5/14/2026

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the first quarter 2026, a Quest of Therapeutics earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, we'll open up for questions. To ask a question during a session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded. I would like to hand it over to our first speaker, Faith Pomeroy Ward. Please go ahead.

speaker
Faith Pomeroy Ward
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Operator. Good morning and welcome to today's call. On today's call, I'm joined by Dan Barber, Chief Executive Officer, and Ernie Toth, Chief Financial Officer, who are going to provide an overview of the company's reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2026, and a progress update on the company's key 2026 objectives, followed by a Q&A session. During the Q&A session, the team will be joined by Dr. Matt Greenhut, Chief Medical Officer, Melina Chaffee, Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Sherry Korchinski, Chief Commercial Officer, and Dr. Matthew Davis, Chief Development Officer. As a reminder, the company's remarks today correspond with the earnings release that was issued after market close yesterday. In addition, a recording of today's call and related supplemental materials will be made available on Equestive's website within the investors section shortly following the conclusion of this call. To remind you, the Equestive team will be discussing some non-GAAP financial measures this morning as part of its review of first quarter 2026 results. A description of these measures, along with a reconciliation to GAAP, can be found in the earnings release issued yesterday, which is posted on the investor's section of Equestiv's website. During the call, the company will be making forward-looking statements. We remind you of the company's safe harbor language as outlined in today's earnings release, as well as the risks and uncertainties affecting the company as described in the risk factor section and in other sections included in the company's annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 4th, 2026. As with any pharmaceutical company with product candidates under development and products being commercialized, there are significant risks and uncertainties with respect to the company's business and the development regulatory approval, and commercialization of its products and other matters related to operations. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Actual results may differ materially from these statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to a questive or any person acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and the cautionary statements contained in the earnings release issued yesterday. The company assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements after the date of this conference call, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Dan.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. In the last 62 days since our earnings call, we have progressed the company significantly. For anisome-dibute epinephrine sublingual film, we have completed our type A face-to-face meeting with the FDA, completed a teleconference with the UK regulatory body known as MHRA, submitted our pediatric investigational plan to the European Medicines Agency, and submitted our human factors protocol for review by the FDA. In addition, we have closed on a new debt facility with a leading life sciences debt provider and completed our phase one safety study in humans for our pipeline program, AQST 108. We are also on track to attend over 40 conferences and submit over 20 publications this year. It is a testament to the Equestive team that they were able to complete so much important work in such a brief period of time. The question of course is where does this work take us and how do we expect the coming months to unfold? Today I am providing guidance that we currently expect to have our human factors data and potentially our pharmacokinetic data for anafilm available in time for our August earnings call. Now the completion of this data is dependent on the FDA providing responses to our human factors protocol on time and the responses being within expectations, including with respect to the scope and content of that feedback. With these assumptions in mind, we continue to guide to a third quarter resubmission to the FDA, recognizing this timing remains subject to FDA feedback and ongoing review processes. As we've stated in the past, we currently expect our resubmission of the NDA for anafilm to be classified as a type two submission with a six month review although final classification is determined by the FDA. We will request an expedited review upon our submission, and we'll do everything we can to communicate with the FDA and support their review process, recognizing that any decision on review timing rests solely with the FDA. We believe the comments by FDA's leadership on the need for the agency to provide more timely feedback and review points to a broader agency focus, and in this case, may create the possibility of aligning with the FDA on a faster process. This, of course, cannot be guaranteed. Our commercial preparations continue to progress. Importantly, we were pleased to enter into a $150 million debt facility with Oaktree, a leading life sciences debt provider. While Ernie will talk about this in more detail, at a global level, this agreement unlocks several important things for Equestiff. One, we have improved the interest rate terms on our existing debt and principal payments will not begin for several years. Two, this completes the pre-approval requirements for the RTW funding. And three, we have the ability to access $20 million in additional capital if anafilm is approved by the FDA. Taken together with our existing cash and the RTW deal, we currently project that we will have greater than $150 million in cash at launch, and this is before considering ex-U.S. anafilm and U.S. Libervin outlicensing deals. We plan on using this cash to focus on building intense awareness and access within the allergy community for anafilm. We have already shared our plans for launch of anafilm with you, if approved by the FDA, including a strong medical affairs presence, a 75-person sales force, and a focused marketing effort. We have also been watching and learning from the launch of a nasal spray product in the market. Our research within the allergy community indicate that building clarity, trust, and support for allergists is key to unlocking prescriptions. This may seem obvious, but just think of the daily pressures allergists face in running their practices. Fitting into their world in a meaningful and credible way in furtherance of patient access to anafilm is task number one, two, and three for us. While the U.S. market is incredibly important to us, we can't forget that 96% of the world's population does not live in the U.S. I truly believe Anifilm is a product that will save lives, and we want as many people as possible on this planet to ultimately have access to it. Our LeadXUS strategy continues to be Canada and Europe, and we've made significant progress. As I mentioned before, we recently completed a comprehensive and positive interaction with MHRA, the UK's regulatory body. I'm pleased to say we received confirmation that we do not need to conduct additional studies before submitting our application to MHRA in the UK. We also recently submitted our pediatric investigational plan to the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, for the European Union. Aligning with EMA on this plan is essential to submitting our application. We now know that we can submit applications in the EU, UK, and Canada without conducting further clinical studies. Between the US, Canada, the UK, and the European Union, our product if approved in each of these regions, could eventually be available to almost one billion people in the next several years. Now let's talk about our product pipeline. Given the excitement around anafilm, people often forget that we are utilizing our epinephrine prodrug platform, Adreniverse, to advance treatment in other indications. Our lead asset is AQST-108, and we recently completed a phase one safety study in men with androgenic areata. I am pleased to say that there were no drug-related adverse events observed in the study, and we also saw no appreciable signs of systemic absorption of our epinephrine prodrug or of epinephrine itself. We did, however, see something intriguing. Now, keep in mind, this is very early phase one study data. Our chief development officer, Dr. Matthew Davis, added biomarker assays to the study to see if we could detect changes in key proteins associated with both alopecia areata and androgenic areata, along with other dermatological conditions such as atopic dermatitis. While this information is not statistically powered and should be viewed as directional only, we were pleased to see in subjects with alopecia that the cytokine TSLP appeared to be impacted by AQST108. This was not the case when subjects were given placebo. This is very exciting as the signaling pathway for TSLP involves the activation of JAK1 and of JAK2. We have included preliminary data on this work in our supplemental material available under the Presentations section of the Investor page on our website. We will talk more about the next studies for AQST 108 in the coming months once we have resubmitted our anti-film application in the U.S. Our business development efforts and base business continue to move forward. Our business development team is currently in active negotiations on multiple programs for Europe, the U.S., and South America. We have also had outreach from additional regions of the world, including China and Australia. We are prioritizing this work based on the territory and program involved. We expect to have more to say on this topic in the months to come. In summary, we expect to provide a significant data update in August, assuming the FDA keeps to its review timeline and provides constructive comments to our human factor study protocol. We continue to drive awareness in the epilepsy community ahead of a potential product launch of Anifilm if approved by the FDA. Our international filing efforts continue to be a priority, and our AQSC 108 program continues to show promise for expansion into potential multiple indications. With that, I will turn the call over to Ernie.

speaker
Ernie Toth
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everyone. By now, you have seen our first quarter of 2026 financial results in the earnings release issued last evening and detailed in our Form 10-Q filing. As we typically do, we will address most of the detailed discussion regarding the quarter during Q&A, and I will focus my remarks on financial performance, operating spend, and liquidity. During the first quarter, our primary financial focus remained supporting progress on ANIFILM following receipt of the FDA Complete Response Letter on January 30th, 2026, while maintaining a strong balance sheet and financial flexibility. Subsequent to quarter end, we completed a Type A meeting with the FDA and aligned on the remaining requirements for approval, including a human factors validation study and a PK study, both of which are currently underway. During the quarter, we extended our strategic funding agreement with RCW Investments through June 30th, 2027, further strengthening our liquidity runway and financial flexibility as we work towards NFLM resubmission. Additionally, we announced the refinancing of our existing debt with a new $150 million debt facility with certain funds and accounts managed by Oak Tree Capital Management. This transaction reduces our interest rate, extends the interest-only period saving $45 million in principal payments over the next three years on the existing debt that were scheduled to commence on June 30th, and provides additional flexibility to fund the launch of Anifilm if approved by the FDA. The new debt facility is available in four tranches, with tranche A of $55 million refinancing the existing debt, tranche B of $20 million available upon FDA approval of anafilm, tranche C of $25 million available upon achieving certain sales levels, and tranche D of $50 million available upon mutual consent of Oaktree and the company. Now, let me walk you through our first quarter results. Total revenues increased to $14.4 million in the first quarter of 2026 from $8.7 million in the first quarter of 2025. The 66% increase was primarily driven by increases in license and realty revenue and increases in manufacturer and supplier revenue. License and realty revenue increased to $5.4 million in the first quarter of 2026 from $.8 million in the first quarter of 2025, primarily due to the recognition of royalty revenue from Zephyr. Manufacture and supply revenue increased to $8.8 million in the first quarter of 2026 from $7.2 million in the first quarter of 2025, primarily due to increases in Suboxone revenues partially offset by lower UNDIF revenues. Research and development expenses decreased to $4.2 million in the first quarter of 2026 from $5.4 million in the first quarter of 2025. The decrease in research and development expenses was primarily due to lower clinical trial costs associated with the antifilm development program, partially offset by increases in R&D personnel costs. Selling, general, and administrative expenses decreased to $11 million in the first quarter of 2026 from $19.1 million in the first quarter of 2025. The decrease primarily represents the one-time NFL PDUFA fee of $4.3 million in the prior year period, lower legal fees of approximately $3.4 million, lower commercial spending of approximately $2 million, and lower regulatory and licensing fees of approximately $0.5 million, partially offset by higher severance costs of approximately $0.6 million, higher personnel costs of approximately $0.5 million, and higher share-based compensation expenses of approximately $0.5 million. Acquesta's net loss for the first quarter of 2026 was $8.1 million, or $0.07 for both basic and diluted loss per share, compared to the net loss in the first quarter of 2025 of $22.9 million, or $0.24 for both basic and diluted loss per share. The decrease in net loss was primarily driven by increases in revenues, decreases in selling general administrative expenses and research and development expenses, partially offset by decreases in interest income and other income net. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA loss was $1.7 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA loss of $17.6 million in the first quarter of 2025. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the first quarter of 2026 with approximately $110 million in cash and cash equivalents. This cash position provides us with sufficient capital to complete the remaining FDA-required studies for anafilm, continue advancing AQST 108 and our Adreniverse platform, and support ongoing operations and regulatory planning, including potential ex-U.S. regulatory filings, and preparing for the U.S. commercial launch of antifilm if approved by the FDA. At this time, we are not updating full-year financial guidance, as our near-term focus remains on execution of the remaining antifilm study requirements and achieving regulatory milestones. We expect to provide additional financial and operational updates as those milestones are reached. For 2026, the company expects total revenue of $46 million to $50 million and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA loss of $35 million to $30 million as of May 13, 2026. In summary, the first quarter of 2026 reflects disciplined financial execution, a strong cash position, and continued focus on advancing anafilm towards resubmission while carefully managing expenses across the organization. With that, I will now turn the line back to the operator to open the line for questions.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from Rhonda Reese from Lyric Partners. Your line is open.

speaker
Rhonda Reese
Analyst, Lyric Partners

Great. Good morning, everyone. So a couple from me. First on Anathelm, can you give us a little bit more detail on how things are going preparing for the U.S. filing and ongoing study interactions or or activities, it sounds like you reiterated your timeline, you know, what gives you added conviction to be able to hit that milestone?

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Good morning, Rowana. Nice to hear your voice.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

So, I think that the way to think about this moment in time for Plastiv, especially with AnitZone, is we're ready to go. We have a great team here who has the study designs completely ready. We have the sites standing by ready to start the studies. We've given guidance on timing of when we expect to have top-line data in our August earnings. The only trigger that we are waiting for is, as we told you in our last release, the FDA reviewing our human factors protocol, which we have commitment from the FDA on the turnaround of that, which we expect to be in the next few weeks. that, we will start our studies and be on our way. So that's where the conviction on our timing comes from. And I think when you look across the broader business, you can see that we're ready to go, whether it be medical awareness or a balance sheet as well.

speaker
Rhonda Reese
Analyst, Lyric Partners

Sounds good. And I wanted to ask a question about AQST-108 as well. The biomarker data sounds interesting. Can you help frame that? How does that compare to other programs you've seen going after similar indications, even if they're different mechanism agents? Like, how should we think about this early signal?

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. And I'll let Matthew Davis take that one.

speaker
Dr. Matthew Davis
Chief Development Officer

Hi, Mona. Think about TSLP. What's intriguing about this signal is the fact that, one, it crosses across Th1, Th2-driven inflammation, JAK-STAT1, JAK-STAT2. So when you think of dermatology, you would think of mechanisms that would be beneficial for alopecia areata, androgenic alopecia, atopic derm. And there's a lot of optionality that this gives us. The fact that we also saw the correct orientation with CCL3 and CCL4 would be conformational. Remember, this is directional-only data. that we're looking at the right things right now. So this gives 108 topical a lot of optionality in the dermatologic space. So, Rowana, just to add on to what Matthew said, what we like about this moment for this program is, one, we obviously are not going to lose focus on anafilm.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Our attention remains there. But we've been... Adreniverse platform is a meaningful way to build a company.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

And as Matthew just walked you through these early results show, we think we're starting to find that proof. Sounds great. Thanks. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

And our next question will come from the line of Kristen Kluska from Cantor. Your line is open.

speaker
Kristen Kluska
Analyst, Cantor

Hi, good morning, everybody, and congrats on all of the progress. So I wanted to ask how your market research and conversations have been going about coverage and reimbursement. I think there's been a lot of great work to support. The enthusiasm is there, but assuming you get an approval, what gives you confidence that you will get the coverage that the patients that want NFM will be able to get their hands on it?

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Good morning, Kristen. Well, look, I think I hopefully have been consistent on this point all along. Coverage and reimbursement is a struggle for every company in life sciences. So there is no doubt when we launch that Sherry and her team have a lot of work to do. Her and her team are doing a lot of the great foundational work to make that happen, but I do want to set the expectation right for everyone listening today. It will take time, and it will be something that we have to build as we go through our launch. And with that, I'll let Sherry provide her view.

speaker
Sherry Korchinski
Chief Commercial Officer

Yeah, thanks, Dan. Hi, Kristen. Good morning. You know, as we've been talking about Ensuring as many patients have access to antifilm is our number one priority. And rapid payer coverage and reducing the friction at our HCP's office is key. As Dan mentioned, we have watched and learned from the recent nasal launch. We see what has worked, what hasn't worked. We're adjusting our strategy accordingly. And we continue to have very robust discussions with the PBMs and the payers. From the research and from our one-on-one meetings, there is significant interest in our product. But as Dan has mentioned, it's going to take some time. But what I can assure you with, Kristen, is we are setting up a best-in-class hub and patient support services. We are investing heavily into ensuring that there is as little friction, even with those prior auth, that there's this little friction and pain for our physicians' offices. That's the one thing we've learned, and so we've taken our learnings and we're applying them to how and what we will do. And so at the end of the day, we are very, very invested in ensuring that both patients and HCPs are aware of anafilm and then are prepared to prescribe anafilm and ultimately that our patient gets their anafilm prescriptions.

speaker
Kristen Kluska
Analyst, Cantor

Okay, thank you. And then just on that awareness angle, what do you think is going to be the biggest push that you're going to have to do in terms of getting the word out there? And how would you say potentially having this extra time since the CRL and your original planning has benefited that?

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, look, when it comes to awareness, I'm incredibly... pleased with where we are as a company. We're definitely, in my view, I'll use the phrase, punching above our weight. And I'm going to pass it over to Matt Greenhut in a second. But a lot of that is because of his efforts and the team around him and with him and their efforts out in the field, as I mentioned in his prepared comments. This year, we'll be at 40 conferences and have 20 publications. And that is an experience Offensive awareness campaign, but then maybe you could provide some of your thoughts on what you see.

speaker
Dr. Matt Greenhut
Chief Medical Officer

Yeah, good morning Hope everybody's doing well. Yeah, I mean we've been busy we've gone to what 13 conferences to date We're going to hit over 40 ideally You know just writing papers. There's a lot of data. There's a great story to tell here and You know doing my best to get this out and hopefully you know this will go through publication you know some point this summer to early fall. You know, we go and we meet with people at these meetings. There's a lot of enthusiasm. There's a lot of excitement. And it's great to have the opportunity to just sit and talk about what our story is, what we believe this product can do, and just be there to reassure and answer questions about really anything that they want to know. So it's a nice opportunity to really get out and meet everybody. And again, these are mostly my former colleagues, so it's a you know, it's nice to be able to interact with them and share, you know, my enthusiasm about this product and, again, where we believe that this is going to go.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

And I think we see that coming through in the survey work we do when we ask, are you aware of our products?

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

And you see those numbers steadily going up over time.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, everyone.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

And our next question comes from David Amselim from Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

speaker
David Amselim
Analyst, Piper Sandler

Hi, everyone. This is now going for David. Thanks for taking our questions. Just a couple quick ones from us. So first with Nessie, now that that's been on the market for around 18 months, can you elaborate on the learnings from that launch? that are influencing any changes to your commercialization strategy. That's number one. And number two, would the Oak Tree financing in place and the pre-approval conditions for the additional RTW financing met? Is that sufficient runway through the launch of Anifilm? So if you could provide some clarification there, that would be great. Thank you.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Yeah. Well, let me go in reverse order and let's start with Oak Tree. and I'm going to pass it over to Ernie for a minute here. From our perspective, I'll open with that piece by saying, look, we're incredibly excited about the relationship with Oaktree, and now with both RTW and Oaktree as key backers of the organization, we think we're well-positioned.

speaker
Ernie Toth
Chief Financial Officer

But Ernie can give you his thoughts on some way through the launch. Certainly. You mentioned with the refinancing of the existing debt with Oaktree, That satisfied the second condition under – or first condition under RTW was that we refinance our existing debt so we have access to that capital, second being that we get approval on NFL. As we've said publicly both in our oral and written statements, that this provides us runway through the launch next year if approved. confident that we'll have the funds in place, ready to launch on approval of NFL.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

And let me go back to your first question, which was on the learnings from NEFI. I'll give you my thought, and then I'll ask Sherry to also give hers. For me, I think the key learning is no matter how innovative your product, and we clearly believe our product is innovative and potentially transformative in this space, can't take anything for granted. All of the hard work, the basic blocking and tackling work of launching a drug, being out in front of the doctors, telling your story, getting coverage, all of that you have to do no matter how innovative your product is. So we are definitely focused on making sure we're ready to do all of that hard work. But Sherry, I'll let you add your

speaker
Sherry Korchinski
Chief Commercial Officer

Sure. Thanks so much. And thanks so much for the question. You know, look, as you know, having a non-device oral easiest to carry epinephrine, it is a game changer in the marketplace. But again, as Dan mentioned, no matter, you know, you build a better mousetrap, that doesn't necessarily mean it will come. And we've seen this in this marketplace. As you know, I ran the EpiPen brand. And we saw the same thing happen with AviQ. So just because you build a better mousetrap doesn't mean that everyone will come. So what have we learned? I think one is how do we reduce that friction? And so as I just mentioned to Kristen, we are really working hard in our very robust discussions with the PBMs and payers, but also working on setting up the best in class hub and support services to support the offices. I think we heard from ARS back in their March earnings call is that they were kind of doubling down in the allergist space, increasing reach and frequency in the allergist. We know that this market is driven by the allergist and the high prescribing pediatricians. Our plan, as you know, we've moved to 75 reps as well as then obviously the managers and the support around that. is critical to drive the product forward. And so, look, I think at the end of the day, reducing friction in the physician's office is critical, ensuring that physicians and patients have awareness, and really driving believability in the product. So Matt's team is out there doing a fantastic job. I mean, our market research shows the awareness with the HCPs has gone from a 33% to 66%. So the increased effort in publications and all the medical work that is being done will only continue to do that. But that only gets us so far, right? With the awareness, we have to have doctors believe in it. So all of the scientific work Matt and his team are doing, the publications we will continue to put out are critically important. And then physicians have to get experience with the product in their office. And so, you know, we will look to launch a program upon approval so physicians can get that actual real-world experience.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Great. Thank you.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Does that answer your question, David?

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

It does. Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Francois. from LifeSite Capital. Your line is open.

speaker
François
Analyst, LifeSite Capital

Hey guys, thanks for the questions here. So I was just wondering on that friction pain in the physician's office, is this something where it's kind of, it's always the same issue? Is there one problem that seems to be recurrent everywhere that's easily fixable or is this a situation where it depends on the practice, it depends on the state, it depends on the doctor, how far can you guys go in terms of better understanding if you have to do like a custom approach to each office, or is there something where it's like, I think we've got something here that is the main problem most of the time?

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Morning, Frank. Good to hear your voice. So I'll say, let me position it this way. While we're working on it, and Sherry gave you kind of the big overview, we definitely will be keeping a decent amount of our playbook to ourselves. So, yes, we do see opportunity on how to manage the friction. We do, as Sherry talked about, see some of the basic steps that every company takes, like having a good hub, like being there with frequency. But in terms of the tailor-made approach and how we – tackle that. Some of that we're going to hold back on for right now. But I guess the way I'll leave it with you is more to come.

speaker
François
Analyst, LifeSite Capital

Okay, great. And in terms of the FDA, there's just so much with you guys at the FDA right now. Has the personnel changed? Any updates on? There's obviously been quite a bit of change with the FDA. Anything in terms of your case that has changed or has been more worrisome about this I think you guys are waiting on the review from the Human Factors Protocol. In terms of timeline and expectations and comfort, and then you mentioned there could be a possibility where things even accelerate. Can you just dig a little bit more into what you can share about FDA interactions?

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Well, I'll talk about the acceleration piece, and then I'll pass it over to Melina to talk about her view on the stability of the people we're interacting with. To be clear, we believe we will be assigned a six-month review clock because that would seem to be what the statutes are saying. However, we firmly believe that the package we're going to be putting in, as all of us are aware, will be the human factors study and the PK study that we're doing, and that's it. So we do believe there's an opportunity to say to the FDA this is a limited package and the other recent branded product in this space. So that will be our approach on pushing for, hopefully, action sooner than the full six months. But in terms of the stability of the individuals at the FDA, I'll pass it over to Molly.

speaker
Melina Chaffee
Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs

Thank you. Good morning, Frank. The team, the review team across the board, across the various divisions, remain intact meaning that these are the same individuals that have worked with us early on during the development of the product as well as during the review. So, we foresee no abrupt changes at this point.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

All right. Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Mazahir Alimo-Omohad from Oppenheimer. Your line is open.

speaker
Mazahir Alimo-Omohad
Analyst, Oppenheimer & Co.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking our questions, and thank you for the really comprehensive earnings call. So just a couple for us. I guess the first one is in terms of the Zebra royalty, how should we think about this $5.4 million? Is that a run rate figure, or were there any catch-up payments in Q1 that make this a high watermark for the year? And then kind of one more that's a little bit more mechanistic on the TSLP biomarker. Kind of seems like JAK1-2 sits downstream of TSLP signaling and that JAK inhibitors, which currently carry the black box warning largely due to their exposure, could limit the uptake. So I guess how confident are you that AQST's topical delivery profile would avoid the systemic JAK inhibition risks that currently limit the oral agents? Thank you.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

So I'll let Ernie start with the Zebra royalty and then go to Matthew for the TSLP.

speaker
Ernie Toth
Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Mozzie. So, no, you should not think of this as run rate for the year. You've got to remember that what we receive from Zebra is a part of an agreement we have with them where we have an economic interest in one of their products as Taurus. Zebra recently sold that product. And as a result of that, received a $50 million payment, of which we were entitled to 10% of. So that is what accounts for the $5 million, approximately $5 million in the first quarter.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

And let's turn to your question on TSLP.

speaker
Dr. Matthew Davis
Chief Development Officer

That's an absolutely great question. So when you think about the broad-based nature of immunomodulation when it comes to the adrenaline you should think that we're not a specific actor inhibiting one pathway. So the healthy normal subjects that volunteered for this trial did not have an elevated TSL take. They did not have elevated CCL3, CCL4. And the topical AQST108 did not actually modulate those patients. So the patients that had androgenic alopecia It's not a broad-based inflammatory condition, but they did have elevated TSL-8, and the topical 108 did reduce that directionally. So our preclinical research and also the published literature says that topical beta-2 agonists have a broad-based immunomodulator, not specifically targeting one pathway. A JAK inhibitor specifically basically targets one pathway. Now, as the program advances, we'll find out more about it, and we will inform you as we get more data. But that's sort of the differentiation between a broad-based modulation versus a single pathway inhibitor.

speaker
Mazahir Alimo-Omohad
Analyst, Oppenheimer & Co.

Very helpful. Thank you for the added comment.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes flying now. Raghu Ram, from HC Wainwright. Your line is open.

speaker
Yanzi
Analyst, H.C. Wainwright

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. This is Yanzi sitting in for Ram. So, I have a few questions. The first is for Anafilm. So, for Anafilm XUS, you said that you have existing clinical data that's enough to support filings in Canada, EU, UK, and so on. And I'm just wondering, how are you thinking about sequencing, partnering, price access, all the works, and the retained economics across those markets? Sure. Yeah.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

So, and we can go into further detail if you want on the existing clinicals. is sufficient and we are working rapidly for its regulatory filings in multiple jurisdictions. So from that perspective, we're in good shape. From the partnering perspective, we're well on our way in Europe in particular. I would say The economics are similar to what you would expect for a program at this stage. So we do understand the markets. We've done our work in those markets. We understand what we should retain versus what a partner should be able to also be rewarded and feel good about. So I think those I would guide you to being within industry norms. And in terms of timing, I've learned over the year with BD deals, timing is always a tricky thing. So what I would tell you is we are on our way, and when we get to the right place, you guys will be the first to know.

speaker
Yanzi
Analyst, H.C. Wainwright

Great. Thank you. And now with respect to the Oak Tree facility, would you be able to disclose what the prepayment provisions are there? For example, like what are the cash restrictions, for example?

speaker
Ernie Toth
Chief Financial Officer

I think everything is disclosed in the 8K. It's pretty extensive disclosure on the covenants and the restrictions and everything, so I would refer you to it. I would just broadly say we are happy with

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Not only the quality of the debt provider we have with O3, but the ability to run our business and grow our business without being restrained. So we think that is a key part of this announcement.

speaker
Yanzi
Analyst, H.C. Wainwright

Great. Thank you so much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. Once again, that's Star 101 for questions, Star 101. Our next question comes from Jim Malloy from Alliance Global Partners. Your line is open.

speaker
Laura
Analyst, Alliance Global Partners

Hello, this is Laura in for Jim Malloy. Thank you for taking our questions. So for AQST 108, you've touched on this already a bit, but how do you think you're going to further look into the TSLP biomarker data in future studies for 108? And how meaningful do you think this finding is for the atopic dermatitis indication specifically that you're looking to study?

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I'll pass it over to Matthew in a second. But I would say, you know, we're definitely excited. It's definitely a positive thing and something that we're happy to see and confirmatory of what we thought we would see. But as Matthew guided, it is early stage information. And I also do want to just reiterate that in the short term, so over these next few months, everyone's brainpower, resources, time, including Matthew's, will be heavily geared towards making sure we get our hands on resubmission right. So that is definitely priority number one. But I'll let Matthew give you his thoughts on what might come next.

speaker
Dr. Matthew Davis
Chief Development Officer

I'm very, very excited about the directional discovery of the TSLP, but please remember this is one of many biomarkers. So it guides you towards inflammatory states dermatologically, topically, but also in additional programs, we want to expand upon the biomarkers and the utilization of biomarkers because we believe, based on literature and based on our own preclinical work, that there is a lot of opportunity and we believe that Topical beta-2 blockers and the adrenovirus in general really can have the potential of being a broad-based immunomodulator. And as we develop our programs, once we're done with anafilm, we will guide everyone on what direction we're going and what information we're going to be looking at. But this is a really exciting first step.

speaker
Laura
Analyst, Alliance Global Partners

Got it. Thank you. And also for Anafilm, with plans to expand globally, are you still on track to file for full submission to the EMA and Health Canada by the end of the year? And how would you just compare the overall U.S. versus ex-U.S. timing? Thank you.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, well, the U.S. timing, obviously, we've been very optimistic. On Canada, we continue to see a 2026 filing. On Europe, we're definitely shooting for a 2026 filing. We're going to be right up against the New Year's holiday where that falls. So whether that is late Q4 or early Q1, I'm not sure that the calendar turn is what matters on that so much as getting it right and getting it in as fast as we can.

speaker
Laura
Analyst, Alliance Global Partners

Great. Thank you for taking the questions.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. I'm not sure we have any further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back over to Dan Barber for closing remarks.

speaker
Ernie Toth
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Victor.

speaker
Dan Barber
Chief Executive Officer

As I said earlier in the call, we are, in our view, ready to go. We're ready to conduct our studies. We're ready to build our awareness even further. And if approved by the FDA, we're on track to launch Anifilm. And we look forward to updating you on our additional progress in the months to come. And with that, thank you for joining us and have a great day.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone have a great day.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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