ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us today for IPA's earnings call covering the fourth quarter and full fiscal year of 2023. I am Regina, and I have the privilege of hosting this call. Before we commence, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that our discussion today may include forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we express or imply. We strongly encourage you to review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a comprehensive discussion of these risks and uncertainties. IPA remains committed to complying with legal requirements and will update forward-looking statements only as mandated by law. During today's conference call as well as in the accompanying presentation slides, we will be employing non-GAAP financial measures to assist investors and analysts in comprehending IPA's business performance. Adjusted EBITDA, in particular, allows for meaningful comparisons and analysis of trends in our business over different periods. For a detailed explanation and reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to GAAP measures, please refer to the Management Discussion and Analysis section of our filing on EDGAR and CDAR. Now, without further ado, I would like to pass the floor to IPA's CEO, Dr. Jennifer Bass, who will provide an overview of our quarterly results.

Thank you, Regina. During today's call, we aim to provide you with a clear and comprehensive understanding of IPA, our company, and how we are strategically positioning ourselves as leaders in the field of AI and antibody therapeutics. At Immunoprecise Antibodies, we are consistently paving the way as pioneers in technology, positioning our company as a frontrunner in innovation. Our mission is to harness the potential of data-driven AI and cutting edge laboratory technologies to deliver groundbreaking solutions. We set ourselves apart by employing patented technologies and trade secrets that provide unparalleled insights into the realm of biological data. Let's begin today's call by highlighting the significant achievements and developments of the past fiscal year. These key milestones not only showcase our unique position in the market, but also reflect the progress we have made over the last 12 months. I'm thrilled to share that in Q4 fiscal 23, IPA reached a significant milestone by achieving a record revenue of $5.6 million, demand which is continuing to build. Moreover, we are proud to report that in fiscal year 23, it was a strong year with total revenue reaching $20.7 million representing growth of 6.7% year-over-year, which equates to 9% when adjusting for the effects of currency translation. These outstanding accomplishments highlight our dedication to delivering exceptional service, the high demand of IPAs offerings, and our ability to maintain stability in the face of prevailing market conditions. Building on our strong momentum, IPA continued its positive trend in Q4. securing a healthy $4.65 million in sales orders for fee-for-service work, now follow dramatically with a record-breaking impressive $3.51 million from the month of June alone, which, as Barry will share shortly, is a staggering 47% from the previous time point one year prior. This is a testament to the market's confidence in our capabilities and the ongoing high demand for our services, which have reliably translated to quarter-over-quarter growth. It further reinforces our optimistic outlook for revenue growth moving into this new fiscal year. Regarding our subsidiary, TALM, after a strategic review, we made the decision to consolidate our programs and discontinue investments in earlier-stage assets. Instead, we redirected our efforts toward enhancing three key programs that we believe hold significant value. Currently, these programs each are the focus of active discussions from industry prospects, which we will elaborate on further in today's call. Furthermore, TALM has demonstrated its ability to adapt to the changing market landscape. We have strategically shifted our focus toward partnering discussions with larger corporations, aligning with the recent trends in capitalization and restructuring challenges faced by pipeline companies. This approach allows us to navigate the industry's dynamics more effectively to capture valuable opportunities. Throughout the past year, we have achieved significant milestones that demonstrate our unique position in the market. Firstly, Tullam entered into an exclusive research collaboration and license agreement with Astellas Pharmaceuticals. This collaboration aims to develop antibodies targeting a novel tumor microenvironment protein, with Astellas having an exclusive option to license these antibodies for therapeutic development, including CAR-T therapies. This partnership is the result of extensive due diligence and collaborative efforts, further validating the universal nature of Biostrand's HIFT technology. Additionally, IPA Europe's human phage display and humanization offerings have gained impressive financial momentum. We have bolstered these offerings with newly generated phage libraries and a modernized workflow incorporating next-generation sequencing. This expansion has not only increased the potential for HIF accessible sequence data, but has also attracted a surge in requests for VHH-based discovery programs, opening new revenue opportunities for IPAs. Furthermore, we have expanded on our single B-cell screening capabilities to include species from the camelid family. Our novel techniques in this area have proven highly successful, leading to increased demand for VHH-based discovery programs and contributing to IPA's revenue growth and reputational leverage. In terms of integrated revenue streams, we have three core pillars, which we will elaborate on today. To give you an initial glimpse, the first pillar in silico technologies combined with existing wet lab services are increasingly revenue generating with undeniably attractive trends. We have generated close to $790,000 in BioStrand specific service quotes with over 80% of those quotes issued within the past six weeks. The second pillar is our in silico de novo antibody discovery and development partnerships, which offer revenue potential through upfront payments, milestones, and royalty payments, with milestone payments alone ranging from up to approximately $60 million to $400 million USD. You will receive some enthusing updates on these exact endeavors in today's call. Lastly, Our data organization and management platform represents an exciting upcoming revenue stream, and we are thrilled to be able to share more information on this eventual SaaS model with you today for the first time. In conclusion, our innovative revenue streams, valuable partnerships, and expanded market reach have allowed us to achieve record-breaking revenues. We are committed to driving continued growth and success. through our unwavering dedication to innovation. By harnessing the power of AI, our hip technology, and our esteemed laboratory discovery bio platforms, we have created a legacy paradigm that integrates any biological data with lightning speed, with reduced energy, and unparalleled insights. Our software development enhancements, advancements, and ability to solve the information integration dilemma have further supported our growth as the future leaders in this industry. We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and look forward to disseminating these exciting updates to you, our investors, throughout various media channels on a regular basis as we continue to rapidly solve biological enigmas and bring you case-based evidence to validate our advancements. I'll now turn the microphone over to Barry Duplantis for updates on client relations and business development.

Thank you, Jennifer. As many of you may know, and as Jennifer has just previously mentioned, IPA presently operates with three primary sources of revenue, broadly classified as fee-for-service, including product sales, outlicensing of preclinical assets, and non-fee-for-service partnerships. In the past, IPA primarily maintained separate teams for fee-for-service sales and business development endeavors. However, in fiscal year 23, we have adopted a more integrated and comprehensive approach to enhance our outreach capabilities and ensure that we capture any and all opportunities. In this update, I will provide an overview of each of these revenue streams. The team has actively participated in several conferences and asset-specific partnering summits, hosted IPA-collected events, held in major biotech hubs and engaged in on-site visits to build strong client relationships. These outreach efforts and events have been made possible by the addition of two highly effective sales team members in key geographic regions who have greatly contributed to establishing IPA's industry-leading technical sales team. Throughout fiscal year 23, we have seized every opportunity to present our global value proposition, and as the year progressed, we have been able to showcase how IPA is disrupting the current discovery paradigm. This has been achieved through the ongoing integration of Biostrand's proprietary technologies, which have significantly enhanced our technical output. The inclusion of Biostrand's expertise has further strengthened our position and allowed us to demonstrate how we are pushing boundaries of the industry. The conventional approach to antibody discovery and development follows a linear funnel model, where the value of an asset increases along with the corresponding expenditure and wet lab activities. Simply put, the cost of failure for an asset, both in terms of finances and time, escalates significantly with each phase of the program, accumulating in multi-million dollar expenses associated with clinical trials. IPA has always been at the forefront of therapeutic development, thanks to our function-first workflows. We mitigate risk by providing our partners with crucial wet lab data early in the discovery process, ensuring that the most promising candidates are prioritized in advance. With the integration of BioStrands technologies, IPA can extend its function-first workflow beyond the wet lab to incorporate antibody sequences. Our integrated in silico multi-parametric screening and assessment is highly scalable and cyclical, allowing IPA to move away from the traditional linear triage funnel approach. We can incorporate what was once considered late stage lead candidate development processes, such as humanization, immunogenicity assessment, and liability evaluation early in the cycle. By integrating our in silico services, we are revolutionizing early stage triaging and working towards eliminating costly attrition associated with poor lead candidate selection. Furthermore, apart from the exceptional services we provide, we're also extremely enthusiastic about the business prospects of our in silico work. These services offer several advantages, including rapid revenue recognition and higher profit margins. Moreover, they act as catalysts in attracting clients to our wet lab services, resulting in a desirable feedback loop. The combination of our cutting edge and silico capabilities and wet lab expertise creates a compelling value proposition that drives business growth and customer satisfaction. Based on our expected sales cycle, the impact of the fiscal 23 sales efforts began to materialize in the second half of the year, with three of our top sales order months occurring during this timeframe. Once again, while the sales orders are signed commitments of future antibody discovery-based work and do not encompass our standalone protein production revenue from IPA Europe Utrecht, they are a useful metric in forecasting, even though they may not correlate perfectly with future revenue. While we acknowledge that June 2023 is Q1 of fiscal year 24, the cumulative efforts of fiscal year 23 have resulted in a remarkable monthly sales order record of 3.51 million. This represents an impressive 47% increase over the previous hired record sales order month. The most recent bump can be attributed to growth in our core services and a surge in both phage and humanization offerings. In the last four months, we've initiated 11 phage-based programs as compared to six programs in all of fiscal year 22. In the past six months, we've secured greater than $1.2 million in sales orders for humanization services, solidifying the industry's movement away from transgenic animals. Regarding revenue, as Jennifer mentioned, IPA has achieved notable milestones. In Q4, the company recorded an impressive revenue total of $5.6 million, marking the highest quarterly revenue to date. Additionally, the annual revenue for fiscal year 23 reached $20.7 million, reflecting a solid 6.7% increase compared to fiscal year 22. The sales order and revenue results highlight our strong momentum, consistent growth, and ongoing success in generating revenue. Moving on from the fee-for-service offerings, our asset outlicensing efforts have obviously been a major focal point for our business development team and our proactive approach has yielded significant progress. We have implemented a comprehensive tracking sheet for each program and contact, which enables us to maintain detailed records of all communications, updates and specific requirements related to each program. This systematic approach ensures effective communication and a tailored approach for each targeted company. As a result of our strategy, we have initiated discussions with key decision makers in over 300 companies regarding our non-polytope TALM assets. These conversations have enabled us to identify and prioritize indication and resulted in a new compelling pitch decks and marketing materials that have effectively kept conversations active while our asset data packages are close to being finalized. Thus far, our efforts have led to approximately 30 confidential technical or advanced meetings with interested parties, Additionally, we have approximately 60 companies eagerly awaiting more data. These outcomes highlight our success in driving conversations and generating significant interest in our assets, positioning us favorably in the out licensing landscape. Finally, I'd like to touch on our featured non fee for service partnerships, where recent successes have been driven by the integrative sales approach I mentioned earlier. During fiscal year 23, we identified and executed upon two appropriate in silico joint intercompany opportunities, starting with the Briocell Biostrand. Biostrand has now completed the in silico phase and the program is being evaluated in the wet lab. Secondly, in March, TALM entered into an exclusive research collaboration and license option agreement with Astellas Pharmaceuticals. The goal of the program is to develop antibodies against a novel tumor microenvironment target or or TME target. Because of the unique and challenging nature of the TME, there is an unmet need in the development of a universal solution targeting TME specific antigens. In this collaboration with Astellas, TALM will leverage its experience, knowledge and unique insights acquired in its internal programs in combination with Biostrand's artificial intelligence focused lens AI technology. Following the completion of the in silico and de novo antibody discovery and analysis, Astellas has an exclusive option to license the antibodies against the TME target for the development of therapeutics, including Astellas chimeric antigen receptor-based CAR therapies. We are excited about the ongoing progress of this groundbreaking program. It is important to emphasize the technologies used are not specific to Astellas program and will be available to future partners, including applications targeting the TME. And with that, I will hand it over to our CSO.