Opko Health, Inc.

Hello, and welcome to the Opco Health First Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please see no conference specialists 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 telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. Now I'd like to turn the call to your host today, Yvonne Briggs. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon. This is Yvonne Briggs with LHA. Thank you all for joining today's call to discuss Opco Health's financial results for the first quarter of 2024. I'd like to remind you that any statements made during this call by management other than statements of historical fact will be considered forward-looking and, as such, will be subject to risks and uncertainties that can materially affect the company's expected results. Those forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the various risks described in the company's SEC filings, including the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and in subsequently filed SEC reports. This conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of the live broadcast, May 7, 2024. Except as required by law, OPCO undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this call. Before we begin, let me review the format for today's call. Dr. Philip Frost, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will open the call. Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Vice Chairman and President, will then provide an overview of BioReference Health, followed by OPCO's pharmaceutical business. And after that, Adam Logel, Opco's CFO, will review the company's first quarter financial results, and then we'll open the call to questions. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Dr. Frost.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. In March, we announced an agreement to sell certain assets of BioReference Health to LabCorp for $237.5 million. The assets include bioreferences, clinical diagnostics, and women's health testing services outside of New York and New Jersey. The transaction was specifically structured in a manner so as to increase the likelihood of obtaining expedited clearance from antitrust regulators. But it also streamlines the remaining operations to advance the path to profitability for our diagnostic segment. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of this year, pending FTC clearance. In general, our long-acting growth hormone therapy continues to gain traction as our global commercial partner, Pfizer, expands its launch of the product in over 40 global markets. This once-weekly injection product to treat growth hormone deficiency is the first new chemical entity developed at Apco Biologics in Israel, where we now have other preclinical candidates under development. One is a long-acting form of oxyntamodulin analog, which I mentioned in our last quarterly call. The pegylated form of this active peptide has been shown to be effective and safe in treating diabetes and obesity in a Phase II study in over 450 patients. The new long-acting form is expected to have the same pharmacology profile as the pegylated form, but permits administering larger doses. We have in development a long-acting HVH antagonist for the treatment of acromegaly caused by the excessive secretion of growth hormone and IGF-1. We are progressing in our work with EnteroBio to develop oral forms of oxydemodulin and a GLP-2 analog for short bowel syndrome and other disorders involving nutrient malabsorption. We look forward to keep you apprised of progress with these promising programs. MODX continues to advance its development work, and two programs are on track to enter the clinic this year, our Epstein-Barr vaccine, licensed to Merck, and our multispecific oncology antibody, which has received FDA clearance for a phase one trial. Our collaboration with BARDA is moving forward and provides non-dilutive financing to develop multi-specific antibodies against COVID. As work progresses on this first indication, we will begin to explore alternative targets to tackle other biodefense threats, such as influenza. With that brief overview, I'll turn it over to Elias. Elias?