Ashland Inc.

Biotel bioresorbable polymers or bioerodible polymers are a platform of polymers that can be degraded and safely broken down by the body. This means that we as chemists can predict or program the chemistry to degrade and break down over a set period of time. This allows formulators to take their drug molecule, incorporate it within a polymer depot, deliver that depot into the patient and then allow the depot to slowly break down over time. So the advantage here is you can sustain release over several weeks or several months based on the programmed depot using the chemistry that Ashland provides. And that has a huge advantage for any particular molecule for a disease like a chronic long-term disease. where you want to deliver the dose and get the concentration within the bloodstream or a localised area at the target levels, not below and not above, so that you get the effect that you want without any outcomes that you don't want. And this Palmer Depot will allow you to do that based on the chemistry that we programmed. This particular type of chemistry is really at the cutting edge in medicine. So if we look at diseases like oncology, cancer, everyone will be aware of the impacts of cancer and the significance for medicine. The forefront has many different therapies being used. Certainly the use of these types of palmers are particularly attractive. So, for example, if we talk about a tumour, A tumour is obviously something that we want to try to target in the body. We typically want to deliver something potent to try and disrupt or damage or destroy that tumour site. The problem with those types of therapies are non-target tissues getting damaged also, which leads to some negative side effects. If you take this drug molecule and if you formulate it into a targeted delivery system, which is also sustained in terms of its release profile, a.k.a. using a Viatel-type bioresorbable polymer, you can improve the targeting effect, get more of the drug to deliver itself into the tumor, and because it's sustaining release, you can build up that drug concentration at the tumor site and overall have a better patient compliance, better patient treatment, better therapy with lower side effects. In terms of growth, this particular market is growing quickly with a CAGR of about 10% to 14%. We also see growth in the longer term in terms of growth in new applications and the opportunity for us to take these palmers and apply them in new areas such as medical devices and regenerative medicine outside of pharmaceutical delivery.

Good day and thank you for standing by.

Welcome to the Ashland Inc. First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during that session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your phone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. And I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Seth Morozek, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, please go ahead.