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Q4 2024 OmniAb Inc Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Kurt Gustafson; Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President - Finance; OmniAb Inc

Matthew Foehr; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; OmniAb Inc

Joe Pantene; Analyst; HC Wainwright.

Unidentified Participant

Creepa Devarakonda; Analyst; Thruway Securities

Stephen Willey; Analyst; Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated

Presentation

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to Omni AB Inc. fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results and business update conference call. (Operator Instructions)
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the call over to Kurt Gustafson, Omni A Incs the Chief Financial Officer, he may begin.
Thank you.

Kurt Gustafson

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. This is Kurt Gustafson. I'm the A's Chief Financial Officer and thank you for joining our 4th quarter and full year 2024 financial results conference call.
There are slides to accompany today's prepared remarks, and they're available in the investors section of our website at www.omni app.com.
Before we begin, I'd like to remind listeners that comments made during this call by management will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from any anticipated results. These forward-looking statements are qualified by the cautionary statements contained in today's press release and our SEC filings. Importantly, this conference call contains time sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of this live broadcast today, March 18, 2025. Except as required by law, Omniev undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this call.
Joining me on the call today is OmniA's President and CEO.
During today's call, Matt and I will provide highlights on the company's operations, partner and technology updates, and our recent financial results. At the conclusion of the prepared remarks, we'll open the call to questions.
And with that, let me turn the call over to Matt.

Matthew Foehr

Thanks, Kurt. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Starting now with slide number 4, I'm pleased to report strong performance and momentum in 2024 as we achieve double-digit percentage growth in both the number of active partners and the number of active programs that leverage our technology.
Our partners' clinical stage programs are advancing, and we're encouraged by the progress that they're making.
We introduced new technologies and enhancements that are positively impacting our partnerships and driving efficiencies in our increasingly scalable business.
These innovations are not only differentiating our business, but are also attracting new partners and creating opportunities for significant future growth potential.
Potential key royalty assets are beginning to come into focus along with other building blocks of value that we expect will drive our growth in the coming years.
As we look ahead here in 2025, we're excited about the opportunities we're seeing and we're confident in our plans.
This schematic here on slide number 5 provides a bit of an outline along with some details on how we view our business and how one can look at the interconnected elements of value here in Omni.
Starting with the upper left corner, our novel platform technologies continue to differentiate us and create new partnerships and also drive our existing partners to start new programs.
We have deep relationships with a growing number of partner companies, and those relationships create a unique vantage point in the industry that informs our thinking about new technology innovations and launches, as well as any strategic technology acquisitions. We now have a long track record in this area.
Value creation really starts with the additions to our pipeline as mentioned in the center of the slide.
And here we've driven double digit percentage growth over multiple years and have done so through a variety of industry macro environments, which I think is a statement about the resilience of our model and the broad applicability of our technologies.
As programs progress into clinical development, as depicted on the top of the circle on the right side of this slide, they generally start to become more publicly visible.
And those programs will generally drive realization of contracted milestone payments.
And, ultimately, we expect some of these programs will advance to become royalty-bearing assets, which is a core element of value.
A royalty is defined simply as a percentage of top-line revenue, and royalties can create steady streams of durable cash flows that increase with higher product sales.
There are a number of factors that drive value for a particular royalty asset, including the partner and their level of investment, elements of the program as it becomes a product, and its commercial potential or or total addressable market, which can be impacted by things like the number of indications or the number of geographies that are being pursued.
Any of these elements or a combo of them can drive significant value at various points in a program or product's life cycle.
As more programs progress, our platform continues to have more visibility across the industry and continues to be even more validated, and we believe that also drives more additions to the pipeline.
We're highly committed to our model and are focused on building value for all of our stakeholders in this highly leverageable business framework.
I'll touch on a few of our key business metrics starting here on slide number 6 with Active Partners. We're pleased to report an 18% year over year growth in the number of active partners, showing our ongoing efforts to expand and diversify our partnership base.
As of December 31, 2024, we had 91 active partners. In the fourth quarter, we added new platform licenses with Insight Corporation and Fhotinia Biosciences, and new commercial partners included NBT Pharma and Pharma.
As shown in the call out box pie charts, our partner Diversity spans academia, commercial, and discovery partners, and you also see a breakdown, geographic breakdown of our partners here as well.
Our growing partner account reflects the industry's strong interest in our technologies and is also a recognition of our dedication to innovation and collaboration.
Over recent years we've shown steady growth and active partners through various cycles in the biotech and pharma sectors.
Turning now to slide number 7.
We also saw robust year over year growth in the number of active programs and a 12% increase. As of December 31st, the number of active programs increased to 362 net of attrition.
We had a particularly productive 4th quarter in terms of additions.
Last year, as we have seen and as was reported more broadly in the industry, some pharma companies strategically realigned and reprioritized their therapeutic programs and pipelines.
While these realignments are frequently driven by goals to concentrate on more impactful areas of research, as well as to adapt to evolving market demands and regulatory landscapes, they often reflect attrition as an inherent aspect of the drug development process.
As shown in the call-out bar graph, we have 31 terminations and 69 active program additions in 2024.
I think it's really important to note here that more than 98% of our active programs have contracted future economics to us, which positions as well to create future value for our shareholders.
Now on slide 8, as of December 30, the number of active clinical programs and approved products by partners was 32.
Our partners have now initiated or completed over 200 separate human clinical trials with AMIA-derived programs, which is an indication of their significant investment and conviction around the programs.
These trials span a range of therapeutic areas including oncology, immunology, and other indications.
This extensive downstream clinical activity highlights the trust and the confidence our partners have in the novel therapeutics that are coming out of our platform.
In 2024, we had 5 on the derived programs entered the clinic.
In Q4, a new J&J program targeting GPRC 5D and In Lake Pharma's anti-CD40 agonist program both entered phase one clinical trials.
Based on dialogue with our partners, we see the potential for approximately 5 to 7 new entries into clinical development for novel omniab derived programs in 2025.
As I mentioned in 2024, 5 novel on the A derived programs entered the clinic, and here on slide number 9, you see those new clinical additions on the top part of the slide, which includes programs with Teva, Merck KGA, Genap J&J, and In a lake.
In 2024, we also saw 5 programs exit clinical development, shown on the bottom part of this slide, resulting in a flat net year over year growth in active clinical programs.
Clinical attrition programs included two from GenBab which were removed from clinical development in Q3 and Q4, but we, but remain active in earlier stages according to company disclosures.
While the Rocheamin programs reported in Q1 and Q4 of last year are no longer active, they have minimal to no impact on the value of our partner portfolio due to due to the lack of any remaining economics to us.
And overall, while the attrition of certain programs reflects the dynamic nature of the drug development process, the addition of new clinical entrants highlights ongoing innovation and the potential of our technologies for discovering new therapeutic options. So together they sort of highlight both the challenges and the opportunities in therapeutic discovery and development.
Slide 10 highlights the annual growth in our portfolio of post-discovery stage assets.
And I will mention here that we are excited about the diversity and potential therapeutic impacts of the assets in our preclinical stage bucket shown here in the orange slice of the pie chart and hope to be able to shed more light on its specific contents and programs that are in that orange slice in the coming quarters.
Here on slide 11, you'll find what we are now calling our prior format for showing clinical stage and later partnered pipeline programs.
Over time, the pipeline has been getting a bit large for this traditional format and recognizing the opportunity for improvement, we're now introducing a new format for presenting our partnered clinical pipeline.
The new format is here on slide 12 and provides an overview of clinical and commercial programs organized from phase 1 through to late stages and approvals displayed from left to right.
Program placement is based on a program's most advanced clinical status, and this layout only includes programs where OMNIA has future or remaining economic interests.
By excluding clinical and commercial stage partner programs that do not have future remaining economic benefits to us, such as teliumab or terigoliab, we aim to focus attention on financially impactful programs.
We think this layout will help stakeholders more quickly synthesize the value of our clinical and commercial stage pipeline. Also, it gives us the ability to easily highlight new and additional indications and geographies that are being pursued by our partners.
We believe that by clearly presenting these elements we'll better illustrate the unique value proposition of each individual program.
Now I'll touch on just a few recent partner highlights. Our press release that was issued this afternoon covers some additional updates from Q4 in recent months, but I wanted to spotlight a few specific programs that we see as standouts.
Slide 13 reviews GennMed's slamab, which is a bi-specific antibody that targets PDL-1 and 41 bB.
Genab recently, and I believe for the first time, highlighted a potential billion dollar market opportunity for Acasumumab in non-small cell lung cancer, emphasizing the addressable patient populations in the US, Japan, and the EU.
They're pushing forward with the last stages of clinical development of Acasumummab and announced that a phase 3 trial as a second line therapy second line therapy in non-small cell lung cancer is now enrolling patients.
GenMab also expects to provide an additional phase 2 data update for Aisunamab this year, and we'd potentially expect that at ASCO.
On slide 14, you can see that has highlighted continued progress in their now more prominent innovative medicines pipeline, and I've been showcasing advancements with Omnira derived TEV 408 and Omni Chicken derived TEV-278. 408 is a potent anti-IL-15 neutralizing antibody that's currently being developed for the treatment of celiac disease and vitiligo.
And 278, which is an anti-PD1 IL2 fusion protein, is being developed in oncology.
Moving on now to slide number 15, where we have immune advanced programs, IMBT 1,402 and Batical map.
Vaticab is a promising anti-FCRN monoclonal antibody for treating autoimmune diseases, and IMDT 1,402 is the next generation anti-FCRN antibody that's designed for deep IgG reduction with minimal side effects.
We think these assets are poised for significance, driven by large total addressable markets with multiple indications.
I mean event describes IMPC 1,402 as a potentially best in class, highlighting its but promising therapeutic potential.
They outlined several near-term milestones and catalysts for both IMBT 1,402 and Bamab.
They're currently enrolling patients in pivotal phase 2B studies for Graves' disease and difficult to treat rheumatoid arthritis for IMDT 1,402.
They plan to initiate registrational programs for 3 additional indications by March 31st of this year, and aim to evaluate IMVT 1,402 in a total of 10 indications by March 31st of next year.
For Balaab, as you can see here, Avan expects multiple data readouts, and some that are in the very near future.
Evaluate Pharma published an industry report at the beginning of this year that included a summary of their analysis of the 10 most valuable R&D programs on a NPV basis across the entire pharmaceutical industry.
And we were happy to see Batacamab and IMVT 1,402 both highlighted on that TOP10 list.
Now on slide number 16, as we look ahead now in 2025, we anticipate several catalysts that will drive our continued growth and position the business for success.
Pipeline expansion and advancement remain key elements, with significant progress expected in clinical and future royalty programs. We're excited about the potential for new deals that are in progress and the launch of novel technologies that we think should have a substantial impact on the industry, with more on those launches to be revealed during the year.
We focused on and look to further leverage our relationships in what we call the AIA ecosystem of partners that we've created over the years.
This allows us to think about and analyze the economic returns for technology expansion and technology launch options that are available to us, and I think the tech launch options that we've invested in and are planning on this year can create significant op opportunity and potential returns, and we're excited about that.
Our partner base has continued to grow and diversify, providing a solid foundation for sustained expansion.
And with a clear business model that's now positioned to be leveraged more efficiently, we think we're well equipped to create value for our stakeholders and achieve our strategic objectives.
And with that, let me now turn the call back over to Kurt for a discussion of our 4th quarter financial results and our 2025 outlook. Kurt.