Opko Health, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the OPCW Health second quarter 2024 financial results 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 telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Yvonne Briggs. Please go ahead.

Yvonne Briggs 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 second 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. The conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of the live broadcast. August 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 of today's call. Dr. Philip Frost, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will open the call. Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Vice Chairman and President, We'll then provide an overview of BioReference Health, followed by Opco's pharmaceutical business. After that, Adam Logel, Opco's CFO, will review the company's second quarter financial results, and then we'll open up 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. We recently made a few announcements focused on optimizing our balance sheet and enhancing shareholder value. we entered into a $250 million note purchase agreement with healthcare royalty that is secured by the gross profit share arrangement we have with Pfizer, our global commercial partner for NGINLA. The transaction allows us to retain a significant portion of the near-term profit share payments and also provide substantial upside opportunities long-term. we maintain rights to the full $100 million of remaining potential milestone payments from Pfizer. The proceeds provide financial flexibility to advance our R&D efforts for MODEX and its multi-specific antibody programs, other opco programs, and the option to repurchase shares of our common stock and convertible notes. As you know, our board authorized a $100 million share repurchase program, which at present prices represents approximately 10% of our shares outstanding. This share buyback program represents an attractive investment opportunity given our confidence in the business and our strategy. In general, our long-acting growth hormone therapy continues to gain traction as Pfizer expands its launch with the product now being sold globally. Adrenaline competes in a large and expanding global market opportunity. As mentioned on our last conference call, the IND for MODEX 2001 was cleared by the FDA for us to proceed to a phase one clinical trial to treat solid tumors. Our goal is to develop a first in class tetraspecific antibody that activates T cells and survival enhancement receptors to optimize sustained cancer treatment. The first patient is expected to be dosed in the coming weeks. In addition, we're on track to begin clinical trials of our Epstein-Barr vaccine candidate with our partner Merck later this year. Elias will provide more detail on these and other MODX pipeline programs in a moment. As for BioReference Health, we're making steady progress on the return to profitability, which will accelerate when we close the announced transaction with LabCorp. We're continuing to progress our collaboration with Enterra Bio to develop oral tablet formulations of our proprietary long-acting GLP-2 peptide and oxyntamodulin analogs using Enterra's proprietary NTAP oral delivery technology. And Terra recently announced in vivo PK results for oral GLP-2 tablets to treat short bowel syndrome and other GI disorders. Plasma levels compared favorably with those reported for Teduglutide Agatex product. Pharmacology and incremental PK are expected early in the second half of 2024. With that brief overview, I'll turn it over to Elias.