Nxera Pharma Co Ltd

We will now begin the webinar on the Sosei Group financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2022. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today. I am Nomura, CFO, and I will be the moderator for this session. Chris Cargill, CEO, and Matt Burns, President of Heptares and UK Head of Research and Development, are attending today. Simultaneous translation will be provided. Please select either Japanese or English by clicking on the globe icon in the lower right corner of the screen. If you choose off, you will hear the speaker's original voice. Today, we will present the progress of our business with the materials in the first half, followed by a question and answer session in the second half. The presentation materials will be shared on the screen. They are also available on our website. If you would like to obtain a copy of the materials, please click on the shareholder investor relations tab in the upper right corner of our company homepage and select the presentation materials. and video to access the materials. For questions, institutional investors, analysts, and the media will be requested to raise their hands in the Q&A session. All other participants are requested to submit their questions by clicking on the Q&A button. You may submit your question at any time during the webinar. You will answer as the time permits during the Q&A session in the second half of the session. If you are going to ask any questions, please Try to install the app and then join the winner because sometimes the browser based have some technical problems. Now we will now move on to the presentation. First, I will give you an update on the financial results for the first half of the year, followed by a novel business update from CEO Chris. and R&D progress from President and R&D head Matt. And finally, Chris will explain our goals and growth strategy for the current fiscal year and for the future. Now, please go to page five. This is the financial summary for the first half of the year through the end of June. Revenue was 2.4 billion yen compared to 3.1 billion yen in the same period last year, and operating loss was 3.8 billion yen compared to a loss of 1.8 billion yen in the same period last year. This is mainly due to the fact that as far as the period until the end of June is concerned, There were not many milestone payments from partners, resulting in lower revenue, and also we are accelerating R&D for stronger future growth, as we had planned from the beginning of the period. On the other hand, we have retained approximately 54 billion yen in cash and cash equivalents, which continues to provide us with ample room for disruptive future growth through mergers and acquisitions. and in licensing. In addition, the progress of our business since July 1st is not reflected in the second quarter results that we are announcing here. But as we have already released, since the beginning of August, we have received an upfront payment of approximately 5 billion yen from a new track discovery collaboration with App-V. We also received a milestone payment of approximately ¥4 billion for the M4 agonist licensed out to Neuroclin for schizophrenia, which advanced to Phase 2 trials. Although our business model may not show much progress visible over a short period of time from outside, for example, until the end of June, we would like you to understand that our business is making solid progress, along with steady progress in research and development. Furthermore, although Appy's revenue has been received in a ransom in cash, it is to be recorded in the P&L in the third and fourth quarter of this year and thereafter, in accordance with IFA's accounting standards. Whereas Neurocrime's is to be recorded in P&L in a ransom in the third quarter. Moving on to slide six. This slide is almost same as the summary slide, showing the changes in revenue, operating profit and core operating profit in the past four years. As I explained, there were not as many milestone payments as in the previous year, and overall revenue decreased. On the other hand, royalty income increased on a Japanese yen basis due to the depreciation of the yen against the US dollar. Since most of the revenue from our partners are received in US dollars, the depreciation of the yen against the US dollar has a positive effect on revenue in Japanese yen terms. Operating profit and cooperating profit also decreased. This is a result of the decrease in revenue, as well as investments in our pipeline, aggressive investments in new strategic partnerships at the basic research stage, in addition to the impact of the yen's depreciation against the pound and the inflation in the UK. I will discuss this in more detail in the next slide. Next, slide seven. This slide shows the projected landing of R&D expenses and other G&A expenses for this fiscal year. There is no change in G&A expenses, but we have raised our R&D expenses by about 1 billion yen from the previous range of 5.75 to 6.75 billion yen to 6.75 to 7.75 billion yen. As I mentioned earlier, and as you are aware, The impact of the global depreciation of the yen over the past six-plus months, specifically the yen's depreciation against the pound sterling by about 6% since the beginning of the year, has been a major factor. As for the relations on the dollar, the pound sterling and the yen, Our company is affected, broadly speaking, as such that weaker yen increases both revenue and costs. In addition, inflation in the UK has advanced to about 9% since the beginning of the year. A portion of stock compensation previously classified as GA expenses has been transferred to R&D expenses, and planned R&D is progressing well, all of which have contributed to the upward revision of our forecasted R&D expenses. The unit depreciation and inflation also pushed up GA expenses, but this was offset by the reclassification of RSU stock compensation, leaving overall G&A expenses unchanged. So these are the financial summaries of the results. Now, CEO Chris will then update you on the business. Chris, over to you.

Thank you very much, Nora Sun.

I will now provide an update on operational progress before I hand over to Dr. Matt Barnes, who will talk in more detail regarding progress across our R&D activities. Please now turn to slide nine. So this slide very neatly shows the breadth and depth of our pipeline. This pipeline has the diversification of a big pharma company However, it retains the upside growth potential of a biotech business. Our strategic use of partnerships and collaborations allows us to do more with our science, with the goal of ensuring every possible innovation we can discover has the potential to benefit patients worldwide. Several programs across the pipeline are now poised to advance into various clinical stages, so it is a very exciting time for SOSE and its innovations. In the first half of financial year 2022 and, as Nora-Sun said, after the balance date of 30 June 2022, we showed strong execution across all phases and collaboration types. All the programs with green and blue coloured ticks have achieved recent milestones. Please turn to slide 10. As shown on the previous slide, I wanted to highlight the specific areas of strong execution across one, our discovery research innovation areas, and two, our translational medicine and clinical development area. On the left hand side, we continue to invest in new targets and collaborate with technology leaders in the United States to ensure that our research platform enhances its world leading position in the GPCR field. With new partner Verily, we have already identified multiple new GPCR targets of interest. With new partner Calliope, we are putting our respective platform capabilities together to identify new GI targets of interest. With existing partner Genentech, we can confirm we have now achieved five milestones across multiple programs. And recently, after the balance date, we executed a new blockbuster multi-target discovery collaboration with the existing partner, AbbVie. This latest transaction is a testament to the world-leading science that we exemplify at Circe Heptares and the priority that we place on patients living with high unmet medical need in neurology. On the right-hand side, our partners made important progress in clinical development with major programs that we discovered. We also executed the new collaboration to maximize the potential of a new cancer therapeutic. Long-term partner Pfizer announced strong data for its phase one GLP-1 agonist program for type 2 diabetes and obesity patients. There is now a good possibility that a phase two trial will begin in the second half of financial year 2022. Neuparten Neurocrine announced that the US FDA accepted the IND for its M4 agonist program targeting schizophrenia. There is now a good possibility that a phase two trial will begin in the second half of financial year 2022. This program part of the emerging muscarinic class, has the potential to become one of the first new mechanisms in over 70 years to treat schizophrenia patients. Recently, after the balance date, we executed a new clinical development partnership with Cancer Research UK. This partnership allows us to advance a very large and complex cancer program with an experienced partner. This creative transaction structure is cost-effective for us We retain ownership of the clinical data and the collaboration intellectual property generated. Please turn to slide 11. As I mentioned previously, our new multi-target neurology collaboration with AbbVie is another marquee transaction for us. The financials we receive are very strong. $40 million up front, potentially a further 40 million over the next three years, and then up to a billion dollars plus over the longer term. We will work on three novel GPCRs associated with the major neurological disease and work will begin immediately. On the right hand side of this slide, this chart details the amazing success we have had since we acquired Heptaries in 2015. Our investments to grow, scale and commercialize the platform have ensured that we are now one of the world's leading licensors of drug discovery innovation in the major target class of GPCRs.

Please turn to slide 12.

As I mentioned previously, this partnership with CIUK allows us to advance a very large and complex cancer program with an experienced partner. As so say is not a specialist cancer company, ordinarily this would be an extremely complex area for us in development. CRUK is a specialist clinical development partner for cancer, having delivered six registered cancer medicines around the world with corporate partners. CRUK provides the best access to doctors and medical infrastructure and expertise in major multicenter clinical trials through a cost effective structure. By choosing this creative transaction structure with CRUK, we can now advance an important potential cancer therapy that we otherwise might never have developed for patients. And furthermore, we retain ownership of the clinical data and the collaboration intellectual property that is generated, which is important for us so that we can find a major partner for future late stage clinical development and commercialization of this product. Creative advancement of scientific innovations to benefit patients is something that we're all very proud of at Societe Heptaris.

Please turn to slide 13.

So we continue to focus on moving wholly owned innovative programs into early clinical development to drive the next level of corporate value creation. In addition to the EP4 antagonists that we are advancing in partnership with CRUK, we continue to work hard alongside our strategic partner, Weatherden, to prepare the other three priority programs across neurology, immunology and inflammation for their potential to move into clinical development. Concurrently, we are evaluating the emergent treatment landscape for each program and indication to ensure each program remains optimized for success within our new venture capital style framework for investing and advancing our R&D programs. As you can see on this slide, the target product profile for each program is centered around convenience for patients with the focus being on delivering programs that meet a once daily dosing profile. I will now hand over to Dr. Matt Barnes President of Heptaris Therapeutics and Head of UK R&D, to provide a more detailed progress update regarding our R&D activities.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chris so I would like to continue with highlighting our significant progress in research and development in the first half of 2022. With a focus on some of our collaborations, but I will also touch on some recent and significant progress that has occurred in the last two weeks next slide please. So the first of these post first half year updates relates to our novel muscarinic receptor agonist collaboration with Neurocrine Biosciences. As highlighted in their quarterly results presentation last week, Neurocrine has confirmed that it will initiate a placebo controlled phase two study to investigate MBI568, formerly HTL878, the selective M4 agonist, as a potential new treatment for schizophrenia later this year. This clinical development milestone triggers a payment of $30 million to Sose Heptaris from Neurocrime. And MBI568 represents the most advanced candidate under this multi-program collaboration, but also of note is the intention to initiate phase one studies on both a dual M1, M4 agonist and M1 selective agonist in 2023. And also just to note that Sosaheptaris is working extremely closely and effectively with Neurocrine on this particular collaboration. Next slide, please. So a further post first half year update relates to our small molecule GLP-1 agonist. PF532 and this collaboration with Pfizer. At the end of July, Pfizer included an update on this molecule as part of their quarterly results presentation. A snapshot of the phase one data shows that PF532 has a potential best-in-class oral GLP-1 profile with a rapid and robust reduction in glucose and body weight. and importantly, from a single daily dose. Further data will be presented by Pfizer in September at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Stockholm. PF532 offers a potential best-in-class small molecule against an already validated drug target, GLP-1, which has huge potential in indications such as type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Next slide, please.

So I would also like to highlight progress in our other multi-target collaborations. I have already made reference to our collaboration with Pfizer, which is listed at the top of the screen. And this includes the aforementioned GLP-1 agonist, PF532, But this has been an incredibly productive collaboration and actually has produced three clinical stage assets since its inception seven years ago. In addition, I would like to make reference to three other drug discovery-based collaborations with large pharma companies, so Genentech, Takeda, and AbbVie. These collaborations have been progressing extremely well over the last two to three years with early discovery milestones achieved with each partner. More specifically, in our Genentech collaboration, we've achieved five milestones since 2019 with targets for both small and large molecule drugs. I would also like to draw your attention to a further post-first half-year update that Chris made reference to earlier, the announcement last week, which relates to a second collaboration with AbbVie. This multi-target collaboration aims to discover novel medicines targeting neurological diseases and follows the 2020 agreement focused on inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

Next slide, please.

So now turning towards our achievements in the first half of 2022 with respect to strategic growth, we continue to make excellent progress by investing or collaborating in novel technologies in the areas of new target identification and validation. In addition to our collaboration with Inveni AI, which was initiated last year, in 2022, we have announced collaborations with both Verily and Calliope. Gareth J. Identifying and validating new gpc our drug targets, combined with our core technologies and new molecule identification through internal methods or via collaborations provides huge potential for maintaining a full healthy and sustainable early pipeline of projects.

Gareth J. Next slide please.

So let's look at some of these strategic collaboration partners in more detail. So as I mentioned, we have established two key partnerships in the last six months. So firstly, in January 2022, we signed a deal with Verily to identify new GPCR drug targets and then subsequently generate novel drug candidates in immune mediated diseases. The research collaboration combines very least immune profiling capabilities and so say have times a star platform and structure based drug discovery capabilities. To identify gpcs expressed in immune cells and enhance our understanding of their functional relevance and potentially prosecute them as potential drug targets in immune mediated diseases. Secondly, in May 2022, we entered into a collaboration with Calliope to identify and validate novel gastrointestinal GPCRs for drug discovery. The agreement will leverage Socet Hepatitis' GPCR diversified compound library and GPCR expertise with Calliope's gut-brain access platform, which includes an organoid phenotypic screening approach. Novel GPCR drug targets emerging from this collaboration will provide new opportunities for potential therapeutic intervention in gastrointestinal diseases. So that concludes my section highlighting our significant progress in research and development over the last six to seven months. I will now pass back to Chris, who will highlight our objectives for 2022. Over to you, Chris.

Fantastic, thank you very much, Matt. Please turn to slide 21.

So as I mentioned earlier, we have made excellent progress for the year to date around our 2022 objectives. On this slide, I'd like to highlight what we have achieved so far. So for our organic growth objective number one, we committed to executing at least one new high value collaboration And we have achieved this by executing a new multi-target neurology partnership with AbbVie. Organic growth objective number three, we committed to further enhancing R&D, and we have achieved this via a strategic collaboration with Weatherden to support R&D transformation planning and growth, as well as to support our plans to build a powerful translational medicine capability. And with regard to strategic growth objective number four, we committed to collaborate and invest in new technologies with platform synergies, and we have achieved this with our new partners Verily and Calliope, as we together hunt for the next generation of innovative drug targets. We continue to work hard to achieve all the other priority objectives as soon as possible. Please turn to slide 22. So lastly, I would like to show a conceptual example of the evolutionary direction for SoSage drug discovery business. Over the past seven to eight years, since Heptaris was acquired in 2015, we have invested to scale and commercialize the platform and to add new capabilities in drug discovery and preclinical development. As we look ahead to the year 2030, We are focused on further expanding these existing capabilities, but also adding new ones. So the greatest area for potential organic growth will come from building a strong and powerful translational medicine capability. And this is a process that we have already started. You can see this image demonstrated on the left-hand side of the chart. Growth in translational medicine capabilities such as biomarker strategy and experimental medicine will allow us to deliver highly differentiated clinical stage programs with data packages derived from patients. As we move these translational medicine-led programs into early phase 1B or 2A clinical trials, we also expect the direct outcome to translate into much larger partnership economics going forward and therefore also corporate value expansion. And you can see the image demonstrated on the right hand side of the chart. A real world example of this strategy being executed was our transaction last year with Neurocrine to license our muscarinic programs. And we would very much like to do more collaborations of this size and scale in the future. The longer term will involve identifying novel drug targets validated by proprietary technology and data driven platform collaborations for us to then creatively and cost-effectively advance into early clinical trials in patients. We expect this strategy to strengthen our position as one of the world's largest providers of innovation across GPCRs and other target classes. That concludes my section and we will now move to Q&A.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your attention.

And I would like to start taking questions. Institutional investors, analysts and the media, please press the raise hand button and the moderator will call your name. Then please unmute and start speaking. And the translation services are available. Therefore, please try to make it succinct and try to speak slowly. So if you have any questions, please raise your hand. Now, first, Mr. Tsuzuki of Mizuho Securities. Can you hear me? Yes, I am Suzuki of Mizuho Securities. Can you hear me? Yes. Now, please go ahead and ask a question. Thank you. First question about muscarine program. P2 study start milestone. Upfront milestone is 30 million you obtained. Understand. And for this fiscal year, if you achieve first in human, for instance, can you expect another opportunity of receiving a milestone? Thank you for your question. This is about R&D, but also overall business. Therefore, I'd like to ask Chris, CEO, to answer the question, please.

Sure. Thank you, Nomura-san.

Thank you for your question. The question related to if we have a first in human start, um and that would require that would relate to the other programs as part of that collaboration so either the dual muscarinic m1 m4 agonist or the or the m1 agonist as was highlighted in Neurocrine's presentation there is no plans to start first in human studies this financial year and so therefore we cannot expect a milestone for that progression in this financial year. However, they did say in their presentation that they are working towards potentially beginning first in human studies next year. And therefore, if one of those trials does begin, yes, we can expect a milestone for that progress if it happens. That concludes my answer. Thank you.

let me add some comments as chris mentioned and it's shown on this line slide new local line for phase one study is planning for the next year for dual m1 and four and selective M1, that is according to this law. And if that goes as planned, then we will see milestones. And probably development milestone 1.5 billion yen, that is a huge amount. So you are interested in knowing so much money at what timing. we would be receiving? I think that was the question, and that is a quite reasonable question. We can't mention the timing. However, the amount would be bigger per project, or we have more, and not in this year, but in future, we may receive those milestones, and the total would be 1.5 billion. This, I hope, answered your question. Yes, thank you. Another question, GLP-1 agonist. According, of course, the academic presentation would be important. On the other hand, Pfizer, they have their GLP agonist that they developed on their own, and your GLP-1 agonist head-to-head of those two compounds in phase two, and I suppose that the result would be very important. Is my understanding correct? regarding GLP-1. So Matt, the head of R&D, would answer to this question.

Yes, thank you very much for the question. So you're right. Pfizer has two GLP-1 agonist small molecule programs. So this is really the first data that we've seen on the Sosaheptoris molecule, the 532. It is, I think Pfizer will be very interested in comparing these two molecules. There are already some data that allows some comparison, which is very useful. It does appear that there may be some advantages with the 532 molecule, such as the once a day daily dosing. which might fit with this best in class profile that they mentioned on top of this slide here. Um, but I would imagine that they would be thinking about doing a head to head study in a phase two in phase two. Uh, and I think they, in their commentary during the, um, results presentation, they mentioned, uh, doing this, uh, and potentially selecting the winner, uh, to go forward into, into phase three studies. That concludes my answer. Thank you.

Thank you.

My final question is that in FY 2022, I think you had a plan of licensing any molecules in the later stage development. And also, at least one, the preclinical discoveries and R&D productivity increase. So I'd like to know more in detail about the progress of those three points. Chris, please answer.

Thank you very much for your question. I'll start with preclinical candidate. Yes, we are very much on track. And I would expect that by the end of the year, we certainly will have nominated a new preclinical candidate from our pipeline. And we're very excited about that. We will disclose information around that after the event has occurred, of course, towards the end of the year. In terms of the in-licensing question, this is a very good question. We continue to aggressively pursue opportunities, and I can confirm that we have conducted due diligence on a number of potential projects. We have not found the perfect project yet for us. However, the team continues to search far and wide for the right product profile to bring into the company. This remains a core area of focus for us, but we do not have anything to announce in the first half related to this. Thank you. That concludes my response.

Mr. Suzuki also mentioned the move to the prime market at TSE. As planned, we are making preparations for that, but as we have explained to you, Tokyo Stock Exchange will have the final say, so we can't really say as of now. how it's going to be like but this is the plan and so forth we apologize for that but we are aiming to be listed in prime market and as for the timing West Quarter 2023, so January to March period could be a possibility, but it's a possibility and it does not guarantee that it is to be achieved. It is up to TSE. We want to have good communication with TSE to achieve this. Just one question regarding the previous question. preclinical products to be licensed in by the end of this year, not late candidates? You mentioned by the end of this year, you would license in. Is that preclinical product or what?

Let me answer that, Nomura-san. No, no, no. I think perhaps there was some misunderstanding. The preclinical candidate is our own discovery innovation. That is against a target that we have been working on for a number of years that will be produced from our platform capabilities. So this is a program that is entirely discovered by, so say, Heptares. And we will nominate a preclinical candidate from multiple potential molecules towards the end of this year. We are confident that we can achieve a new preclinical candidate program from our platform. Moving to strategic growth with regard to in-licensing, this is very much focused around bringing in a late stage product or potentially even an approved product in other jurisdictions, such as the US or Europe, in-licensing that product for the Japanese market. So we are not talking about a preclinical stage program. We are talking about clinical stage programs and potentially even programs that are already approved by the FDA or the EMA. This is part of our longer term plan to begin building a significant business in our home market of Japan. That concludes my response.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chris.

I think that answered your question. We'd like to move on. Next is Mr. Matsubara, Nomura Securities. Please unmute and ask a question. This is Matsubara, Nomura Securities. Can you hear me? Yes? Thank you. I have two questions. First question is about JLP1. I think it might be difficult for you because it's not long-term followed up. But what is the competitive advantage when you compare this to Novo's compound? And I would like to ask Matt, R&D head, to answer the question, please.

Yes, thank you very much for the question. I think the honest answer is that we will find out more detail about 532 at Pfizer's presentation at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in September. We know that the Novo compound, the oral GLP-1 peptide, It has very low bioavailability. which is typical for most sort of peptide drugs. So I would imagine if it's consistent with a more of a small molecule profile, that we should see some improvements in the pharmacokinetics and the exposure of the drug that you get in the blood. But we will wait and see what Pfizer tells us at this meeting in September. Thank you. That concludes my answer.

Thank you.

Another question regarding four projects and with CRUK you don't have any specific milestones and next year you will have a clinical project and you will have more increase rather than decrease. Can you comment on that? This is for CRUK, Matt will answer to this question.

I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?

For in-house development and clinical studies, you have no milestones from CRUK, and the next year you will have more R&D projects and you would probably have more increased R&D costs. Is that right?

uh maybe perhaps matt let me take that then you can add that sounds good yeah yeah thank you for your question um of course with our strategy of advancing more of our own assets into early clinical development we expect r d costs to increase and we have explained this to the market already however Our approach at Sose Heptares is to be creative regarding how we advance our programs. And earlier I mentioned that this very novel potential cancer therapeutic is a program that would be very complex. It would be across multiple tumor types, a basket type trial in multiple clinical centers. Ordinarily, that is not a trial that Sose Heptares could afford. However, because of our use of creative transaction structures, we can now progress this program in a very cost effective fashion. And the difference, just to give an example, if we were to do that program over, say, five years on our own without a partner, the cost might be in excess of 30 or $40 million. Instead, Because of our partnership with CIUK, we expect that the cost of this clinical trial, probably over a four or five year period, will be closer to somewhere between $10 and $15 million. So that is an amazingly creative way to advance a novel program to benefit cancer patients with a partner. And that is an example of the approach that we use across our pipelines. And I cannot rule out in the future that we may choose to progress some of our other wholly-owned programs in similar ways. That concludes my response. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris, and maybe I can just add some extra colour to this. So I think this is really about sharing the risk as well as the cost, as Chris has mentioned. The CRUK collaboration, so this is part of what they call their Clinical Development Partnership scheme. And so CRUK is a nonprofit organization. They're not driven by revenues in a commercial way, like a lot of companies would be. Their reasoning for doing this collaboration is because they place more emphasis on patient need than commercial value. And so they've done this, as Chris mentioned earlier, I think, with at least six other sort of products that have actually gone to market. So it's not a new scheme. You know, they've done this with other biotechs and pharma companies. And it really does, from our point of view, it really helps, I think, share the cost and the risk. But it also adds, I think, a quality stamp to the clinical development program. CRUK is a very well-networked organization with access to many clinical centers to conduct those studies. So I think it's a real win-win partnership in many ways. Thank you. That concludes my answer.

Thank you very much.

And I'd like to also briefly explain. With CRUK, out of those four programs, we have been working with them only for EP4, antagonist and agonist. And it is a strategic partnership, and we keep our ownership. Therefore, we don't receive any milestone payment from the CLUK. However, in this partnership with the CLUK, we would like to progress the development, the clinical development, and then after that, we may consider out-licensing. But during the course, the cost can be shared or borne by the CLUK, and in that sense, it is quite cost-effective for us. And lastly, about R&D expenses increase. Talking about this fiscal year, FX affected a lot. But what will be the level in the next fiscal year and beyond? Well, it will depend on the progress of the programs. However, with the CRUK and with other organizations, As we move more in a way of collaborative efforts, then, well, I am not sure whether or not the total cost will be lower. However, we would like to continue to manage the cost within the appropriate range. That's all from me. Matsubara-san, did we answer to your questions? Yes, I could understand very well. Thank you. Then I see some others raising their hands, and also I see lots of questions placed in the Q&A box. And I forgot to tell this to you, that even if you make entries, it's only us, me, looking at your questions, but not the other participants. So I'd like to pick up some in the Q&A box. First, including today, the stock market is quite volatile. It's fluctuating a lot. So concerning the stock price, what is your view? And also, your shareholders' structure. This might be more important. What is your outlook, your view on your company's shareholders' structure? Please, Chris, please.

Well, thank you for the question. I think it is fair to say that not just for Sose Group, but also other biotech companies listed on the Mothers Exchange, that we collectively do not have the level of institutional ownership that we would like. We are well aware of this at Sose Group Corporation, and that is why one of the key plans for us going forward is our engagement with the Tokyo Stock Exchange to hopefully see if there is a path for us to move our listing to TSE Prime, where there is a much larger institutional ownership of stocks and companies. We would very much like to move to Prime. However, as Nomura-san said earlier, really the decision about that is is up to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. I am extremely proud of all of our employees, particularly in our Japan office, who have been working tirelessly for months to try and make this vision happen for us. However, if it doesn't happen and we are to remain on mothers, the best way for us to increase the institutional ownership in our company is by progressing our pipeline, advancing the science and spending time on the road, explaining to institutional investors about the value that we can bring them in the future, the world-class science and the life-changing medicines that we are discovering and developing. If we continue to execute on our business plan, I have absolutely no doubt that institutional interest will follow. We are, you know, in the scheme, the grand scheme of biotech companies, still a very young company. Most of our pipeline as it sits today is preclinical moving into the clinic. So we are a young company. We've got so much growth potential to go. And we think if we can continue down the path, the institutional ownership and interest will follow. That concludes my response.

Thank you.

thank you chris i think that answered the question next let's have questions from those who raise hand sbi securities mr kawamura You can go ahead. Do you hear me okay? Yes. Thank you for the explanation. My name is Kawamura. Regarding ABI's new collaboration, I have a question. According to the press release, 40 million for upfront and the PL recognition will be prorated to a certain period, to a certain extent. What is the proportion for this year and for over how many How long or how many years do you receive? And for the upfront, how much do you expect this year? And for near-term milestone, how much or how much proportion do you expect to receive? Just a rough idea, please. Let me answer to this question because this is a financial matter. how much we received this year. Sorry, but we cannot comment on that. But if I may suggest, regarding upfront, why it is divided into quarters. Well, we will provide various works for ABBI. And milestone in the initial phase would be 40 million. and the uh works value would be partly it is included in upfront payment according to the accounting rule so upfront payment some of that would be in lump sum and recognized but then the rest when we provide services for agdi we receive the payment according to our work according to the ifas accounting rule so going forward of upfront payment the service we provide for abby will be received by us in two to three years and then upfront plus and so in upfront payment there is a really upfront non-sum payment and then they are prorated payment in a divided manner you can consider the past examples it's not so much different and for near-term milestone payment over the next three years probability is high and of course this is still before clinical stage we receive 40 million according to the agreement So it's not that we can't guarantee possibly 100% of that amount, but failure at this stage is not very likely. And according to our past record, the probability of success is high. So over the next three years, we would receive $40 million. for the near-term milestone. That is the breakdown of the payment that we would receive. Thank you very much. And the second question, regarding adenosine A2A antagonist, and that is for AstraZeneca. It seems they are suffering in oncology and in neurological areas. Some Japanese company decided to withdraw. So I want to know how you are planning regarding this collaboration with Abbe. I think it's in A2A. Matt from R&D, can you comment? And then if the... Are there comments Chris can add? So first Matt, please.

Yes, thank you very much for the question. So yes, so I think we acknowledged that the A2A asset, the clinical asset imiradidant was removed from AstraZeneca's pipeline, I think back in November last year. And at the time, we mentioned that we very much respected their decision and we really felt that it was related to a pipeline portfolio review. They have, AstraZeneca have, it's a big interest for them, oncology, of course, they have many competing assets. And we also said that we would remain open to discussions with them about regaining the rights in order to re-evaluate on our own in clinical development or potentially to relicense as an opportunity. That was more than six months ago now and you're right, there have been some other changes and other related adenosine assets have been reading out. There was a recent study in Parkinson's, I believe, and also some further oncology related readouts. I think all we can say right now is that we have been reviewing the potential opportunities for this asset if we were to push ahead with the reversion and we continue to do that evaluation. Chris, I don't know if you want to add anything.

Yeah, sure. Not much, but just to confirm what you already just said, Matt, that is Together with our own people in our translational medicine team and together with the staff at Wetherton, we have conducted a strategic review of the A2A program. And as Matt said, we know exactly what we will do with it. We have a plan. What we now need to focus on is securing a reversion agreement with AstraZeneca. Once that has been concluded and the asset program is back in SOSE's hands, we can then move forward with our plans and we look forward to updating you in the future when we're able to.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for all of you asking us many questions. As far as I see it, there are still 60-some questions. However, it is two minutes to the expected closing time, so we feel so sorry that we couldn't answer to all the questions. As we have done so far in our official blog and so on, we would like to provide answers to your questions later on. So if you have any questions, please add your questions in the Q&A box and also in the questionnaire form that you will see after this. You can also make entries of your questions. And also in our company homepage, the video of this earning score will be also uploaded. And in the slide towards the end, there is an animation that is to explain about the strategy, but I couldn't notice that, and sorry that my talk and animation didn't match well. But in the PDF, which will be available in our homepage, it doesn't carry animation. So I think you should be able to receive the materials without any problems. So that's all for this webinar. Thank you very much for your participation. So with this, we conclude our earnings call for the first half of FY 2022. Thank you very much.