2/25/2021

speaker
Operator

Greetings and welcome to ZioPharm Oncology Inc. fourth quarter and fiscal year 2020 earnings 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 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, Adam Levy, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

speaker
Adam Levy

Thank you, Omar. Good afternoon and welcome to the ZioPharm Ecology Conference call and webcast to review results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31st, 2020. This afternoon, we issued our financial press release, which is also available in the investors section of our website, ziopharm.com. For informational purposes, we have also included in our webcast a set of slides to accompany today's commentary. These slides can also be found on our website. Today's press release also contains several other corporate updates which will be discussed by our speakers. During today's call, the company will make a number of forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the potential therapeutic candidates in our development pipeline, regulatory status, financial information, and business trends. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. you can see a summary of our forward-looking statement disclosure on slide two of the materials we posted today. Joining me today to give some prepared remarks will be Dr. Lawrence Cooper, Mr. James Wong, Ms. Heidi Hagen, and Dr. Rafael Abafa. Please refer to slide three for an overview of the topics we will cover during these remarks. First, Lawrence, James, and Heidi will briefly share their perspectives on the leadership transition. Second, Heidi will share a business overview including our financial summary and strategic capital allocation priorities across our programs. Third, Heidi will highlight some additional details on our IND clearance announced today for our library hotspot TCRT program. Fourth, Raffaele will provide a summary of upcoming clinical milestones and share additional details on our upcoming R&D day. We will then open the call to your questions. Slides four, five, and six feature our next three speakers. That's a lot to cover, so let's get to it. At this point, I'll turn the call over to Dr. Cooper. Lawrence, please go ahead.

speaker
Omar

Thank you, Adam, and welcome, everyone. This is going to be an atypical quarterly call and one that is somewhat bittersweet. As you likely saw in the release today and effective today, Heidi Hagan will be stepping into the CEO role on an interim basis. I would like to spend a few moments sharing my perspective. I joined ZioPharm almost six years ago with a vision to bring new hope to children and adults suffering from the devastating impact of cancer. As a physician, I witnessed this devastation all too frequently, and to me and others, the Sleeping Beauty technology, when combined with the power of T-cells, offered an opportunity to develop a new type of cellular therapy, one with almost limitless possibilities. but the initial vision was just that, a vision. We had to work tirelessly as a team to bring that vision to the clinic. Now that the clinical development path for our technologies appears launched, I am leaving to enable the company to pursue a path towards commercialization. In the past three months alone, we have received IND clearance to enter the clinic for both our CD19 RPM CAR-T technology in Taiwan and our library hotspot TCRT program in the United States. Adding to the previously cleared INDs for our allogeneic RPM CAR T utilizing healthy donors and the IND for personalized TCRT at the NCI, we now have a compelling suite of our key technologies in the clinic. And our controlled IL-12 is perhaps the furthest along, where we continue to seek a partner for future development, including potential registrational work. I am thankful to have led an exceptional team under which Xyopharm has grown to be an independent and fully equipped clinical stage company. I leave the company in an incredibly strong position. Before I close, I want to specifically express my gratitude to all my colleagues at Xyopharm who came with me on this journey. We dare to dream big, and those dreams are becoming reality. I wish James, Heidi, the board, and this amazing company, and my fellow shareholders well. You're in good hands, and I look forward to a smooth transition. Now, I would like to hand the call off to James Wong, our Executive Chairman. James.

speaker
Adam

Thank you, Lawrence. On behalf of the entire board, the entire organization, we thank you for your leadership and vision. we look forward to your continued guidance on the promising science that serves as the centerpiece of our company. I would like to briefly comment on three topics today, which you can see on slide number five. First, my thoughts on the transition leadership. Second, where I see the company today. And finally, my beliefs on our technologies. Regarding the transition, I offer my full support to both Lawrence and Heidi during the transition. I'm eager to take a more active role as executive chairman and am committed to help the transition to Heidi as our interim CEO and into a full-time replacement as smooth as possible. Shareholders should know that I take this role very seriously. We're going to be incredibly selective in identifying a leader who has the acumen and experience on the business and commercial side to help us realize the potential we have in front of us. I will work closely with the rest of the board to find such a leader. In the meantime, I'm so grateful to Heidi for agreeing to step in as interim CEO. Second, I wanted to share a perspective on a company that Lawrence and the team has built over the past years. In my experience as an investor and entrepreneur in biotech over two-plus decades, There comes a point in time when every company must transition from primarily an early stage science company to one with multiple products and clinical trials and increasing operational activities with an eye towards commercialization. This transition often includes greater reliance on the development of technology and manufacturing.

speaker
Lawrence

Excuse me.

speaker
Adam

and manufacturing capability to ensure success, we're now at the point at Zyrofarm. The commercial path will be grounded in the science, but will include additional challenges and complexities that the company must be ready to tackle. I will take a strategic and disciplined approach to resource and capital allocation and a continued commitment to scientific excellence. I look forward to continuing to be an active part of the leadership of the organization in this regard. Finally, I'm often asked about my views of the technology at Xyle Farm. I'm not a scientist, but I have been in the business long enough to be able to understand and objectively assess the potential of a new technology. At Xyle Farm, all the ingredients are in place. Specifically, the company possesses a distinctive understanding of the immunology of hematological cancer and solid tumors. And the role that we engineer T cells as the way we have known it today could happen as an effective and potentially transformative therapy. The company also has demonstrated it has a scalable technology that can leverage that knowledge in truly unique ways to bring those therapies to patients. The foundation of the Sleeping Beauty non-virus system, which Lawrence helped pioneer, along with promising clinical stage programs across hematological and cytotumor cancers, taken together, is poised to deliver in the coming years for Xyloform, our shareholders, and the patients who will ultimately benefit. The IND clearance Lawrence had just mentioned, offer evidence of the potential in both the CAR-T space, where our JV with Trion Therapeutics, even BioCell is leading the efforts in a highly capital efficient manner, as well as in the TCR space with our library hotspot TCRT program. I look forward to sharing more in particular on our CAR-T program in Asia, where I will deliver additional comments. at our upcoming R&D day on March 11th. Despite many competitors who are exploring technologies in our space, I believe we will remain ahead of the pack and continue to have an opportunity to continue to be in these areas of potential transformational science. I would like to turn the call over to Heidi Hagan now, our incoming interim chief executive officer. Heidi?

speaker
Lawrence

Thank you, James. Let me echo your thanks to Lawrence and add a personal reflection before turning to a business overview. I have known Lawrence for some years now, and I'm honored to call him a colleague and friend. Lawrence, I look forward to calling upon your expertise in the coming months, and I am optimistic the company will continue to benefit from your sage wisdom for many years to come. Thank you. Turning to slide six, I would like to share a few perspectives informed by my 30 years in biotech, of which the last 20 have been in cell and gene therapy. First, I would encourage all of us to keep in mind the tremendous patient benefit that directs everything we do. I have seen firsthand the impact of cell and gene therapies, and it motivates me every day. I have been fortunate enough to be able to lead the design and establishment of cell therapy manufacturing sites in U.S., Asia and Europe and develop an understanding of the importance of manufacturing, often the most challenging part of delivering cellular therapies to patients. The other thing I've learned is that this is a competitive business environment, one that requires making bold operational and strategic capital allocation choices and executing the tough decisions that sometimes come along with that. Shareholders should know that I understand they invest their capital in companies like ours because they believe in the mission and also because they think value can be created long term. I see Xiopharm now poised to deliver on all these fronts with a distinctive scientific base, a capital efficient infrastructure we continue to build out, and a renewed strategic focus guiding our priorities and planning. More work needs to be done, but I am energized by the challenge and the opportunity as we shift the company to a multi-clinical trial operational entity. Now turning to our business overview. You see on slide seven our financial picture, including a snapshot of where we are at the end of fourth quarter 2020 on the left side of the slide. Cash and cash equivalents as of December 31st, 2020, was $115.1 million. In addition, we also had a prepayment balance of approximately $8.1 million for work to be conducted by the company at MD Anderson. Our cash runway continues to bring us into late second quarter of 2022. We are committed to identifying ways of extending this runway through better capital allocation, greater operating efficiency, and other non-dilutive approaches. My expectation as CEO is that we will be successful. More detailed financials can be found in our 10-K, which we expect to file shortly and we'll have available on our website. But let me share a few items that we summarized on today's press release. Our research and development expenses were $14 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. That is compared to $10.2 million for the fourth quarter of year 2019 and $52.7 million for the full year as compared to $38.3 million in 2019. This increase reflects increased clinical trial preparation and operational activity. G&A expenses were $8.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2020 and $27.7 million for the full year compared to $5.8 million and $19.5 million, respectively, in the year 2019. For the full year of 2020, we reported a net loss applicable to common shareholders of $80 million and or, sorry, 38 cents per basic share, basic and diluted share, compared to the net loss of 117.8 million or 70 cents per share for 2019. On the right side of the slide, you see how our strategy and capital allocation priorities map against each of our three programs. As I alluded to earlier, strategy is all about making choices, and we are committed to spending our time, capital, and resources judiciously. First, our top priority continues to be our TCRT programs. We are very excited with our announcement earlier today that we received IND clearance for our library TCRT program for phase 1-2 clinical work across multiple solid tumors. This study will utilize our Sleeping Beauty technology to deliver non-virally engineered T cells across six unique mutagenic hotspots. We are in track to begin dosing patients during the second half of the year at MD Anderson Cancer Center, our initial clinical site. Next, regarding our CD19-specific CAR-T RPM autologous program being conducted in Taiwan. We continue to make great progress through our JV partner, Eden BioCell. We announced our IND clearance during fourth quarter 2020 of a phase one clinical trial to evaluate our non-viral sleeping beauty-enabled rapid personalized manufacturing, or RPM, technology. This study will investigate treatment of patients with relapsed CD19 positive leukemias and lymphomas and is the first non-viral CAR T study in Taiwan. Despite several marketed cell therapies, there remains tremendous challenges preventing broader use of CD19 specific CAR T therapies. We feel our platform, which allows infusing T cells the day after gene transfer, has the potential to be important and valuable as it offers differentiated features not currently available in marketed CAR-T cell therapies. It is also important to highlight the fact that XioPharm retains full X greater China rights to this technology, including any process improvements identified by the Eden BioCell team in Taiwan. Finally, with respect to our controlled IL-12 program, the team has worked incredibly hard to bring the program to this point. During fourth quarter 2020, we reported additional data at Snow illustrating the benefit of our technology that highlighted the important benefits in combination with checkpoint inhibitors and as a monotherapy. The full body of clinical data supports a consistent story of meet potentially meaningful clinical benefit in patients suffering from recurrent glioblastoma. We will continue to seek the right partner for this program for further development, including registrational trials and commercialization, with a focus on returning value to the company and shareholders for the promising progress to date. Turning now to our third theme of progress in cell therapy, On slide 8, you can see a schematic of our two approaches in the TCRT space, the library and personalized programs. As we mentioned a few moments ago, our company IND for the library hotspot TCRT trial was cleared by the FDA. This IND advances six curated TCRs from our library of over 30 into clinical trials for five cancer types. In essence, it is six INDs in one. and reflects an incredible effort by the team that worked tirelessly over the last past months, including through the holidays. Patients on this TCR-T trial will be matched with TCRs in library based on their underlying mutation in KRAS and TP53 and their HLA type. The screening for the neoantigen is based on tumor profiling, which in many cases is already available in the patient's medical record combined with HLA testing for every patient. Once matched, the TCR, which is already in a clinical grade sleeping beauty construct, is used to reprogram the patient's T cells to target one of the two driver genes. We will not only hope to begin enrolling patients this year, but we also expect to add TCRs to the library trial. Six TCRs in our library should provide patients with an opportunity for a match, but the greater the number of TCRs, the greater the chance a patient can receive our TCR therapy. On the bottom of this panel, you will see a schematic of the personalized approach, a comment on the NCI work on the personalized approach. Work is suspended and the ongoing delay being outside of our control, and it is unrelated to XioPharm technology. We understand all gene and cell therapy work is being impacted. We are fully engaged and supportive of Dr. Rosenberg and his team, and we look forward to their progress when the cause of their delay is addressed. I would like to turn the call over to Raffaele now, who will cover the fourth theme around our upcoming milestones and talk in more detail about our R&D event next month. Raffaele?

speaker
James

Thank you, Heidi. Let me start on slide nine by highlighting the next 18 to 24 months of clinical milestones. As you can see, this year will bring many exciting milestones. Let me point out just a few. First, I would echo Both James and I did the excitement of the clearance of the TCRT library IND. One of the things that attracted me to ZioPharm was the non-viral sleeping beauty technology and its potential to develop transformative therapies for patients suffering from chronic cancer. It's an incredible opportunity to be part of the ZioPharm team now, taking that potential into the clinic. This team is poised to begin enrolling and treating patients, which we would expect to occur in the second half of the year. We look forward to sharing the initial clinical data on this program next year. We are also excited that in the Q4 of 2020, we received clearance on our CD19-RKM CAR-T program in Taiwan. We expect that our JV partner, Eden Biocell, with those patients in this study during the first half of the year, and plan to be able to share preliminary data during the second half of the year. As a reminder, in Asia, as we reported last month, patients have already been treated under compassionate use and investigator-initiated trials. These efforts, while not formally part of a controlled clinical trial, continue to provide encouraging early signals about the potential of the therapy. Regarding our IELTS program, we look forward to providing updates later this year. I would like to conclude by highlighting some details around the working agenda of our self-therapy-focused R&D Day event next month. You can see this on slide 10 in the deck. This will be an important and exciting event for us. Everyone will have the opportunity to hear in greater detail information and updates about our cell therapy programs. Heidi will kick things off for us by sharing more detail on our strategy and our vision. I will share more thoughts on our portfolio and some perspective on where we are and how I evaluate the portfolio still as a relative newcomer to the company. Drew Denninger, our Vice President of Immunology, will follow with a review of our own TCR program, and our vision for the continued evolution in the clinic. As James mentioned earlier, here we share some observation and thoughts on our work in Asia for our CD19 RPM CAR-T. Importantly, we are also very fortunate to have world-class thought leaders and research visionaries joining us on the call, as you can see on slide 11. including Dr. Steven Rosenberg, Dr. Carl June, and Dr. Scott Koppet. They will share their perspectives on the current prospects across both the CAR-T and the TCR-T space as it pertains to our program. Finally, our management team will be available to take your questions and feedback. I hope you will join me and the rest of the team for this event. A registration link was provided in the press release today and is available on our website. I will now turn the call back to the operator for questions.

speaker
Lawrence

Operator?

speaker
Operator

At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. 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. And for participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. And our first question is from Alicia Young with Cancer Fitzgerald. Hey, guys.

speaker
Alicia Young

Thanks for taking my questions. A couple questions I have here, and wishing you all the best, Lawrence. One, just for the future of the company, obviously this IND filing for the TCRT library is big. So I guess, you know, just talk a little bit about how that opens up further doors and lowers your reliance on, you know, perhaps And also, does it speed up the pace in which you can put assets into the clinic? And I'll ask the second one, then I'll wait for my third one. My second one is, you know, with your IL-2 program, you know, is it kind of moving forward as lower priority because of the GBM target itself, or is it just that you find, you know, kind of other technologies more promising? And then I have just one last one.

speaker
Adam Levy

Raffaele, do you want to take the first question from Alethea on the TCR program?

speaker
James

Yes. So, Lisa, can you say again, because I was focusing actually on the second part of the question, but the first one I can add that the IND, you know, clearance is a big step forward for us, right? And we are going to have patients by the end of the year. But you brought up a very important issue, so that opened the door for our program to go in the clinic, you know, in the next year or two, if that was the question.

speaker
Alicia Young

Yeah, basically that was it.

speaker
Adam Levy

And then on IL-12, I think I'm happy to kick off, and Heidi, if you want to comment, but it's a lot of different factors in my mind contributing to the strategic choices we're making. It's not exclusively the target or the technology, but it's a matter of making some discipline choices. And as you know, Alicia, we've talked about a lot in the past. As programs move into registrational trials, that's where the big expense is incurred and the big capital outlays occur. So the decisions are in a way dependent on the phase we're moving into. And I think that's guiding part of the thinking here. I don't know, Heidi, if you want to add anything to that.

speaker
Lawrence

Sure, I think that it's very, as you stated, a multifactorial decision. And along with FASE, we see the program as extremely promising, especially with the data that we've brought to date and the package that we have so far. And we just see a distinct opportunity to look out into the broader industry for partners who can bring their expertise to the table in kind of the registration and commercialization opportunities with that. It really is a combination of focus, capital allocation, and really knowing where this program is and what it needs for the next steps. And we are a company of a certain size with multiple and great technologies. And so this is one of those difficult decisions you sometimes make in terms of focus. And so it is many different factors that have gone into how we've done our allocation.

speaker
Alicia Young

Okay, and just maybe my third question is just, you know, with the management changes, I guess, where kind of would you tell investors are going to, you know, put their focus, you know, whether it be on technology or kind of the fast forward as far as, you know, producing, you know, clinical assets, you know, since additionally you have this kind of off-the-shelf library that's fully sorted out things.

speaker
Lawrence

James, do you want to jump in on that one?

speaker
Adam

Sure. I really think from an investor perspective, everyone will be focusing on the patient data that are going to be generated over the next 12 months. That's what creates value. We have some early signal, as we said today in today's call, of Asia. But remember, that's actually in a compassionate use setting initiated by the investigators. And so what we have been learning from those early signals is how can we, in a true ID setting in Taiwan, to then to prove that the power of our platform. I really believe in the next six to 12 months, you will see powerful data coming out of our programs.

speaker
Lawrence

Great. Thank you. Thanks, Alicia. And our next question is from Eric Joseph with JP Morgan.

speaker
Alicia

Hi, good afternoon. This is Hannah on for Eric. Thanks for taking our question. Just a couple from us. First, on the upcoming library TCRT trial, you had indicated earlier in this year that there was a possibility to potentially submit an amendment to the IND to include more than the original six TCRs. Just wondering if that was still in mind, and if so, what would the selection criteria be for these additional TCRs? what kind of data would be informing that selection, and would they also be against the same driver mutations as the original?

speaker
Adam Levy

Thanks, Hannah. Raffaele, do you want to talk about how we're thinking about expanding the library?

speaker
James

Correct. So the current IND, as you said and you heard earlier, includes six of the TCR. But our plan is to add additional TCR with one amendment or more than one amendment. You asked the question about which TCR. Of course, I can't share that information, but it is going to be selected based on our clinical data that will support the moving to the clinic for the different TCRs.

speaker
Alicia

Okay, great. Thank you. That's helpful. And I just have one about the Eden BioCell or just the original, the initial data coming through from the Compassionate Use and Investigator Use Studies in Asia. When might we expect to see some of that data? Would you be able to present it in March, or does that seem more like a later update for you guys?

speaker
Lawrence

James, do you want to talk a little bit about that?

speaker
Adam

Sure. I'll be happy to talk about that. We have already enrolled a small cohort of patients. And based on the small cohort patients, we will be presenting at the R&D day the patients that we have available information and access to that. But again, I just keep in mind, these are compassionate use data, and we can only obtain information that are available and given to us by the investigators. I'll be happy to share a lot more details when we get there.

speaker
Adam Levy

And Hannah, I would just add, as you know, we... the real validating data will come through controlled clinical trials, and that's why we point to the Taiwan IND as being so critical. So we're all eager to see that get launched, and we'll have more to say on that as well.

speaker
Alicia

Okay, that makes sense.

speaker
Lawrence

Great. Thank you so much. Sure. Thanks, Hannah. And our next question is from Chris Howerton with Jefferies. Hey, Chris.

speaker
Hannah

Hey there. Thanks for taking the questions. And Lawrence, I truly wish you nothing but the best. It's been great to get to know you over these last couple of years. So with respect to the questions, I guess, you know, for the current six TCRs that you have available, do you have any way to estimate what kind of coverage or efficiency you might have in terms of the patient populations or overlay that to HLA that might be available in just a general population just trying to get a sense of coverage that you have from your library first of all and then the second question is that you know obviously Lawrence has had a great relationship with MD Anderson and that's an important part of the strategy moving forward what can you do to provide comfort to investors that will maintain to be true in the future?

speaker
Adam Levy

Yeah, Rafael, do you want to talk about the coverage in broad terms for the initial six TCRs?

speaker
James

Yeah, so we have estimates, of course, but we are not going to share it. Probably you're going to hear a little bit more on the R&D day, so welcome to join us that day. Uh, and as we said earlier, answering the previous question, we're planning also to expand that. Right. Uh, so the, the other, the other, the other question on the MD Anderson, you know, we, we know, you know, the Lawrence had this great relationship with MD Anderson, but we are the, as a Zio farm, we still have a very strong relationship with MD Anderson. I personally have a very strong relationship. I've been working with MD Anderson for the past 10, 12 years. So that will continue.

speaker
MD Anderson

We'll continue to work with you in the end, absolutely.

speaker
Lawrence

And we count on Lauren's help, of course. Sure. Okay. Well, I guess I'll stay tuned for a couple weeks then. Thanks. Thank you, Chris.

speaker
Operator

And our next question is from Yale Ken with Layla and Co.

speaker
spk03

Good afternoon, and thanks for taking the questions. And I add my appreciation for Lawrence and welcome Heidi to the agree situation. Thank you. You're welcome. And my first question is that in terms of the Taiwan clinical study, was there any indication has been selected to be included in the CD19 study trial or that's still open for many potentials?

speaker
Adam Levy

Sorry, Yale, was your question around which indications?

speaker
spk03

Yeah, what indications for the DD19 CAR-T to be included in the EDEN's trial?

speaker
Adam Levy

Yeah, I think it's, I can let James follow on. I can just jump in. It's autologous T cell relapsed leukemias and lymphomas. These are very sick patients.

speaker
Lawrence

Okay, that's correct. Okay.

speaker
spk03

Okay, and also just for the TCRT from Houston, are you guys going mainly, potentially mainly cover solid tumors, including non-small cell lung, or you might even possibly start with myeloma, those very immune-responsive tumors at the beginning?

speaker
James

No, we're focusing actually, the current AMD is focused on five indications, and all of them are epithelial solid tumors. So I can tell you that cholangiocarcinoma, pancreatic cancer, no small cell lung cancer, and colorectal cancer, cholangiocarcinoma. So non-maloma, non-rheumato-malignant disease.

speaker
spk03

Okay, great. Well, thanks a lot, and again, congrats on the new direction.

speaker
Lawrence

Thanks, Yale.

speaker
Operator

And our next and final question is from Thomas Flatton with Lake Street Capital Markets.

speaker
Thomas Flatton

Great. Thanks, guys, for taking the question. Welcome, Heidi and James. Just from a practical perspective, with respect to the ongoing programs within IL-12, will those continue to be funded through to completion, or how are you thinking about kind of rounding out the package that you have to out-license or sell?

speaker
Adam Levy

Heidi, you want to jump in on that?

speaker
Lawrence

Sure, as you can imagine with any program that is mid-step, you don't just completely shut it off. So, we will be looking at those pieces that we will perhaps wind down, finish up pieces that are really important for partnering and making sure that we have the best and valuable package in which we can potentially partner with somebody on. it'll be done in a very judicious manner and something that will be appropriate for both capital allocation, but also the opportunity that would present for partnering and moving that program forward next stages with somebody who may want to do that with us.

speaker
Thomas Flatton

So with those expenses likely to wind down, but then winding up expenses on some of the other programs, can you help us think through spending over the course of 2021?

speaker
Lawrence

I think quite honestly, you know, coming just straight into this position literally in the last couple days, we're going to dive into that and really look at what's going on with each of the programs and what can really move us forward. As we mentioned before, clinical data is really important in all these programs, and that's going to be a priority for us and will be a springboard to opportunities of, you know, other potential programs as we move forward. So we will be focusing on our TCRT program. The CAR-T program, as we've mentioned before, is being heavily carried forward in Taiwan and China, and we will look to the data there to make decisions later on on that. So most of our focus will be on TCRT, but as I said, we'll just judiciously do what we need to on IL-12 to make it a valuable program.

speaker
Thomas Flatton

Okay, great. Thanks for taking the questions.

speaker
Lawrence

And we actually have another question from David Novak with Raymond James. Hey, David. Hi, David. Are you there? Sorry, guys. Can you hear me now? Yeah, we can hear you, David.

speaker
David Novak

I apologize about that. Thanks very much for taking my questions. First and foremost, Lawrence, I just want to wish you the absolute best in the next chapter. Most of my questions have been answered here. However, I suppose I just have one remaining. You guys talk about maintaining the rights to any process improvements developed by Eden Biosol X China. Are there any such improvements you can talk about that have been developed to date, which could or maybe have already been implemented in the U.S. aloe carotid trial?

speaker
Adam Levy

Yeah, thanks, David. We don't disclose specifics around that, especially to people that call in late and start their question on mute. Just kidding, of course. But we'll be able to share a little bit more detail on the technology strategy at our R&D day. But I think it's important just to emphasize the general principle, which is that as we talked about, the learnings from the team in Taiwan at Eden flow through and will benefit the programs across the rest of the geographies, and those accrue directly to XioPharm.

speaker
Lawrence

Got it. Thanks very much, guys. I appreciate it. Sure, David.

speaker
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached the end of the question and answer session, and I would like to turn the call back over to Adam Levy for closing remarks.

speaker
Adam Levy

Thank you, Omar, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. As always, we are happy to set up additional discussions and make members of the management team available to answer any additional questions. As a reminder, we also look forward to speaking with you again very soon on our R&D day, March 11th. Thank you, and have a good afternoon.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. This concludes tonight's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

-

-