CureVac N.V.

Greetings and welcome to the CureVac Financial Results and Business Update for the third quarter and first nine months of 2024 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press story zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to introduce your host, Sarah Fahke, Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon, and welcome to our conference call. My name is Sarah Funke, and I'm the Vice President of Call Communications and Investor Relations at CureVac. Please let me introduce today's speakers. On the call with me from CureVac are Arizona State's Chief Administrative Officer of CureVac, Miriam Yadina, our Chief Scientific Officer, and our National Financial Officer, Axel Markowitz. You may have seen the press release last week announcing his joining the Q&A initiative. Lydia Orff, Senior Vice President of Finance, will be available for the Q&A session. Please note that this call is being webcast live and will be archived in the events and presentations section on the investor relations on all websites. Before we begin the Q&A, the discussions and responses to your questions on this call reflect many of the views as of today Tuesday November 12, 2024. We will be making statements and providing responses to your questions that state our intentions, beliefs, expectations, or predictions of retention. These constitute forward-looking statements for the purpose of the state hardware provision. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. QLAC has stated any intention or obligation to provide any form of state news. For more information, please refer to our financial and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. I will now turn the call over to Ari Lande.

Thank you, Sara. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, good afternoon to everyone on the webcast. The first nine months, and particularly the third quarter of 2024 marked a turning point for QLAC. We made significant progress on our 2024 priorities, taking decisive steps, rightizing the company, streamlining our processes, and improving our business operations. We have successfully delivered on key milestones, including a new licensing agreement with GSK announced in July. This agreement, valued at up to 1.45 billion euros, includes an upfront payment of 400 billion euros, which is fully booked in the third quarter. Additional potential milestones and royalty payments from this agreement are expected to provide significant capital going forward, while strongly evaluating our mRNA technology. Alongside this, we launched a corporate redesign, including a roughly 30% reduction of our workforce, which will be completed by the end of this year. These efforts helped us to reduce costs while maintaining a strong focus on research and development. Looking ahead, we set clear development priorities with a sharp focus on high-value indications in oncology and infectious diseases. In oncology, our Phase I study, Glioblastoma, is the promising preliminary data showing the potential of our mRNA technology in this highly aggressive cancer. And today, we are disclosing a new cancer vaccine program targeting squamous non-sponsored lung cancer, expanding our off-the-shelf cancer vaccine pipeline. In infectious diseases, we launched a new program called Urinary Tract Infections, or UTIs, one of the world's most common infections. This program addresses a critical unmet medical need driven by recurring infections and the increase in prevalence of antibiotic resistance against uropathogenic E. coli, the bacteria that primarily causes these infections. The UTI program exemplifies our focus on leveraging our technology commercial potential. On slide five, you can see this achievement in the context of our transformation journey. After I started in April 2023, we conducted a thorough business analysis, identifying key areas to improve our financial discipline, reducing unneeded pandemic-era infrastructure, and focusing the organization on innovation and R&D. In 2024, we are executing on these insights. We have launched a corporate redesign, which is on track for roughly 30% workforce reduction by the end of this year, without compromising our R&D and manufacturing capabilities. Operational expenses are expected to decrease by over 30% starting in 2025. The 400 million euro upcharge payment for our new licensing agreement with GSK was fully booked in the third quarter, providing us with a strong cash position of €551 million at the end of September and resulting in a net profit for the first nine months. As we approach the end of 2024, we are now leaner, more strategically aligned, and financially stronger. And from this position of strength, we will double down on research and development activities with a focus on high-value opportunities in oncology and infectious diseases. On slide six, we outlined the pipeline expansion in both oncology and infectious diseases. In oncology, shown on the left, our pipeline expansion spans both off-the-shelf and personalized cancer vaccines. For the off-the-shelf cancer vaccines, we are disclosing a new shared antigen cancer vaccine program in squamous small cell lung cancer, which will include novel cancer antigens derived from our proprietary antigen discovery. We are preparing for IND and CTA submissions in the first half of 2025 and expect to start phase one trial shortly thereafter. Discovery activities for additional shared antigen programs continue with the second clinical candidate expected in 2026. Preclinical development of a fully personalized cancer vaccine candidate is also progressing with the first candidate expected to enter the clinic in the second half of 2026. In infectious diseases, we are also following a dual strategy, having licensed our most advanced program in respiratory diseases to GSK by focusing our proprietary programs primarily on non-respiratory diseases with high medical needs. Here, we have launched a new program for urinary tract infections, which are the world's most common infections. And we will present the preclinical data for this program later in the presentation. Before I go into the business update, I'm delighted to have a new checking financial officer, Axel Markomes, who joined CureVac just yesterday on the call with us. On behalf of the whole CureVac team, welcome. Axel brings over 30 years of experience across both the corporate and banking sides of our industry. His deep expertise will be crucial for the next chapter of CureVac as we advance our strategic initiatives and strengthen our financial foundation. Axel, would you like to say a few words? Thank you, Alex, and good morning to the afternoon to everyone on the webcast and conference call. I'm truly excited to join CureVac during this pivotal moment in the company's evolution. I believe CureVac is forced to make continued remarkable progress in the development of innovative and learning-based medicines. By applying my expertise in financial management and corporate growth, I'm convinced that can help drive CureVac's mission forward and contribute to its future success. Thank you, Axon. As we continue moving forward with our business and pipeline priorities, it's important to highlight what makes CureVac unique. On slide eight, you can see these key strategic and technological differentiators that set CureVac apart in the mRNA field. In terms of strategic differentiators, We had a dual strategy in oncology, working on both off-the-shelf and personalized cancer vaccines to cover a wide range of cancer types. Used a similar dual approach in infectious diseases, where we are focusing on proprietary programs for non-respiratory diseases, like viral, bacterial, or fungal infections, while we have out-licensed our respiratory disease programs to GSK. Our scalable manufacturing capabilities, including the RNA printer, gives us flexibility to produce preclinical and clinical trial materials efficiently. And our strong intellectual property portfolio further supports our innovation by protecting our technology. In terms of technology differentiators, our precision mRNA backbone is built on 20 years of experience, helping us design highly efficient mRNA constructs that improve protein expression and lower dose efficiency. In oncology, we have a unique ability to discover new classes of antigens, which paves the way for innovative cancer treatments. And our work on advanced liver nanoparticle building system, tailored for specific indications, aims to enhance the effectiveness and stability of our experience. Together, these differentiators give us a strong competitive position and drive our mission to develop transformative medicines for patients. Plan 9 shows how our differentiators feed directly into the key focus area of oncology and infectious diseases. Our precise mRNA backbone and proprietary delivery systems are at the heart of our technology platform, which is continuously evolving VPA to deliver best-in-class products. By focusing our development efforts on high potential areas in oncology and infectious diseases, we are positioning ourselves to deliver impactful health solutions. And with that, I will hand it over to Miriam to explain how we turn these technologies into a strong focused clinical pipeline.