PDS Biotechnology Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the PDS Biotech fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mike Moyer, with LifeSci Advisors. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to PDS Biotech's fourth quarter 2025 results and clinical programs update call. I'm joined on a call today by the following members of the company's management team. Dr. Frank Badu-Addo, Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Kirk Shepard, Chief Medical Officer, and Lars Bosgaard, Chief Financial Officer. Dr. Badu-Addo will begin with an overview of the company's recent highlights in its clinical development program. Dr. Shepard will review the data and rationale behind the amendment the company recently adopted to its Phase III Versatile 003 trial, and Mr. Bosgaard will review The financial results for the quarter ended December 31st, 2025. Following management's prepared remarks, we will open the call to questions from covering analysts. As a reminder, during this call, we will be making forward-looking statements which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. Any such statement should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements in our press releases. and risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC, including our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual report on Form 10-K, and cautionary statements made during this call. We assume no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements or information. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Dr. Badua Do, Frank.

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. It's our pleasure to speak with you again and to provide this brief update on our progress in advancing our clinical programs. The fourth quarter of 2025 capped a period of important progress for PDS Biotech, marked by meaningful advances across our clinical programs, along with financial discipline and expansion of our intellectual property portfolio. Building on the compelling top-line data from our Bursetel 002 Phase II trial, We believe the versatile 003 protocol amendment we've adopted has the potential to create a more efficient path to accelerated approval, shortening the trial's duration, reducing costs, and accelerating our timeline to regulatory submission, while preserving overall survival as the basis for full approval. For patients living with HPV16-positive head and neck cancer, a disease with significant and growing unmet need, we believe PDS-0101 represents a genuinely promising treatment option, and we remain focused on advancing it as efficiently as possible. In recent weeks, we also announced early results from a National Cancer Institute-led trial investigating PDS-01-ADC, our investigational IL-12 tumor-targeted immunocytokine, at the American Association for Cancer Research, AACR, Special Conference on Prostate Cancer Research. In patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, the majority of whom had filled at least two prior treatments, the combination of PDS-01-ADC and standard-of-care docetaxel demonstrated encouraging and durable median progression pre-survival, or PFS, of 9.6 months, and a median prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, decline of 40%. Six of 16 patients achieved greater than 50% PSA decline. These findings reinforce the potential of PDS01-ADC as an immunocytokine that may be used to activate the immune system against multiple solid tumor types. We are encouraged by the progression-free survival and PSA declines observed in this difficult-to-treat population, and we remain focused on advancing PDS01-ADC as a key component of our immuno-oncology pipeline. Since we last spoke with you, we also strengthened the intellectual property estate for PDS01-01 with new patents granted in the United States and Japan. The new U.S. patent, combined with anticipated biologics exclusivity for PDS-0101, extends our market protection into the 2040s. The Japanese patent adds broad composition of matter claims to existing protections across major markets. To elaborate on progress with our Versatile 003 trial in particular, the data and rationale behind the decision to amend the study protocol I'll turn the call over to Dr. Kirk Shepherd, our Chief Medical Officer. Kirk?

Thanks, Frank, and good morning, everyone. As most of you know, last August we announced completion of our Versatile 002 trial with the final data further supporting the durable clinical benefit of PDS-0101 in HPV-16 positive recurrent and or metastatic head and neck cancer. The strength of this final data End of the date in the sub-analysis we announced in September led to our strategic decision to seek an amendment to our Versatile 003 trial to include progression-free survival, or PFS, as a primary endpoint. As you will recall, the Versatile 002 trial evaluated PDS0101 plus Keytruda or Pembrolizumab in patients with HPV16-positive head and neck cancer. a total of 53 patients were enrolled. The final data showed median overall survival was 39.3 months in patients with PD-L1 combined positive score, or PPS, of more than or equal to one. The lower limit of the 95% confidence interval was 23.9 months, and the upper limit was not yet estimatable. The Versatile 002 trial is the first of patients in recurrent metastatic head and neck cancer population to report a median overall survival of almost 40 months. The PFS and survival results had important implications for the original design of our Phase III Versatile 003 trial. In the original trial protocol, as recommended by the FDA, median overall survival was the primary endpoint, and progression-free survival with a secondary endpoint. It should be noted that the median overall survival relies on the occurrence of death events, and that if a drug works well enough to prevent patient death, it may take a long time to get to the critical data readout. With further increase of the final median overall survival readout from 30 months to 39.3 months in the Versatile 002 trial, and demonstration of the robustness of the PFS results, we felt we had an opportunity to revise the clinical design to enable a potentially faster readout and opportunity for accelerated approval using PFS as a primary endpoint. To address the potential for an extended trial duration while also abiding with the FDA's recommendation to use median overall survival as a primary endpoint, We approached the FDA to amend the protocol to convert PFS to an earlier interim primary endpoint. Following a productive dialogue with the FDA, we were pleased to announce that following the FDA's standard 30-day wait period since filing, the FDA raised no objections, and we are clear to proceed with the amended protocol. We believe this amendment provides us with an important opportunity to potentially shorten the time to regulatory submission while maintaining median overall survival as the endpoint for full FDA approval. Additionally, we also believe this approach may also accelerate the availability of this promising treatment to the rapidly growing population of HPV-16 positive patients in dire need of effective therapy. For added context, I'll point out that some additional factors to help explain why we and our investigators are so excited about our current path forward. First, PDS0101 is the only subcutaneous injection product currently in late stage development for recurrent and or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, which is more convenient for the patient. Additionally, PDS0101, in combination with Keytruda, is the only late-stage head and next wave of cell carcinoma therapy that requires only five doses. Most therapeutic approaches require over 20 doses. Our approach also presents convenient dosing intervals of three weeks and six months after the fourth dose. These characteristics of PDS-0101, together with the reported tolerability and survival reported to date, make PDS0101 a compelling option for patients. It is therefore not surprising that several KOLs and investigators involved in our study, and many of the institutions, such as the Mayo Clinic, Dana-Farber, and Yale Cancer Institute, continue to voice their strong support for our approach. HPV16 positive cancers are rapidly increasing in the U.S. and EU. Due to the poor uptake of the human papillomavirus vaccine, and other factors. Along with the unique pathogenesis physiology of the HPV16 positive cancers and the absence of approved targeted therapies, there's a significant unmet need. We believe that PDS0101 is uniquely positioned to address. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Frank.

Thank you, Kirk. To Kirk's comments, I would add that, as stated by Merck, the subcutaneous version of Keytruda, which was recently approved by the FDA, can be administered by a healthcare provider in as little as one minute. So a potential combination with subcutaneous PDS-0101 may shorten administration time and be more convenient for patients. We are excited about the potential of this therapy for head and neck cancer patients. We are therefore confident in the potential of our HPV16-tailored approach and the potential of PDS0101 to ultimately provide a well-tolerated treatment without chemotherapy as an option for the growing population of HPV16-positive patients who currently have no effective therapies for this deadly disease and who will soon become the majority of head and neck cancer patients. Now I will turn it over to Lars for a review of our financial results for the 2025 fiscal year. Lars?

Thanks, Frank, and good morning, everyone. Net loss for the year ended December 31, 2025, was approximately $34.5 million, or 74 cents per basic and diluted share, which compares to a net loss of $37.6 million, or $1.03, per basic and diluted share for the year ended December 31, 2024. Research and development expenses for the year ended December 31, 2025 were $19 million compared to 22.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. The decrease of 3.6 million was primarily attributable to decreases in manufacturing costs of $2.5 million and personnel costs of 1.8 million. And those decreases were partially offset by an increase in clinical cost of $0.7 million. General and administrative expenses for the year into December 31, 2025 were $12.5 million compared to $13.8 million for 2024. The $1.3 million decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in personnel costs. Total operating expenses for the year into December 31, 2025 were $31.5 million compared to 36.3 million for 2024. Net interest expense was 4.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, compared to 2.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. The change was primarily due to non-cash expenses related to extinguishment of debt, as well as lower interest income on our cash balances. The company's cash balance as of December 31, 2025 was $26.7 million. And with that operated, we can open the call to any questions.

Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. We ask that you each keep to one question and one follow-up. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Joe Pandenas with HC Wainwright. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, this is Josh on for Joe. Thanks for taking our questions. So now that you have the amended protocol cleared, could you share what the revised enrollment target is going to look like and how that reduction compares to the original design?

Josh, thanks a lot. I'll hand it over to Kirk to answer your questions.

Yes, certainly. With the revised protocol and also the increased median survival and robustness of the PFS in 002, we had a meeting with the FDA, which was a very good dialogue. And at that, we were able to shorten the trial to... as much as a year as far as getting the final results. Of course, the PFS will be the interim analysis that will first be available, most likely, in a period of about a year and a half. That will allow us, if we get an accelerated review, as you know, to make the drug available to patients. So, with the decrease in the N, as well as the increased results from the final analysis of the Versatile 002, we were able to shorten the duration with a smaller N for the trial.

Great, thank you. And so now with this amended protocol, how should we expect R&D to be for 2026? Do you expect that to be a little bit lower than 2025 now with the smaller trial design?

Lars, I'll hand over to you.

Yeah, so I think as far as the R&D expenses, we're not providing, you know, financial guidance per se. However, of course, once we reinitiate the trial, we do expect cost to pick up. The pickup will be commensurate with the amount of sites that we open and patient enrollment and so forth. So it's tricky to forecast right now.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mayank Montani with BeWriter Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Yes, good morning, Dean. Thanks for the email questions. Could you touch on your plans to handle patients already enrolled prior to the 3 pause as part of your interim analysis and wonder if you remain blinded to those some of patients I assume they're continuing to dose on active drug and placebo? And then my follow-up question to the prior question was, anything you've learned last year from the execution of phase three that could inform the enrollment pace from here? And I'm sorry if I missed that. Did you say what the sample size, what the new sample size for the phase three is? Are you willing to share any more details on, you know, the two, it looks like you have the two PFS analysis, so I don't know what they're designed to hit on the first versus the second. If you can give any more details, that would be great.

Thanks, Mayank. Kirk, do you want to start?

Yeah, certainly. There's many questions asked there. Well, first, the patients who were started on the trial, they will all continue their treatment as indicated by the protocol. It was discussed with the FDA, and they said it was up to us as far as whether to include or not include these patients in the trial. They just wanted to be stated ahead of the protocol restart. But these patients will be on the trial as their treatment indicated. they will most likely be put in a special subset of the data that will be included for safety in the intent to treat data trial. So, they will continue to receive their therapy. Let's see the other parts of the study. Sorry, could you repeat something else, Frank? Yes.

enrollment pace based on what you saw last year. And I believe there's no competitive trial now enrolling, you know, given the other trials that were accepting H3V-16 positive, you know, are fully enrolled maybe. And then If you can share with us the sample size of the new study and the interim analysis, PFS analysis that, you know, what are the underlying assumptions of separation between the two arms?

Yeah, so the enrollment pace was very good and will continue to be good because we've had a very positive response from the sites that we've gone to to run the study. As you've mentioned now, there's less competition than was when we first began the trial. so that we have a robust recruitment of sites. And we're happy to say, too, even with the pause we had while talking to the FDA, we didn't lose one site. They're all excited by this therapy and ready to begin again. So we're very happy about that. Also, the fact that we figured out our timelines by looking at the Versatile 002 study, which was done at a certain rate, and now we expect even increased rate because most of the sites came back so that the versatile 002 sites are now going to be involved in a 003 study which is good because they know the workings of the protocol and the product and we expect to have pretty uh you know brisk recruitment of the patients got it mike i hope that answered your questions

Sorry to push you. If you can share with us the powering assumptions for the interim PFS and the new sample size for the phase three.

No, so we haven't made the sample size public yet, but the PFS, again, powered at high power to detect changes in statistically significant changes in PFS. one at completion of recruitment and the other about six months later. So both provide high power to detect statistically significant differences between the two arms.

Okay, great. Thank you, Frank.

You're welcome. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll conclude our question and answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Dr. Bediouadou for any final comments.

Thank you, Operator. Combined with early data from our PDS01-ADC program and expanded patient protections extending into the 2040s, we believe we have meaningful opportunities ahead as we continue to execute against our priorities in 2026. We look forward to updating you on our progress. Thank you very much.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.