8/11/2025

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Good afternoon and welcome to the BioCardia Second Quarter Financial Results and Business Update Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchscreen or keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Participants of this call are advised that the audio of this conference call is being broadcast live over the Internet and is also being recorded for playback purposes. A webcast replay of the call will be available approximately one hour after the end of the call. I would now like to turn the call over to Miranda Pito of BioCardia Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Miranda.

speaker
Miranda Pito
Investor Relations, BioCardia

Thank you very much. Good afternoon, and thank you all for participating in today's conference call. Joining me from BioCardio's leadership team are Peter Altman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and David McClung, the company's Chief Financial Officer. During this call, management will be making forward-looking statements, including statements that address BioCardio's expectations for future performance and operational results, references to management's intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses, and current expectations. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with developing new products, technologies, and obtaining regulatory approvals. Forward-looking statements involve risks and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. For more information about these risks, please refer to the risk factors and cautionary statements described in BioCardio's report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 26, 2025, and in subsequently filed reports on Form 10-Q. The content of this call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of today, August 11, 2025. Except as required by law, the company disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any information to reflect events, or circumstances that occur after this call. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Dr. Peter Altman, BioCardia's President and CEO. Peter, please go ahead.

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Miranda, and good afternoon to everyone on the call. In our second quarter of 2025, we have been completing the cardiac heart failure trial. whose primary outcomes were presented as a late-breaking clinical trial at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific sessions on March 30th, 2025. For study patients, all on stable guideline-directed medical therapy, the cardiac heart failure treatment group had a lower incidence of both all-cause death and non-fatal MACE than the control group during the entire 24-month period of the cardiac heart failure study with a p-value of 0.17. And the composite endpoint of all-cause death, non-fatal MACE, and quality of life was statistically significant in the subgroup of patients with elevated NT-proBNP with a p-value of 0.02. As we have reviewed the data, there have been additional compelling observations that we anticipate will be detailed in the upcoming peer-reviewed manuscript. For our long-standing investors, this data is to your credit as it provides objective evidence that together we have helped patients in a rigorous double-blind placebo procedure-controlled trial. The CARDI-AMP Heart Failure Trial Clinical Package detailing this data has been provided to Japan's Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Agency, or PMDA, and we hope to soon align on pathways to make this therapy available for physicians and their patients. Japan has a strong interest in heart failure therapy, and Japan's PMDA has approved other cell therapies, including for heart failure. Our own cell processing platform is also approved in Japan by our partner Zimmer Biomet for orthopedic applications, which makes our Helix catheter system the only truly new product to be introduced. We expect two other cardiac cell therapies to be considered for approval by PMDA in the coming year, in addition to our CardiAmp cell therapy. We view the sponsors of these other cell therapies as potential partners for our Helix biotherapeutic delivery system. which is supported by our experience and its use in clinical trials, which have enrolled more than 400 patients. It is expected that the in-person meeting on the clinical consultation with PMDA, requested in July of 2025, will take place mid-Q4 2025. If the parties are aligned, this could enable BioCardi to submit for approval of the Cardi-M system for market entry in Japan. In parallel, we have ongoing efforts towards requesting a meeting with the FDA on the approvability of the FDA-designated breakthrough cardiac system based on this clinical data also in the fourth quarter of 2025. We are continuing to gather evidence to support the therapy as well, and the cardiac heart failure two trial is actively enrolling patients at four clinical sites with the fifth to be activated in a few weeks' time. Our second program, the Cardi-AMP Cell Therapy and Chronic Myocardial Ischemia, or BCD02, the rolling cohort final data for scientific presentation and publication is ahead. The data to date has been excellent, and we have no more details to share until that data is publicly available. In Q2 2025, we had a successful Data Safety Monitoring Board review of the safety outcomes in the low-dose cohort in our cardi allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell therapy in ischemic heart failure, or BCD03, our third program. Management's assessment is that we have good potential of receiving non-dilutive funding for this program in Q1, 2026. On the Helix biotherapeutic delivery partnering front, we are actively preparing for submission for approval of this product via de novo 510 pathway based on the strength of our clinical data. Our Helix has potential to be the first approved transendocardial biotherapeutic delivery system in the United States. We remain interested in partnering this technology and providing support to the many other cell and gene therapy firms working to enhance the therapeutic options for patients with cardiovascular disease. We continue to be focused on partnerships where our contributions to the success of partners will reward our shareholders. One element of the Helix delivery system is our proprietary FDA-approved MorphDNA steerable introducer platform. We are continuing to detail its advantages to physicians and partners who may benefit from these products. Our goal is to partner this product and its underlying technology for the enormous cardiac electrophysiology market for the mapping and ablation of both atrial and ventricular tachyarrhythmias. The DNA technology design prevents whip in this catheter, which we developed in value for all of our helix procedures and is expected to have even greater value for ventricular ablation procedures should they require advancing the steerable introducer sheath in the left ventricle of the heart. On the business development front, We believe partnering can create meaningful value for shareholders with respect to each of our four platforms, CardiAmp, CardiAllo, Helix, and MorphDNA. For CardiAmp cell therapy business development, we expect the clarity on anticipated approvals ahead will enhance interest by distribution partners and strategics. For CardiAllo cell therapy business development, our allogeneic cell therapy we have the ability to manufacture our clinical grade cells at a cost profile that is likely less than that of all our peers. We are also open to partnerships broadly in the many indications we are not currently pursuing. For our Helix biotherapeutic delivery platform, potential biotherapeutic delivery partners who wish to have access to our delivery experience, products, and support capabilities remain active in discussions. Current partners realize that minimally invasive delivery not only enhances future commercialization, but is also seen as a critical means for clinical development, enabling much faster enrollment, thus significantly reducing their operational costs by shortening timelines for their therapeutic development. Lastly, partner therapeutics are expected to benefit enormously from our three-fold efficiency of delivery, We believe this advantage underlies our positive cardiac heart failure data and is due to the stability of the helix in the beating heart and the self-sealing helical pathway into the tissue. On the more front, partnering discussions are underway for the greater than $10 billion per year electrophysiology market described in my earlier comments. We expect to soon announce more details on the fusion imaging partnership we have entered into that has potential to be valuable for all of our product offerings and partnering efforts. Looking forward, we have updated our milestones in our press release today that are reflected in our updated corporate presentation available on our website. For BCD01, our cardiac autologous cell therapy and heart failure, in the fourth quarter, we will aim to have the peer-reviewed manuscript accepted meetings with Japan, PMDA, and FDA on approvability based on current data, as we also enroll in CARDI-AMP Heart Failure II. For BCD02, CARDI-AMP Autologous Cell Therapy and Chronic Myocardial Ischemia, in the fourth quarter, we intend to deliver final top-line data from the rolling cohort and seek peer-reviewed publication of the results. For BCD03, CARDI-ALO Allogeneic Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy and Heart Failure, We are projecting non-dilutive funding coming together in the first quarter of 2026. For our Helix Biotherapeutic Delivery System, we anticipate FDA submission for approval in the third quarter of this year. This is the current quarter. We also anticipate a financing in September that we are working to have be a success for current shareholders. Insider investors have supported recent financings in 2025 as they recognize the great potential we have to be impactful for patients with cardiovascular disease and while also doing well. I will now pass the call to David McClung, our CFO, who will review our second quarter 2025 financial results.

speaker
David McClung
Chief Financial Officer

David? Thank you, Peter, and good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to take a moment to review the highlights of our financial results for the quarter and the six months into June 30th, 2025. Research and development expenses increased to approximately 1.4 million for the three months into June 2025, from approximately 0.8 million in the three months into June 2024, and increased to approximately 2.9 million in the six months into June 2025, from the six months ended June, 2024. The increases are driven by closeout activities, including data analysis for the CAR-D-AMP heart failure trial and enrollment in the subsequent CAR-D-AMP heart failure two trial, coupled with regulatory activities in Japan. We anticipate R&D expenses will increase modestly in 2025 year over year as we continue advancing our therapeutic candidates in the United States and in Japan. Selling, general, and administrative expenses decreased to approximately $0.7 million in the three months into June 2025 compared to approximately $0.9 million for the three months into June 2024, primarily due to lower professional fees and share-based compensation expense. Selling, general, and administrative expenses remained consistent at approximately $1.9 million during the six-month period ended June 2025 as compared to 1.9, the same amount in the six months into June 2024. We expect 2025 SG&A expenses to track close to the 2024 levels year over year. Our net loss was approximately 2.0 million for the three months ended June 2025, compared to approximately 1.6 million for the three months into June 2024, and was approximately 4.8 million for the six months into June 2025 compared to approximately 3.9 million for the six months into June 2024. With the increases in research and development expenses, net cash used in operations similarly increased. Net cash used in operations during the three months into June 2025 increased 300,000 to approximately 1.6 million compared to approximately 1.3 million for the three months into June 2024. Net cash used in operations for the six-month period into June 2025 was approximately $3.3 million, as compared to $2.8 million for the six months into June 2024. The company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents totaling $980,000. In the third quarter, we sold $769,000 in BioCardia common stock under our ATM facility at an average price of 259 per share, bringing our current cash balance to approximately 1.1 million. This provides us with runway into October exclusive of any additional capital from future business development or financings. We will work hard to continue our track record of efficient use of resources and optimizing the cost of capital. This concludes our prepared comments, and we're now happy to take questions from attendees.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. At this time, we will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touchpad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw the question, please press star then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And our first question today comes from Joe with HC Wainwright. Please go ahead.

speaker
Lander
Analyst, H.C. Wainwright (for Joe)

Hello, everyone. This is Lander on for Joe. Thanks for taking our questions. So maybe, Peter, could you elaborate a little bit more on the expectations regarding PMDA reviewing CardiAmp for heart failure as a medical device? You talked a little bit about it on your last week's press release, point of care therapies versus laboratory manufactured. What are the key differences in terms of regulatory reviews, timelines, and potential approval?

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

Thank you for the question, Landa. So fundamentally, the approval process is not dissimilar. I think that it's viewed as actually a lower hurdle for a medical device approval, particularly as the cardiac cell therapy system has nothing that is left behind in the patient, such as a stent or a hip or a a heart valve, for example. The nuances here is the standard consultation process with PMDA. And the current hurdle before us is, you know, a clinical consultation on the data and positioning of the therapy in the continuum of heart failure care. And so what we have done is we have detailed for PMDA where this lies in the continuum of care. Currently in Japan, the care is substantially equivalent to the care in the United States with the same four pillars of medication. I think key differences in Japan are the utilization of left ventricular assist devices and the the low use of heart transplantation for heart failure in Japan. And that last is something I'd like to comment on a little. In Japan, because of sort of the culture of the wholeness of the individual, there's not a great adoption of transplanted organs because it's not the It's from another individual. And I share that because it's important relative to CARDI-AMP because CARDI-AMP is an autologous cell therapy. It is the patient's own cells delivered in a straightforward procedure with processing at point of care. And the value proposition here is it aligns completely with the cultural preferences of the Japanese And then from a logistics and commercialization perspective, it fits neatly into the existing medical device distribution channels in Japan. So we have already had conversations around distribution partnerships. Should we be fortunate and have PMDA align on the acceptability of CardiAmp? I note today in Japan, because they don't have heart transplantation as a primary therapy because of that cultural sense of the wholeness of the individual, there's a huge need in heart failure. Patients are dying at the same rates they are in the United States, which is approximately 10% per year, 50% at five years. And so the way we see CardiAmp as a one-time therapy of delivering very high concentrations of a patient's own cells in and around damaged regions of the heart based on the results that we presented demonstrating reduced mortality, reduced all-cause death, reduced major adverse cardiac events, and improved quality of life, we do think that there's a very compelling argument to support the adoption of cardiac amp cell therapy. I note that under the regenerative medicine pathway, other companies such as Helios for pulmonary acute respiratory distress and by Tarumo for their heart sheet product historically, they've been able to achieve conditional approvals based on a small number of patients showing preliminary signs of safety and efficacy and following up those early studies with post-marketing studies in their conditional period. So similar to those approaches, you know, Japan PMDA has the ability to request post-marketing study of cardiac heart failure therapy and provide and secure additional data on both safety and efficacy in the Japanese population. So that's sort of a high-level snapshot. I could probably talk for hours about the nuances between regulatory approval in Japan and the United States. I can tell you that the folks we've interacted with are extremely professional, highly detail-oriented, and we're pretty excited about the upcoming clinical consultation.

speaker
Lander
Analyst, H.C. Wainwright (for Joe)

Got it. Thank you. That's very useful. And for the RDM-CMI program, the rolling core data that are anticipated in fourth quarter, these are related to the primary endpoint results, right, at six months? Correct. Okay, perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Thanks.

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

No worries. No worries. And this data, what is potential? The timing here is just making sure we've got the data monitored and we're looking at, you know, the definitive final rolling cohort data for that population.

speaker
Lander
Analyst, H.C. Wainwright (for Joe)

Awesome. Thanks again. Thank you. Thank you for the question, Lana.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

All right. Next question today comes from James Malloy at Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.

speaker
James Malloy
Analyst, Alliance Global Partners

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. On the fourth quarter Japanese and U.S. regulatory meetings, if, you know, if you get the sort of the best which I presume would be, yeah, go ahead and file. What would the timing look like on that? And then what sort of, how would you game out other potential outcomes to come out of those two separate meetings?

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

Well, Jim, thank you for the question, and welcome to the call. The first part of the question, what if things go well, let's just focus on Japan PMDA. If they accept our positioning for the cardiac cell therapy and they agree that this makes sense, the meeting minutes could potentially end with, you know, address the following questions in your application for approval. Then there's a whole series of steps that are required for that approval process, including detailed audits of our operations, our clinical data, and so on. And it's a similar pathway for the FDA with the BIMO audits and what have you. So our expectation is for either case, that process would take as much as a year to achieve. And so the nice thing, though, is once that pathway has been opened, your confidence in success is far greater than it is at this juncture. The nuance of this in Japan is that, you know, we will be working on both reimbursement and on distribution partner as soon as this, if this meeting comes out to be positive on the other side as we as we hope it is. And with FDA, there's a slightly different timeline we're pursuing in that we're submitting our helix system for FDA approval based on the totality of data in advance to submitting and engaging with them on the CAR-DAM approval because the helix is part and parcel of that system. So all of the work that goes into the regulatory files for all three of these submissions, is substantially the same information. So, you know, that will be going in first to FDA, and then we will be engaging them on, you know, CAR-DM heart failure. They also are receiving, you know, annual reports and the final data on CAR-DM heart failure as well. So if things go well, we'll be on a pathway towards approval in an enormous market. We would expect some post-marketing information requirements for both the FDA and PMDA. We recognize that we did not hit the primary endpoint, but the FDA has approved previous heart failure therapies based on subgroup analysis and required post-marketing studies. In some cases, they've looked to a confirmatory trial, and we already have a confirmatory trial actively enrolling at four and soon to be five centers. So we're advancing the therapy. If things don't go our way as you describe it and they say it's a negative, we're continuing full bore here in the United States. I think that if Japan PM Day is not supportive because of resources and what have you, we would be completely focused on the United States going forward. But that's where we've done most of our trial work to date. But I'm actually very optimistic with respect to Japan ahead, and I think the FDA will be open to this. I don't think there's a better time in the administration than today with respect to, you know, the interest in, you know, this is an autologous cell therapy, right? This is a minimally delivered autologous cell therapy. We leave nothing behind but the patient's own cells in high concentration, and it's supported by very rigorous data that's quite compelling in heart failure. And patients on guideline-directed medical therapy using all of the latest drugs that are available, we were able to demonstrate reduction in MACE over the entire course of the trial and a p-value of 0.17. We're also able to demonstrate that the composite endpoint in the patients with elevated NT-proBNP was statistically significant. So if we do get you know, an approval in Japan or in the United States, you know, biocardia would not seek it across all the patients. We would be seeking it for those patients who are on guideline-directed medical therapy and still have evidence of active heart failure because of their elevated biomarkers for heart failure or NT-proBNP.

speaker
James Malloy
Analyst, Alliance Global Partners

All right, maybe final question, then. Thank you for that. The partnership environment, I touched on it briefly in the prepared remarks. Would it be fair to say partnerships are more or less on hold until clarity on the FDA and the Japanese PDMA?

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

So I would say a resounding no to partnerships being on hold. For CardiAmp, I would say yes, that's a key element and milestone. But, you know, we have very active discussions today around, you know, our technology platforms. And primarily, you know, we have active dialogue and relationship with Helix, active dialogue and relationship with Morph, and even Cardialo has had interest for folks going after other indications because of our ability to manufacture cells with a small footprint. So I think CardiAmp, the main event because of the the value proposition there. We have had discussions and have active conversations with partners for distribution in Japan. And they're plugged in and they're aware. And so this next conversation is the big deal. I think that the nuance of reimbursement in Japan is also going to be important ahead. And so we think that there's great opportunities for us to be successful. We think that the reimbursement we already have in the United States at $17,500 per procedure is compelling for that partnering activity. But we also think it's compelling for the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare in Japan because the other cardiac therapies they've historically approved, they provided a reimbursement that was almost 10 times that amount. our sense is we come to them with a more reasonably priced therapy that also interweaves the autologous aspects of it. And the folks we're talking to, Jim, there on partnering for CardiAmp are fundamentally medical device distributors. So there are a number of cardiovascular products. There's also U.S. interventional cardiology groups in Japan who sell direct And so those would be other folks that we would be actively talking to.

speaker
James Malloy
Analyst, Alliance Global Partners

Great. Thank you for taking the questions.

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

No, thanks, Ford. Jim, be well. Have a great day.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

And our next question today comes from Kumar Raja with Brookline Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

speaker
Kumar Raja
Analyst, Brookline Capital Markets

Thanks for taking my questions. So, Peter, with regard to the meeting with the FDA, is this going to be a type B meeting or a type C meeting? And with regard to the HF2 trial, where do you stand with regard to the screening? Maybe you can highlight, you know, how the screening is going and when we can expect the patients to come on board and be treated. Okay.

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

So right now, so Kumar, thank you for the question. Great question, and delighted to have you on the call. With respect to the FDA, we haven't decided what the type of meeting is. So remember, this, CARDI-AMP has FDA breakthrough designation. And so we're contemplating the pros and cons of having a sprint discussion with them on this issue to help get early feedback versus doing, you know, another pathway. And we're teeing this up in our annual report for the FDA. In parallel, we're working on the submission of a de novo 510K for the Helix system. So, the idea here is that, you know, the only thing I think the agency would be concerned with respect to on the risk side is our Helix system, which has, you know, extensive data that's highly supportive of it. In fact, You know, I ran into the brand Zuckerberg, who is the, you know, the head of the devices at FDA. And they actually at CBER have blessed folks to do clinical studies with Helix without even talking to biocardia. They're actually supposed to get a letter of reference. They're very comfortable with Helix as our sense. So the idea is to secure the discussion process around the de novo 510K. And once that's in, then engage on CardiAmp and be able to say, with respect to CardiAmp, you've already approved the cell processing platform for use in processing diagnostics. The Helix system is under a de novo 510K process. We're interested in your approving the combination for this autologous cell therapy based on the totality of clinical data we have in these three trials. For these heart failure patients, which currently have a rate of mortality of 50% at every five years. And they're already on guideline-directed medical therapy. There are no other options for them today. Under what pathway can you enable us, potentially with guardrails in the form of post-marketing studies, enable patients to have access to this therapy and achieve the clinical results we've demonstrated in our CABMI trial, our TACIF trial, and now also in our cardiac heart failure trial? So that's sort of the pathway there ahead. And then your second question, Kumar, did that answer the first question? Are you comfortable with that?

speaker
Kumar Raja
Analyst, Brookline Capital Markets

Yeah, it does. Thank you.

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

All right. Then the second question, where are we at in cardiac heart failure 2? Cardiac heart failure 2, so it's the same team that is closing out cardiac heart failure 1, preparing the clinical study reports, and involved in the regulatory activities that is also supporting cardiac heart failure 2. Nicely, cardiac heart failure 2 is a is a modification of what we had done in CARDI-AMP heart failure trial. And it also, you know, the folks who participated are aware of the data and pretty jazzed about the data that we ultimately have from CARDI-AMP heart failure. So right now we've got four centers that are actively enrolling. We have a fifth center that's about to begin. We've treated, you know, a few patients so far. One of the things that happens in this trial is that we have a longer lead-in time to treatment to look at the Hawthorne effect of these patients. And so for those who aren't real familiar with clinical study design, the Hawthorne effect is the fact that when you start to observe a subject, their behavior changes. And so we're observing the patients for a month before they go through their baseline measures so they know they're in the trial. We work on them to get them compliant to their medications. We get them as stable as we can possibly get them for a whole month, and then they go through the screening for the baseline measures and enter into the trial. And we've treated a few patients. I think if you look on LinkedIn, there's a couple of pictures of first cases with different physicians. And this is much easier to do because it's something that we've already been through. So fewer bumps in the road this time. The primary endpoint is the endpoint. We have a p-value of 0.02 on in the patients with elevated NT-proBNP. And all patients in this trial will have elevated NT-proBNP greater than 500 picograms per mil. So yeah, if anything, it's getting easier. And we don't have the burdens of COVID. We don't have the burdens of other really competing trials. To our knowledge, this is the only large cell therapy trial in the United States at this point in time, and we'll be marshalling it forward. But it's a secondary priority to getting these regulatory submissions in place, and just because of, you know, the cost of resources and our team, you know, bear with us as we close out the regulatory submissions and get And there is potential if the FDA decides to get supportive of CAR-DM as a therapy, that we would modify the trial and could conceivably make it a, you know, an open label registry. In which case, you know, maybe with a historical control, maybe we match it to the controls we have from our own study. But either way, there's lots of things by having that active trial, it feeds back into what we might do And remember, CARDI-AMP HF2 has the same Medicare reimbursement as our other two trials. So if it was converted to an open-label registry, not only would it go very quickly, but, you know, there wouldn't be, you know, any significant sudden cost to BioCardia because we have the reimbursement in place.

speaker
Kumar Raja
Analyst, Brookline Capital Markets

Okay. Just one clarity with regard to the timelines. So by end of Q4, you will have clarity both from the PMDA as well as the FDA. That's the expectation?

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

We will have clarity from PMDA. FDA is behind that because we're going to be submitting the de novo 510K for Helix first. So it's going to be close on the Helix, but soon thereafter. Okay, great. Thanks so much. No worries. I appreciate the questions, Kumar.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Chris W., an investor.

speaker
Chris W.
Investor

Please go ahead. Hi. Peter, can you hear me?

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

I can. Hi, Chris.

speaker
Chris W.
Investor

Hey there. A couple questions. For BCDA, let's see, DA02, you are preparing to release or present data. What are your expectations following the data readout for that trial?

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

So right now, that program, we're going to release that data. We are working on active conversations with respect to partnering. And, you know, my sense is, Chris, a lot of it depends on what happens with PMDA and FDA. If PMDA gives us the signal that, yeah, we're going to be allowed to apply for approval, our reality changes. we will easily have relatively non-dilutive capital to accelerate the BCDA O2 program. There are competitive programs to BCDA O2, but if you look at our corporate presentation, which was just updated today and available on our website, it compares the outcomes in BCDA O2. This is the cardiamp cell therapy for patients in refractory angina as a function of chronic myocardial ischemia. you know, we are seeing the same or better results than what was demonstrated in the Baxter Healthcare CD34 program. And I think that's a really important historical data point to take into mind because the Baxter program, it was stopped primarily because of the cost of the autologous therapy. So we have published previously at the European Society of of cardiology heart failure, the CD34 dosages we have in cardiac cell therapy in the cardiac heart failure trial. And all of our patients on average are greater than the CD34 cell dosage achieved in the Baxter healthcare trial. This is important because, you know, in Baxter, we could estimate that their cost of goods for their therapy was on the order of as much as $50,000 to $60,000. Whereas in our hands, by bringing it to point of care and processing the cells in the fashion we do and improving the efficiency of delivery and creating the screening approach where we only treat patients who have the appropriate cells on board, we've dialed some things in so that the therapy can actually be a very low-cost therapy. So instead of doing what Baxter did, which was to take the cells and remotely process them and bring them back to the center, which has enormous costs. And that's one of the big problems with autologous cell therapy. We have essentially taken the patient, we screen the patients and say, we're selecting the patients. Do you have the appropriate cells on board with a very inexpensive diagnostic? And then we can go in and process the cells at point of care with a relatively inexpensive approach so that our cost of goods can be literally less than 2% of what the cost of goods for the Baxter Health Care Program is. So yeah, we're very excited about BCD-02. It's just right now, you know, it's resources and prioritization. And so top priority is still BCD-01. The top priorities for BCD-01 are the regulatory submission discussions, where we have a number of board members who are very enthusiastic. And then, you know, also the confirmatory trial. Those are our top priorities. But if we have more resources or if partnering steps up for that program, BCD02 is very well positioned to expand. And it's a great program.

speaker
Chris W.
Investor

That's great. That's great. One more, if I can.

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

Go ahead, Chris.

speaker
Chris W.
Investor

So it sounds like there are new, there's some new data observations that were picked up. And you've submitted those from your prepared remarks. You've submitted those to the PMDA. Will BioCardia be releasing or presenting that data to the public, or is that just for regulatory submissions? And the second one, anything additional you might be able to share about a beneficial September raising event, how that would be beneficial to current shareholders, if you're able to share anything in that regard?

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, no, absolutely.

speaker
Chris W.
Investor

Thank you.

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

So, So first question, no, great questions. These are great questions, and I appreciate it. So, yeah, so when we had the late-breaking clinical trial presentation at the American College of Cardiology, which, by the way, was a great honor that they gave us a late-breaking clinical trial, and we're very thankful to the leadership at the American College of Cardiology for that, you know, we were scrambling to pull all the data together in time for that presentation. And we got it done. The data is all monitored. It's good data. You can hang your hat on it. We're very proud that we got that done. But as I'm sure you know, there's an enormous amount of data and observations here. And so, I can share from my perspective, the data only gets better when you understand it more. That said, we need to make that the peer-reviewed perspective. And so, we are working with our distinguished investigators to pull together a manuscript based on this awareness of some of these nuances of the data and have this reviewed and published so it'll be accessible for all. I can't say that everything we've seen will be in there just because inherently there are some things that just don't make it into the journal that are more appropriate in the regulatory dynamic. But from my perspective, we hope to have as much in that peer-reviewed manuscript and potentially even a supplement as we can to share what we're seeing with respect to this data. So, that's sort of a response on that comment. As regards to your question on the financing, so, you know, right now, I mean, look at how we financed historically. So, yes, we have had times where we've done a standard banking financing and, you know, we've had some challenges with it. But You know, the last two financings we've done have been very little dilution. They've been assigned to long holders for the most part. And since then, we've had some phenomenal things come together. Now, the markets are not reflecting where we're at. I don't know there's anywhere else in the world you can buy stock in a company that has a a what is pivotal trial data for a heart failure therapy, an enormous opportunity before regulators for the price our stock's going for today. And that embarrasses me. But at the same time, you know, we have a lot of good relationships. We have a lot of active partnering discussions. And so we're doing our best to pull together a financing that, you know, is a positive for all shareholders. We take this very seriously and we're trying to be as wise as we can about it. If you look at how we've utilized the ATM recently, you can see that we've, you know, the shares we've sold are, you know, well above the average share price that we've had of late. And those are, you know, straight common shares with no bells and whistles and discounts. They're at the peak of the market. I got to tell you, Chris, I can't wait until we get to profitability because, you know, I and the management team and the board, nobody likes dilution. But we're trying to be as thoughtful as we can and bring together a deal to fund us. We keep our burn rate low so we don't need much capital. You know, if you look at the burn rate that David has detailed, you know, we are very – We're trying to be what I think of as wisely frugal. And so with that, we don't waste money on things that don't make enormous sense. We've secured reimbursement for our trials, which winds up reducing our R&D expense. So right now, you know, our annual burn rate is, you know, on the order of $6 million, a company that's pushing through three trials and has all these active partnering discussions. So I think it's going to be interesting. I can't tell you any more details around it, then uh we are going to the folks that we know we are detailing where we're at and uh and there's there's a lot of folks who are willing to bet on a company that not only has stable products under its belt with its morph and its helix but is going after approvals for for therapies in the near term and though and it's not like we're saying we're going to apply for approval for cardiamp and prepare the dossiers those dossiers are already in substantially so uh I think it's going to be a really interesting next six months for everybody who's here. And those who are shareholders in BioCardia, you know, you're helping us to do this. You're helping us to advance a new therapy that has the potential to impact millions. And I think that the data is excellent. It's not all we want it to be, but, you know, when you're treating patients on guideline-directed medical care, they're already being optimally managed, and you're able to show a benefit in addition to it, not instead of it. That's a great thing, and it's something that everybody involved should be proud of.

speaker
Chris W.
Investor

Well, thank you for that. I appreciate that info. Good luck on the upcoming meetings.

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

I appreciate Chris.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. And, Dr. Allman, that closes the question and answer session, so I'd like to turn the call back over to you, sir, for any closing remarks.

speaker
Peter Altman
President & Chief Executive Officer

Appreciate it, Rocco. Yeah, I guess I would just reiterate what I detailed for Chris, Supporting BioCardia as an investor, you are also responsible for the benefits delivered to patients in the Cardiamp heart failure trial. As investors in BioCardia, you have done good for others. Our focus today is to get around to delivering the increased value for our investors so that they can do well as we pursue the Cardiamp system and Helix approvals. On behalf of our hardworking team here at BioCardia, I thank you for your continued support. Have a great afternoon.

speaker
Conference Operator
Operator

Thank you. That concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.

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