would like to remind you that during today's call, we will be making certain forward-looking statements.

These statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially, and we ask that you refer to our annual report and our SEC filings for a complete discussion of these items. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law. I also want to remind you that we will be referring to certain non-IFRS measures in this presentation. The presentation of this non-IFRS financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with IFRS. A reconciliation of the IFRS to non-IFRS measures that we will be referring to today can be found in this presentation and is also available on our investor relations website at investors.puretechhealth.com and in our SEC filings.

I will now turn the call over to Daphne Zohar, PureTech's Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Our mission at PureTech is to give life to new classes of medicine to change the lives of patients with devastating diseases, and we've been successful in delivering on this mission. I'm extremely proud of the data highlighted here. PureTech's R&D engine has generated 27 therapeutics and therapeutic candidates. two have gone from inception at PureTech through FDA clearance, and a third, KarXT, is expected to be filed shortly for FDA approval. I'm proud of the team for helping us deliver an exceptionally productive 2022 that shaped the next phase of PureTech's development. We completed five clinical trials, and there's much more on the horizon over the next 12 months as we anticipate at least five important milestones.

Let's direct our attention to the right side of this slide, where you can see that our clinical success rate is around six times higher than the rest of the industry. This is due in no small part to our distinctive model that clearly increases our chances of success. This model is underpinned by three key pillars, starting with our network of collaborators, which you see across the top, that enables us to recognize value before the rest of the world sees it. For example, there have been around 30 papers published in major journals, including Science, Cell, and Nature, almost all of which published after we secured or filed the key intellectual property. This brings us to our second pillar, our innovative technologies and approaches.

We are experts in applying these proprietary insights to medicines that have demonstrated efficacy but that have previously been held back from reaching their full potential. Our third pillar is centered on what we call killer experiments. We believe in disciplined R&D, and we quickly shut down programs that don't reach our pre-specified thresholds for advancement. This allows us to pivot resources towards the programs with the highest probability of success. All of this is supported by our strong financial position and the breadth of our pipeline, which I will touch on in a moment. Here is the real-world evidence that our approach works. Let's start with Karuna's KarXT program, which was invented by our team at PureTech.

Some of you are familiar with Karuna, an entity we founded that has read out three positive registration-enabling trials for KarXT in schizophrenia and has announced that it plans to file soon for approval with the FDA. One of the components of KarXT, xanomeline, was shown to be highly effective for the treatment of psychosis and other symptoms of schizophrenia, but it was sitting on a shelf at Eli Lilly due to GI tolerability issues that they and other pharma companies could not overcome with traditional chemistry approaches. Our team at PureTech came up with the idea of coupling xanomeline, which enabled the efficacy in the CNS, with another drug that reduced the tolerability issues in the rest of the body. We conducted a key tolerability proof of concept experiment, and Karuna then advanced it further.

If approved, KarXT will be the first new mechanism for patients with schizophrenia in over 50 years. Karuna is now a $7 billion company, and PureTech still holds equity interests as well as rights to receive milestone payments as well as 20% sub-license payments in most major geographies. In March of this year, we announced that Royalty Pharma acquired an interest in our royalty in KarXT for up to $500 million. We will discuss some of the details of this later in our presentation, and we're delighted that this transaction provides us with further non-dilutive capital for our growing and rapidly advancing wholly-owned pipeline. We're taking a similar approach across our wholly-owned pipeline by developing novel treatments that build on past human efficacy data. Two examples of this are LYT-100, a deuterated form of pirfenidone, and LYT-300, an oral form of allopregnanolone.

Both pirfenidone and an IV form of allopregnanolone are FDA approved and efficacious. They each have challenges that have held back their potential, such as significant tolerability issues or burdensome methods of administration. In the case of LYT-100, it retains the activity of pirfenidone, and by making an important change to the molecule, we cut the gastrointestinal side effects by half in a head-to-head study compared to pirfenidone. This profile may also allow higher dosing, which could improve overall efficacy. LYT-300 leverages our novel Glyph platform, enabling oral administration of allopregnanolone, an efficacious drug for depression with a novel mechanism of action that was previously only available as a 60-hour IV infusion. Here's a look at how we're building value across our wholly-owned pipeline. 2022 was our busiest year in the clinic yet.

We completed five clinical studies, including demonstrating compelling safety and tolerability data for LYT-100 and proof of principle oral bioavailability and tolerability for LYT-300. Four of our candidates are in the clinic, including one partner program, and a fifth will enter the clinic toward the end of this year. Today, we're going to focus on a few of these candidates, starting with LYT-100. LYT-100 is currently in the first of two potentially registration-enabling trials in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Before we dive deeper into our wholly-owned pipeline, I'd like to share a snapshot of the other components that make up our value. These are our founded entities. You can think of them like partnered programs. We co-invented and advanced them through key milestones, and they are now providing value to us through equity, royalties, sublicense revenue, and/or milestone payments.

These entities have raised nearly $3.7 billion over the last few years and are bringing value back to us. I'm also really proud of the fact that at PureTech we've not had to raise additional capital in five years. This is due to both our model and our disciplined financial stewardship. Let's turn to the next slide and take a deeper dive into our wholly-owned therapeutic candidates, beginning with LYT-100, which is in development for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis or IPF. For those of you who are unfamiliar with IPF, it's a rare, progressive, and fatal lung disease where the median survival is two to five years. There are two FDA-approved treatments, they both cause significant side effects, which means patients cannot fully benefit from the drugs because they are unable to stay on treatment long enough or at the right dose.

Because of this, nearly three out of four patients in the U.S. living with IPF forgo treatment with these otherwise efficacious medicines. One of these standard of care treatments is called pirfenidone. Pirfenidone has been shown to improve survival in these patients by approximately three years. This is really meaningful for a disease that has a median survival of 2-5 years. The side effects of pirfenidone cause most patients to discontinue or dose reduce, thereby limiting its effectiveness. LYT-100 is a deuterated form of pirfenidone that retains the anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory activity that is associated with the efficacy of pirfenidone. As you look at pirfenidone, the structure on the left of this slide compared to the LYT-100 structure on the right.

You will notice that we have made a simple substitution that improves the metabolic stability and PK profile of LYT-100 while maintaining its activity. We have demonstrated that this key change significantly improves tolerability, as demonstrated in a head-to-head study compared to pirfenidone. Here are those results. You can see on the left of this slide that LYT-100 reduced the number of GI-related side effects by 50%, particularly nausea, which is important because it affects patients' quality of life and their ability to stay on the drug. For context, before we embarked on this study, we did what we always do. We spoke with the leading physicians in this field, and we asked them what would be clinically meaningful. From those conversations, we set a bar of a 25%-30% reduction in GI-related side effects, and what we achieved was nearly twice that.

We couldn't be more thrilled with these results. Our next step is to confirm these results in later stage studies. Let's take a look now at our clinical trial design. This slide details the first of two registration enabling studies for LYT-100 in IPF, and we expect results from this study in 2024. This is a global study designed to evaluate the efficacy, tolerability, safety, and dosing regimen of LYT-100 against placebo and to assess the relative efficacy of LYT-100 compared to pirfenidone to help inform the study design for our second registration-enabling study in phase three. As you can see from this slide, we were not required to evaluate LYT-100 on top of either standard of care treatment in this trial, highlighting another key differentiator and the strength of this mechanism.

Importantly, we are investigating two doses of LYT-100, one with the same exposure as the currently approved dose of pirfenidone and another with a higher total drug exposure to see if higher exposure results in improved efficacy. It's important to note that the unique profile of LYT-100 has the potential for therapeutic benefit in other indications, which you can see on this slide. Beyond IPF, we are also exploring LYT-100 in progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, a group of lung diseases closely related to IPF and with a clear development path along with other fibrotic conditions where there is human data with prednisone suggestive of clinical benefit. We'll move to the second therapeutic candidate that will be discussed today.

LYT-300 is another example of how we take an existing efficacious therapy held back by factors that limit its commercial use and apply novel approaches to address those limitations and then unlock the full potential of the therapeutic. Mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety impact millions of people, yet current treatments have delayed onset of action, don't work well for many patients, and have significant side effects. We're excited about the potential to help these patients with LYT-300. LYT-300 is an oral prodrug of allopregnanolone that was developed using PureTech's Glyph technology platform. Allopregnanolone is a neurosteroid that is a modulator of GABA A receptors. Low levels of allopregnanolone have been documented in patients with depression and other mood disorders. Treatment with allopregnanolone has been shown to be beneficial in depression.

For example, allopregnanolone levels are substantially elevated in pregnancy and decline dramatically after delivery, playing an important role in postpartum depression. Allopregnanolone is currently approved but has challenges in its administration as a 60-hour IV infusion. To overcome this, oral chemically modified analogs have been developed, though these have some drawbacks and may not capture the full therapeutic potential of natural allopregnanolone. We believe our Glyph platform will enable us to harness the broad applicability of this natural neurosteroid through oral administration. Looking at the center column, you can see that we have demonstrated oral bioavailability in humans with LYT-300 that is 9-fold greater than what third parties have published with orally administered allopregnanolone. This builds on what we've previously demonstrated in preclinical work, which you can see at the bottom of the slide. At the end of last year, we announced results from our phase 1 study.

In that study, LYT-300 achieved blood levels of allopregnanolone at or above those shown to be associated with therapeutic effect. The study also demonstrated a favorable safety profile and evidence of GABA A receptor target engagement in healthy volunteers, confirming that the oral prodrug is metabolized into active allopregnanolone. We expect to initiate two phase 2A trials with LYT-300 this year. The first for anxiety, which we'll read out this year. The second in women with postpartum depression. Our Glyph technology, which has now yielded multiple new therapeutic candidates, is designed to enable oral administration of certain drugs that previously could not be given orally because the liver breaks them down before enough is absorbed into the body. The technology capitalizes on the way the body naturally absorbs fts directly into the lymphatics.

This approach has the potential to enable the drug to bypass the liver, thus maximizing the therapeutic potential of efficacious drugs whose widespread adoption have been limited by their lack of oral bioavailability. PureTech scientists have been advancing this platform, which has been published in a number of scientific journals and forums. In addition to LYT-300, this platform has enabled a second therapeutic candidate, LYT-310, which we'll discuss on the next slide. LYT-310 is our oral CBD prodrug that we announced in 2022. A CBD-based product has received regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe to treat seizures resulting from certain rare conditions, but it requires a large volume of a sesame oil-based formulation, which limits its use in broader applications and age groups.

Let's take a look at the right side of this slide, illustrating the potential for LYT-310 to improve the current standard of care. Most notably, oral dosing and a streamlined manufacturing process could expand therapeutic application of CBD across a much wider range of age groups and indications. It's important to note the need for new epilepsy treatments. Available therapies do not adequately serve patients, and current standards of care come with side effects such as nausea, stomach pain, sleepiness, and mood changes that impact patients' quality of life. One of LYT-310's other advantages is the potential to reduce GI tract side effects that are associated with the currently approved CBD-based treatments by reducing GI and liver exposure. The final wholly owned therapeutic candidate we will discuss today is LYT-200, which is in clinical development for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic cancers.

Efficacious non-toxic immunotherapy combinations are desperately needed to treat solid tumors such as bladder cancer and head and neck cancers. Additionally, around 60,000 new cases of leukemia are diagnosed each year, including about 20,000 in AML. Over half of AML patients either don't respond to initial treatment or experience relapse or death after responding to initial treatment, and over 87% do not survive 5 years after diagnosis. There is significant need for more effective therapies. We are in a position to help these patients with devastating conditions where current standards of care have significant drawbacks. On the right side of this slide, you can see a schematic demonstrating the foundational role galectin-9 plays in cancer, both in solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Galectin-9 is secreted by many tumors to help protect them from immune destruction.

Not only does galectin-9 regulate multiple cell types in the immune system, but it also binds to validated targets known to impact disease growth and progression, such as PD-1. Additionally, high levels of galectin-9 correlate with poor prognosis in a number of cancers. For example, in AML, galectin-9 levels increase with resistance to chemotherapy. LYT 200 is a monoclonal antibody that blocks the activity of galectin-9. LYT 200 has demonstrated antitumor activity in multiple solid and hematologic preclinical models, further validating its importance as a target of interest. This past December at ASH, we presented compelling data supporting a dual mechanism of action for LYT 200 in AML, direct cellular apoptosis or destruction and DNA damage, in addition to its role in immune reactivation. At the end of last year, we completed the bi-monthly and weekly monotherapy dose escalation portion of our phase one program in solid tumors.

We recently began to enroll patients in cohorts designed to evaluate LYT-200 in combination with an anti-PD-1. We expect to share those results in 2024. Last year, we also initiated a phase I trial of LYT-200 in patients with AML and look forward to sharing initial data from a subset of patients by the end of this year. As we look out across this year, we anticipate at least five major milestones across the four wholly-owned therapeutic candidates we've discussed today. The list of milestones is growing. Importantly, we have the necessary capital and discipline to advance our therapeutic development pipeline, all of which is focused on one thing, and that is making a difference for patients with devastating diseases.

I would now like to invite Bharatt Chowrira, our President and Chief Business, Finance, and Operating Officer, to provide a recap of our 2022 financial results that were announced earlier this morning.

Bharatt Chowrira (President and Chief Business, Finance, and Operating Officer)

Thank you, Daphne. I'm pleased to report that PureTech's cash position remains strong due to our unique business model, strong track record, and commitment to financial discipline. At the PureTech level, we ended 2022 with cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $339.5 million compared to $418.9 million at the end of 2021. On a consolidated basis, our cash equivalents, and short-term investments were $350.1 million at the end of 2022, compared to $465.7 million at the end of 2021. At the PureTech level, as of March 31st, 2023, we held cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $389.4 million.

On a consolidated basis, our cash equivalents, and short-term investments were $391.5 million. This figure does not include cash held at our funded entity, Vedanta, which we deconsolidated during the first quarter of 2023. Based on our existing financial assets, we expect to have operational runway into Q1 2026. Our revenues are mostly driven by upfront and milestone-based payments from collaborations as well as grants, are expected to continue to fluctuate from year to year. On a consolidated basis, our revenues in 2022 were $15.6 million compared to $17.4 million in 2021. We reported a 2022 operating loss of $197.8 million compared to $150.3 million in 2021.

This is largely due to an increase in R&D expenses driven by advancing clinical studies involving our wholly owned pipeline programs. On a consolidated basis, we reported a net loss of $37.1 million for 2022 compared to a net loss of $62.7 million for 2021. This is partly due to deferred tax benefits recorded in 2022, partially offset by an increase in operating loss driven by the above-mentioned increase in R&D expenses. Our funded entities are akin to partner programs and continue to gain value through equity, royalties, sub-license revenue, and our milestone payments as they mature. The success of this unique model generates non-dilutive funding to support our own innovation engine without needing to raise capital from capital markets. Karuna provides a great example of this.

We had initially allocated $18.5 million to Karuna's KarXT program and have generated over 47x return on that capital. In fact, Karuna's progress has enabled us to generate $215.4 million in the last eight months alone from a combination of the disposal of Karuna stock in August 2022 and the upfront cash portion of our deal with Royalty Pharma in 2023, which is post-paid. I'd like to highlight the Royalty Pharma deal as it provides us with upfront non-dilutive capital and a significant upside based on Karuna's future regulatory and commercial successes. As part of the agreement, Royalty Pharma acquired an interest in our 3% royalty in Karuna's KarXT program.

Beyond the $100 million upfront that we have already received. We are entitled to up to $400 million in additional payments associated with regulatory and commercial milestones. Importantly, once KarXT achieves $2 billion in annual sales, we will retain 67% of the royalty payments, and Royalty Pharma will continue to receive 33%. We continue to retain 2.8% equity ownership in Karuna, as well as milestone payments, and are eligible to receive 20% of sublicense income. We are extremely proud of the way our model allows us to continue to fund our wholly-owned pipeline and operations, and this deal is an excellent example of our ability to proactively manage our financial position while retaining upside. Next, I would like to switch to the progress we are making with our ESG program.

We are really proud of our ESG progress. The third edition of our environmental, social, and governance report was published this morning as part of the annual report and is available on our website. PureTech's ESG framework is built around three strategic areas of focus to meet the needs of our stakeholders and to achieve a positive social impact. These are patients, people, and planet. This year, we have enhanced our level of disclosure around all these 3 areas. As of December 2022, PureTech received an ESG risk rating of 17.5 from Sustainalytics. Notably, PureTech ranks in the top 3% of pharmaceutical companies that were ranked. This reflects our commitment and continuous effort to contribute to a sustainable future. We're also recognized as a leader across FTSE 250 companies in a number of areas, including board diversity as well as board and leadership gender balance.

I'm proud of the progress we have made and that we continue to make in this area. With that, I'll hand the call back to Daphne.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

This was a very productive year at PureTech. It laid the groundwork for a number of significant development and regulatory milestones expected over the course of 2023 and beyond. We are in a position to move these new medicines forward in a speedy and efficient way. As a focused and well-capitalized organization, well-positioned to weather the current macroeconomic conditions our industry faces. Importantly, we have the financial strength to advance our goal of bringing new, safe, and effective medicines to patients. Our team has unwavering dedication and commitment to making a transformational impact for patients. I am energized by their passion. I'd like to thank all of the patients and clinicians who are participating in our clinical trials. I am also grateful to our ever-widening network of shareholders, advisors, and other stakeholders for your confidence in our team and vision. Thank you for joining us today.

I'm now pleased to invite our Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, Eric Elenko, and our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Julie Krop, to join Bharat and me for the Q&A portion.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. You can also submit written questions through the webcast. If you choose to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. Our first question today goes to Thomas Smith of SVB Securities. Thomas, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Thomas Smith (Senior Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst)

Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Good morning.

Thomas Smith (Senior Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst)

-taking my questions. Congrats on all the progress. Just a couple on LYT-100 please. I guess for the phase 2b study, I know you've previously talked about some enrollment headwinds and taking some actions to try to bolster enrollment. Can you just comment on whether you've seen any change in the pace of enrollment over the last few months and maybe elaborate on some of the steps you're taking to try to boost the enrollment rate there?

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Hi, Tom. Thanks for the q estion. Yes, I will ask Julie Krop to answer that question. Go ahead, Julie.

Julie Krop (Chief Medical Officer)

Thanks. Thanks, Daphne. Yeah. We announced, I think late last year that the, that the program has run into, I think, you know, a little bit of headwinds in terms of enrollment, definitely, increased competition in terms of other clinical trials. I just wanna emphasize that we don't think that competition will, you know, extend into any commercial competition 'cause the product will be used in combination with other mechanisms of action. I think that will be the important advance for IPF. I think, you know, what we're doing, we're very focused on, you know, increasing the number of countries that we've gone to. We're focused on really trying to educate around the differentiation of our treatment. We have some novel ways that we're trying to reach patients that are currently not on existing therapy.

All these things I think we're reassessing. We should be able to, I think, you know, in the near future, make an announcement, with a more definitive timeline. Right now we're saying generally 2024.

Thomas Smith (Senior Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst)

Okay. Understood. That's helpful. You laid out a few potential expansion indications for LYT-100 with PF-ILD and myocardial fibrosis and the radiation-induced fibrosis indication. Can you just talk about how you're evaluating the opportunity between those three and how you think about timing for generating clinical data beyond IPF?

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Yeah. Thanks, Tom. We're going to, you know, first of all, we're prioritizing obviously IPF, but PF-ILD has a very similar and a well-understood regulatory and clinical path. That would be a natural follow-on indication. Some of the other indications that we're pursuing, for example, the radiation-induced fibrosis, we think are provides some near-term opportunity in terms of stockpiling potential voucher as well based on the Animal Rule, which means that we could potentially get approval with preclinical data. There's some, you know, some opportunistic things that we're looking at in terms of the indications, but really PF-ILD would be the next natural indication that we would be pursuing.

Thomas Smith (Senior Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst)

Got it. That makes sense. Then, on the KarXT royalty deal, and congrats on this transaction, really great economics. Can you just give us a little bit more background on how this transaction came about? Was it a competitive process? Is this kind of the blueprint for how you think about monetizing maybe some of the other royalty streams?

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Yeah, absolutely. I'll ask Bharatt to comment on that. It was competitive, and it was based on some inbound. Bharatt was able to manage that process for us. Bharatt, would you like to comment on it?

Bharatt Chowrira (President and Chief Business, Finance, and Operating Officer)

Yeah, certainly. Thanks, Daphne. Hey, Tom. When Karuna announced their first phase III data with KarXT last year, we got a number of inbound interest from people who specialize in monetizing royalties. At the time, you know, we're not that keen, you know, to look into this. Because of the, you know, significant inbound interest, we wanted to evaluate what the, you know, market value would be for something like that. We reached out to a number of other firms as well who, you know, engage in this kind of a transaction. We were pleased to receive a number of proposals, and there were, you know, quite a broad range in terms of economics and. You know, Royalty Pharma stood out for us.

They were, you know, quite, you know, interested, keen to, you know, not only use this as to build relationship. I think we can, you know, they've been known to, you know, specialize in this area of royalty monetization, but also, you know, more strategically they, you know, engage in, you know, other forms of collaboration with companies. This seemed like a good way for us to, you know, build a relationship. Also, you know, they recognize the, you know, the value of this intellectual property and that's reflected in the upfront payment as well as, you know, downstream, you know, milestone payments. Upfront was $100 million and then up to another $400 million in milestones.

As well as another important aspect was we didn't want to necessarily, you know, give up all of the rights to the royalties. Initially, it's 100% of the 3% royalty that we are eligible to receive on KarXT commercialization. Once the sales hits $2 billion, you know, those two-thirds of those royalties revert back to PureTech, and Royalty Pharma will continue to receive a third going forward. That was a good, you know, kind of a structure for us that we don't, you know, when the product, we think, you know, can be pretty, you know, large market opportunity that we would benefit from the upside in the future as well.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Yeah. I'll just add, Tom, to your question about whether this is a kind of blueprint for us for additional royalties. I'd say absolutely, for both our founded entities, but also, we are, you know, often approached about the concept of what's called synthetic royalties or so the idea would be that you are able to, you know, fund the development of certain programs by giving up some royalties. That is something that, you know, we would consider at some point. Right now, we have a very strong cash position, it's not kind of high priority for us, but it's another mechanism of, you know, less dilutive funding for our pipeline. Yeah, it's a great relationship to build and along with Royalty Pharma, we got to know a lot of the other players in this area.

Thank you, Tom.

Thomas Smith (Senior Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst)

Got it. That makes sense. Then, sorry if I could sneak in just one last one, I guess, on Gelesis. Can you just comment at all on the sort of the strategic rationale for potentially bringing this back as a wholly owned entity? Like how do you think about, I guess, sort of the commercial progress and the opportunity for Plenity and how this might fit into the broader PureTech structure? Then just, how much investment do you think might be required if you do come to an agreement on this transaction?

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Bharat, would you like to take that one?

Bharatt Chowrira (President and Chief Business, Finance, and Operating Officer)

Yeah, certainly. Look, I mean, you know, we, you know, were instrumental in founding Gelesis, you know, a number of years ago. They got approval with a very broad label, you know, based on strong clinical data for weight management. It's a, you know, well-established, you know, safe and well-tolerated and very effective, you know, product. For people who want to lose, you know, 5, 10% of their body weight, you know, and it's very effective. You know, they went through a SPAC transaction, which didn't go quite well. As you know, a lot of these SPACs, you know, have fallen out of favor now. At the time, the Gelesis was not able to raise the amount of money it required, you know, to launch the product.

You know, they have generated significant, you know, sales to date about $30 million or so since the launch last year. You know, we believe that this product, you know, needs to be, you know, made available to the patients. Gelesis had, you know, decided that rather than go through a prescription-based model to actually then, you know, apply for an OTC label, and they've applied for that in the US. It's already received a OTC designation in Europe. The idea would be, you know, for us at these low valuations to internalize, you know, Gelesis. We've made a proposal to the Gelesis board.

You know, if we end up reaching terms with the Gelesis board, we anticipate advancing Gelesis as a founded entity within PureTech, and we would bring in commercial partners and other co-investors. We really believe in the value of this product. Particularly in the context of growing interest in the field of obesity and Plenity's differentiation in the areas of, you know, it's fairly affordable, well-tolerated, and we hope to play a significant part in enabling it to reach, you know, potentially millions of patients. Anyway, with that said, our primary focus is our wholly owned pipeline, and therefore we don't anticipate this being a significant, you know, budget item for us. That's sort of how we, you know, are thinking about Gelesis and Plenity.

Thomas Smith (Senior Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst)

Understood. That makes sense. All right, guys, thanks so much for taking the questions and congrats on the progress.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Thanks, Tom.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question goes to Edward Thomason of Liberum. Edward, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Edward Thomason (Healthcare Analyst)

Good afternoon. Good morning. Can you hear me okay?

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Yes. Hi, Ed. We hear you.

Edward Thomason (Healthcare Analyst)

Hi. Hi. I just had a question on LYT-100. I'm just picking up a slight change in the language that I think was new in December. You repeated again today. The registration enabling trials for LYT-100, you're now pointing to two trials is necessary versus one previously. I just want to check. Can you confirm that that is the case and just discuss why the change in language? If you can give the details, what the implications that might be on timelines for approval as well as the study designs aspects related to that second trial.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Thanks so much, Tom. I mean, sorry, Ed. We did not. As far as I know, we've been consistent in saying that we believe that it will require two registration enabling studies. I don't think that was a change in, you know, recently in the language. In terms of its potential and its differentiation, if anything, we become more confident and enthusiastic about its potential, particularly in light of the fact that we ran sort of this killer experiment, and we saw 50% reduction in the tolerability issues compared to pirfenidone. We think it has a potential for huge differentiation on the tolerability.

In addition to that, we were able to dose at a higher exposure level than what is seen in the approved dose of pirfenidone, and therefore we have the potential in this study to also explore a higher dose with potentially higher efficacy. We'll see. We know that pirfenidone has a dose response, but they've never dosed it higher. If anything, I think we've become more enthusiastic, and I don't think we've changed the guidance, but maybe we weren't, you know, I don't know if, with the past guidance, if there was something unclear about the fact that we believe that two registrations enabling studies will be required.

Edward Thomason (Healthcare Analyst)

Okay.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Thank you.

Edward Thomason (Healthcare Analyst)

Just on that second clinical study, what details can you give of when you think that could start, the study design, and again, any implications for the timing of a, if successful, regulatory approval?

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Yeah. We're not able yet to guide to that because it will be partially informed by the data from this current study. But what's very comforting is that we have a blueprint for, you know, approval of pirfenidone and OFEV as well. pirfenidone is Esbriet duone is nintedanib. We know what has been required for the other standard of care drugs in this field. We hope to be able to provide guidance once we get the data from the study and have a chance to talk to FDA about it.

Edward Thomason (Healthcare Analyst)

Okay. Just another question also on LYT-100, but not related to the second registration study. It was just on your comments about potential combinations for IPF. I'm wondering, I was intrigued by the

What do you mean by that? Would that be with the current existing standard of care, so filgotinib and OFEV? Would that be with potential novel assets that are coming through the pipeline?

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Yeah. I'm gonna ask Julie to touch on this in more depth, but I think what's really exciting about LYT-100 is we think it has the potential to replace the standard of care and be the new standard of care because of its tolerability advantages. That doesn't mean it couldn't be used also as standalone therapy, but maybe Julie can talk a little bit about combinations in this field and give some more insight.

Julie Krop (Chief Medical Officer)

Yeah, absolutely. I think what we mean by that is in the future, as more agents are approved, just like has happened in ulcerative colitis or in rheumatoid arthritis, the combination of different mechanisms of action, I think will be really important in this field because none of these agents are curative. Combining different agents together will, you know, hopefully have a synergistic effect in terms of efficacy. I think, you know, what's great about LYT-100 is, you know, as a potential, as Daphne said, sort of backbone therapy because it's being studied as a single therapy as opposed to many of the agents right now that are being studied as add-on therapy. It enables it to be given as first line treatment, but also, other agents could be added on in addition.

Not necessarily for the registration study, but in the future as we get more agents. I mean, having a tolerable therapy, because if you start putting agents together with tolerability issues, it will be really hard for patients to stay on those drugs. The aim is to get a very tolerable backbone therapy, hopefully like LYT-100, and then add on additional agents, onto that therapy, if that makes sense.

Edward Thomason (Healthcare Analyst)

No, that does. Thank you. Very clear. Okay, that's my two questions. Thank you, and well done again on the results.

Julie Krop (Chief Medical Officer)

Thank you so much, Ed.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We have a webcast question from Edward Sham of Peel Hunt, asking questions on behalf of Miles Dixon. Question one, given that the cash is clearly not constraining the group, can you give some color on the pipeline of new opportunities that you might be considering? How has this changed over the last few years, and do you expect it to change moving forward? Question two, can you give some more detail on the remaining economics to PRTC for KarXT outside of the Royalty Pharma deal, and how the $400 million remaining economics after the upfront cash from Royalty Pharma is apportioned, i.e., how much of approval ETC? Thank you.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Great. Thank you. The pipeline question, you know, one of the things that we've been really excited about is the Glyph platform and how productive it is and now shown proof of concept in humans in the capability of enabling oral administration, oral absorption of drugs that otherwise are not orally available. Really excited about the Glyph platform, and I would just say that we have a wealth of opportunities coming out of that platform. In addition to that, our ongoing efforts at innovation, which have been led by Eric Elenko since our founding, you know, he and his team invented many of the key programs in our founded entities and wholly owned pipeline, including the KarXT program, which he's a co-inventor of.

The pipeline opportunities are vast, and I'll see if Eric wants to comment on that in a moment. In terms of the remaining economics, they're split between regulatory and sales milestones. There are some near-term milestones. I don't think we broke that out, so I just don't wanna misspeak, and comment on the specifics of that. Eric, did you want to say more about our pipeline and sourcing opportunities?

Eric Elenko (Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer)

Daphne, as you were saying, we're gonna continue to innovate, and that'll include both innovations that are driven by our internal platforms, particularly Glyph, where we see opportunities to continue the theme of validated pharmacology, where there are drugs which have promise and have opportunities, but have been held back by some aspect. For instance, lack of oral bioavailability or hepatotoxicity. We will continue to look for opportunities that we can bring into PureTech and then typically do some sort of innovative spin on them, whether that's a new indication or, you know, finding a solution that has held back the particular agents. Going forward, we anticipate continuing our efforts on the innovation front.

Operator (participant)

That's great.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question goes to Benjamin Jackson of Jefferies. Ben, please go ahead. Your line is open.

Benjamin Jackson (Equity Research Analyst)

Hi. Thank you for the question. Just on that, a little bit further thinking about the in-licensing of assets, given that the internal capacity is already quite occupied with the current pipeline, and the funding out to sub-3 years, is there anything further we can be thinking about with the business development side of things? How do you feel about the priority of kind of like internally generated assets?

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Yeah, we feel like we have some really terrific opportunities with both internally generated assets and also things that we see externally that are at, you know, a big discount. You know, one of the things that we have done well and that we pride ourselves in doing is finding programs that have some real potential, but where the rest of the world doesn't recognize their potential yet, and then actually doing experiments or otherwise showing what that value is without a lot of investment. Yeah, I think that there are opportunities for us to do that and, you know, as our wholly-owned pipeline grows, we also believe and are seeing some, you know, real increased interest in the wholly-owned pipeline at PureTech.

In the past, we get a lot of questions about our founded entities, but now we're seeing a lot more investor interest in our wholly-owned pipelines coming in from specialists. I think as we near these important catalysts coming up over the next year, we expect that to be an increased focus. In terms of our cash return policy, we have initiated and we're pretty well through a $50 million buyback program. For us, that was really a way to demonstrate that we are focused on our shareholders, and we recognize that all of the value that we've generated has not yet been reflected in our current share price.

We, you know, we think it's important that we find ways to return capital to our shareholders, and that's also a focus for us at PureTech. I think we have time for one more question.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We have a webcast question from Vishal Bhatia of Joh. Hambro. As of March, your net cash is $389 million. That includes a $100 million upfront payment from Royalty Pharma. Secondly, noted the $106 million incremental funding for Vedanta. Please could you provide some color with regards to the potential of this asset and how material this is for unlocking the potential of this business. Finally, how is your net equity ownership of 40% impacted by this raise? Thank you.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Thank you, Vishal. We have for the Vedanta financing, I think there's a few things to note there. First of all, it was a very large financing with some terrific new investors as well as existing investors participating. In the current climate, I think that that speaks to the strength of the data and the vision of Vedanta, and we do believe very much in that vision that we believe is also being validated by, for example, FDA actions like the approval of the Seres Therapeutics oral fecal microbiota treatment earlier this week. We believe that Vedanta is highly differentiated in the field of microbiome therapeutics with its defined products, IP, manufacturing capabilities, and other things. Very excited about that potential.

We have not disclosed the specifics of the financing terms, but I can just say that it's convertible debt, and therefore, when it converts, our ownership will be impacted. We did participate in that round. It is disclosed that we put about $5 million of the $106 million into that round. As is typical for us, you know, a little bit less than 5% of the round. I think we might have had a question from Benjamin Billiard, a program, but it was, I think, already answered by Bharatt. Were there other questions? I think we're almost out of time.

Operator (participant)

We have one more question if you're happy to take it.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Sure.

Operator (participant)

We have another question from Vishal. Any comments with regards to the potential roadmap for Gelesis, given the public market harsh reaction post-flow of this business? Any color on the impact of morale internally and ability to retain talent will also be much appreciated. Thank you.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Sure. I think Bharat already commented on this, but, you know, the public... I think if you look at what a SPAC is and what these SPACs really did was there's a private financing and then there's, you know, a SPAC transaction. What happened right around the time that Gelesis did the de-SPAC transaction was that the redemptions and SPACs went from, you know, I don't know what I think it was like less than 50% to close to 100%. Therefore, when you have a SPAC transaction which has a 90-plus% redemption rate, you're essentially in many ways functioning like a private company. There's not analyst coverage. You didn't really raise a lot of money. That's a very tough situation to be in, especially, you know, with the current market environment.

I think that's just a little bit of context on the SPAC markets in general. On the morale internally, I think for PureTech, the morale is excellent. Obviously for, you know, a company when they're having more difficulty fundraising that the morale can be impacted. You know, we have a very strong network here at PureTech and a very strong team and morale and, you know, hope to be able to support, you know, the process around Gelesis, if that moves forward. I think that was that. Benjamin, you had a similar question, but are there any other questions that we should be addressing?

Operator (participant)

That's all the questions we have today.

Daphne Zohar (Founder and CEO)

Okay. Excellent. Well, I'd like to thank everybody for joining us today and, of course, encourage our shareholders to contact us directly with any questions. Thank you so much for your time and attention today. Thank you so much.