Absci Corp Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Steven Mah - TD Cowen - Analyst : Great. Thanks for taking the questions. I had a question on ABS-101, the non-human primate data. When you're saying that the two to three times additional half-life and the bioavailability, is that based on head-to-head data that you use from competitor molecules, or is it based on publications on the clinical competitors?

Question: Steven Mah - TD Cowen - Analyst : Yeah, I guess you got the sequences of the antibodies from their patents and then you expressed them yourself to do the head-to-head studies.

Question: Steven Mah - TD Cowen - Analyst : Okay. Got it. All right. And then a quick one on the Memorial Sloan Kettering partnership. Can you give us a little bit more detail on the level of the code development that your scientists and the MSK scientists are going to be working on? Also, if there's any IP sharing details you can share, and then if MSK is going to be providing any patient real world data or the data genomics, genome profiling, or proteomics? Thank you.

Question: Steven Mah - TD Cowen - Analyst : Yeah, that does. Thanks.

Question: Kripa Devarakonda - Truist Securities - Analyst : Hi, guys, thank you so much for taking my question. So I have a question about the ABS-101 non-human primate data. Obviously, it's the totality of the data and the totality of the profile of the drug that is important and you lead out -- how the drug compares with the other drugs on different REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 14, 2024 / 8:30PM, ABSI.OQ - Q2 2024 Absci Corp Earnings Call metrics. But I was wondering if you were to pick characteristic of the drug that you think will be tough to replicate for a competitor and help maintain the differentiation, which ones would you point to? Thank you.

Question: Kripa Devarakonda - Truist Securities - Analyst : Got it. And then you mentioned the 200 milligrams per ml concentration. That's a pretty high concentration. I was just wondering if, while you were designing the molecule itself, was there anything that was engineered to be able to give you this high level of solubility of the protein?

Question: George Farmer - Scotiabank - Analyst : Also, some more questions on the 101 NHP data. Can you talk about toxicity and how high you dosed in these animals? I'm assuming this is part of your GLP tox studies, is that right? And also, you know, you mentioned a number of partnerships that you're counting on closing this year. Can you give us a ballpark estimate of how much cash you think that will bring into the company? Thanks.

Question: George Farmer - Scotiabank - Analyst : Okay, great. (multiple speakers) Sorry, Sean, go ahead. Yeah.

Question: George Farmer - Scotiabank - Analyst : Okay. Yeah. Great. And then regarding the MSK partnership that you have, does MSK have publication rights, can we expect that they'll be kind of actively publishing papers on the fruits of this collaboration or is that going to be restricted in some way?

Question: George Farmer - Scotiabank - Analyst : Okay. But the plan is to be able to publish the work in the future. Great. All right, thanks very much. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 14, 2024 / 8:30PM, ABSI.OQ - Q2 2024 Absci Corp Earnings Call

Question: Scott Schoenhaus - KeyBanc Capital Markets - Analyst : I wanted to quickly ask on 101, you mentioned in your release that it was observed to have an increased bio-distribution in non-human primates. And then you say this could lead to you know, faster penetration, basically. When will you have a readout on that? Or when will you be announcing more on that specific attribute?

Question: Scott Schoenhaus - KeyBanc Capital Markets - Analyst : Yeah. Thanks. And then a follow-up on the partnerships, just generally speaking, team, I guess Sean and Zach, would you say from last quarter, the demand environment or the end markets are accelerating, are same or worsening, both large pharma and mid-size and then small biotechs? Just trying to get a sense of the landscape here. Thanks.

Question: Li Chen - H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC - Analyst : This is Li Chen for RK. I have a question regarding the breadth of the potential of your epitope capabilities. So should we think about it as a disease-agnostic capabilities, or do you think there are certain disease indications that your platform is particularly good at identifying? And related question is that in the future, how we should actually think about partnership focus? Is it more oncology and cytokines where you have discussion regarding additional therapeutic areas? Thank you.

Question: Li Chen - H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC - Analyst : Yeah. It's more about, in terms of future partnerships fully, should we think about oncology and cytokine focus or it can also include other potential disease areas?

Question: Steven Mah - TD Cowen - Analyst : Hi. Thanks for taking the follow-up question. And this question is just more in response to a prior answer you gave where you said that MSK got excited because you can do drug level targets with your gen AI platform. My understanding is that MSK doesn't have any other AI drug development partnerships with industry, and I'm not 100% sure if they have any other non-AI drug development partnerships, but it seems pretty rare for them. So just curious, if you can disclose did MSK come to you with some targets in mind, or was it the genesis of the deal with them, was it through your BD team? Thanks.