ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB (publ)

Welcome to today's presentation where we have the pleasure to present expression biotechnologies. Today's coverage of course the full year report fresh from the press this morning but maybe also besides the financial results some of the many milestones achieved I could see in the news flow in this quarter. To help us through today's presentation and answer questions in the end, we have Ben Fransen, CEO, Keith Alexander, CFO. As always, there's a box down below. Do feel free to ask questions. During the presentation, we will keep most or almost all of the questions at the end, but do feel free to do it now. Do feel free to ask in Danish, and I will try and translate to the best of my ability. But I think for now, I will hand the call over to you, Ben.

Thank you very much, Michael. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Expressions Q4 and Bull Year 2025 results webcast. I'm Ben Fransen, CEO of Expression Biotechnologies, and with me today is our CFO, Keith Hellingcenter. Today, I will walk you through the key updates across our pipeline and partnerships, particularly progress in our HER2 breast cancer immunotherapy and our brain-funded infectious disease programs. Before Keith takes you through the financial results. We'll begin with the pipeline updates and key milestones achieved through Q4 in early 2026. And then Keith will present our financial performance and cash position. And finally, we'll open the call for questions. Q4 was a highly productive quarter across both our proprietary pipeline and partnerships. On the financing side, we carried out a geo11 warrants program exercise with 88.5% subscription rate, bringing in approximately 10.4 million sec and strengthening our capital base. Within the pipeline in breast cancer, we reported updated immunogenicity data from the first three patients and received a data safety monitoring board, ESMB recommendation to progress to the next dose cohort. In malaria, Oxford led trials using our express platform advanced through across multiple clinical phases. We entered a definitive licensing agreement with the Serum Institute of India for malaria vaccine development and commercialization. In Nipah virus, the Vichy Disease Consortium finalized its antigen selection and moved into the production phase and selected Northway Biotech as manufacturing partner. Overall, QFORM demonstrates both clinical momentum and strategic execution. Let's turn to our lead program, ES2B-C001, our HER2-targeted therapeutic cancer vaccine. This phase one study includes up to 27 patients with advanced HER2-positive or HER2-low breast cancer, post-second or third-line standard therapy. The study is conducted at three clinical centers in Austria, and the design includes five intramuscular doses, three escalating dose levels, and optional combination with an antibody drug conjugate. Primary objective is safety and tolerability. The secondary objective is immunogenicity, specifically induction of anti-HER2 antibodies. And now to the progress. We are actively enrolling in the dose escalation part. Several patients have completed all five doses at 50 micrograms, and patients are now receiving 150 micrograms. Most importantly, no safety signals of concern have been observed. We see strong induction of drug-specific immune responses. Titers remain elevated at later time points, which is consistent with a durable vaccine-like immune profile. The geometric mean titer curve shown on the slide illustrates a clear rise across dosing visits and sustained levels thereafter. Of course, these are still early Phase I data, but they are encouraging and consistent with our beliefs in this asset. Phase Ia data are expected mid-2026 and Phase Ib data by the year end 2026. This slide outlines our strategic development pathway. We think about value creation in four structured steps. Step one, safety and early signals. That's where we are today. Step two, clinical proof of concept. That's phase two in breast cancer with potential parallel exploration in gastric cancer. And step three, partnering, where we target licensing opportunities as clinical data mature. And step four, patient knowledge. Importantly, our business development efforts are already ongoing. and there are multiple potential partnering windows after strong phase one immunogenicity signals or phase two or potentially earlier if compelling data emerge. Our goal remains clear, advance toward phase two to reach key clinical milestone that may enable partnering discussions. Turning to malaria, one of the world's most pressing infectious diseases. Our express platform supports a broad portfolio of malaria vaccine candidates led by the University of Oxford. There are now 10 trials ongoing or completed across phases one and two, including phase two B studies expected to read out in 2026. Some key highlights, multiple phase one A and phase B studies are fully recruited. Phase two B data are projected through 2026 and 2027 And two vaccine candidates, IS5.1 and R78C, are now licensed to the Serum Institute of India, one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturers. This partnership validates the scalability of our platform and the commercial relevance of these malaria assets. Importantly, these programs are largely grant funded, meaning they expand our platform footprint without significant capital burden. Beyond breast cancer and malaria, we continue to advance three major grant-sponsored programs. Nipah virus vaccine, the VitaDisease Consortium, it's 100% grant-funded through Phase 1, 2A. The lead antigen is selected. We're preparing for GMP manufacturing, now supported by a manufacturing partnership with Northway Biotech. MucoVax, a mucosal influenza vaccine project, it's approximately 67% grant-funded. We have development of a GMP-compliant cell line tool. This continues. We're evaluating alternative antigen-presenting platforms for next-generation mucosal vaccines. The Indigo Influenza Consortium, this is fully grant-funded, focused on improving seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccine performance. This program is nearing conclusion of the current grant cycle with next steps under evaluation. Together, These programs validate our express manufacturing platform that generate non diluted funding and they expand our IP and global collaborations. So this slide summarizes our diversified pipeline at the top and CS2B C001 fully sponsored and owned by expression. You know that you see them whenever programs licensed to the Serum Institute of India in collaborations with Oxford. Influenza and Nipah virus programs are consortium driven and largely funded externally. All programs are powered by our express insect cell based expression platform, often combined with the DAPVAX VLP technology. This gets us one high upside proprietary oncology asset, multiple externally funded infectious disease programs and platform validation across indications. It's a balanced and capital efficient pipeline architecture. Looking ahead, we have multiple value driving readouts. Breast cancer used to be C001. In the near term, we have expanded safety and immunogenicity data, continued dose escalation. And next, we move into the Phase 1b expansion part and potential early efficacy signals. Later, we will move into Phase 2 initiation, potential parallel gastric cancer study, and licensing opportunity across breast and gastric cancer become an opportunity, subject to funding and partnering. In malaria, the Bio002 Phase 1a data will occur. Additional Phase 1a B readouts comes in Q3 and we see Phase 1b, 2b and 2b data occurring before the end of the year. In the Nipah virus project, the CMC manufacturing starts this quarter. Manufacturing expected to be completed this year. So the task study and phase one initiation can start after that. In influenza, the Indigo program completed here in Q1. The strategic decisions will be taken about what we do post-Indigo. In summary, we have multiple shots on goals. with staggered catalyst across oncology and infectious disease. With that overview of our pipeline and strategic progress, I will now hand over to Keith to walk you through our Q4 and full year financial results.

Thank you, Ben. In this section, I'll walk through the results for the full year and fourth quarter of 2025. 2025 was a year of increased grant-backed activity combined with a lower cost base, resulting in improved underlying performance. Let's go through the key figures and charts together, starting with our income for the period. On this slide, you can see that our total income for Q4 2025 was 3.5 million SEC, which is a 62% increase year on year. For the full year 2025, total income reached 12.2 million SEC, up 56% for 2024. Both the CRO business and grants boosted our revenue base. Drilling down into full-year income components, net sales, which included revenue from our CRO services, license fees, and reagent products, were 3.7 million SEC in 2025, about 21% higher than last year. Other operating income, primarily grant funding, was up 78%. The increase reflects higher activity across our grant funded programs and collaborations, particularly within Vici, Mucovacs, and Indigo. These grants allow us to advance key programs without relying solely on equity financing. Moving to the cost side, we've maintained strong expense discipline in the quarter. Having completed several high-cost R&D activities last year, such as key preclinical studies and CMC manufacturing work for our lead therapy, ES2B-C001, our external R&D span in Q4 was much lower than a year ago. In fact, about 59% lower than in Q4, 2024. You'll notice an uptick in external R&D costs compared to the previous quarter as we advanced the phase one trial, adding a few more patients and analyzing samples. The phase one trial protocol limits how many patients can be on treatment at once, which in turn naturally caps how fast trial expenses can grow. In short, our R&D costs are naturally linked to development activities. We prioritize spending on key value driving milestones. Overall, total operating costs in Q4 were about 14 million SEC, which is 37% lower than in Q4 2024. The two largest expense components are broken out on the right side of the slide. The top chart shows the external R&D costs discussed a moment ago. You can see the sharp year-on-year decline. The bottom chart shows personnel costs. Personnel expenses in Q4 were about 15% lower than the same quarter last year. This reduction in staff costs reflects changes in personnel, parental leaves, and careful management of salaries and hiring. Turning to the bottom line, our net result for Q4 2025 was a loss of 8.2 million sec. This outcome was in line with our expectations as we continue to invest in our lead program and other pipeline projects. Importantly, Q4 net loss improved by about 46% compared to the fourth quarter last year. The reduced loss reflects the higher income and lower costs we just discussed. On a full year basis, our net loss totaled approximately 38 million SEC, which is 6% higher than the reported net loss for full year 2024. However, it's crucial to put that figure in context. Last year's full year result benefited from a significant one-off gain in Q2 2024. We received 22.1 million SEC in a one-time payment from our associate company, AdaptVac, related to a Bavarian Nordic milestone. That one-time gain materially reduced the reported 2024 net loss. If we exclude that one-off item, the underlying net loss for 2024 was around 58 million sec. And against that normalized baseline, our full year 2025 net loss of 38 million represents a significant improvement. Our focus remains on aligning spending with key value inflection points. This slide illustrates how our cash position evolved during 2025, focusing on the most recent quarter. We started Q4 with approximately 37 million SEC and ended the quarter with 48 million, an increase of roughly 11 million. The primary use of cash during the quarter was operating spending, reflected in our operating cash flow. This was partly offset by an R&D tax credit refund of around 8 million SEC. In addition, we received approximately 11 million proceeds from the TO11 warrant exercises, while foreign exchange movements had a negative impact of around 1 million. Overall, the cash development in Q4 was in line with our expectations, and we continue to manage expenditures carefully as we progress the phase one program. Here we provide a broader perspective on our cash balance over the last eight quarters, along with key financing events. Most recently, in Q4 2025, we received net proceeds of 11 million from our TO11 warrant exercises. Each of these steps has helped strengthen our balance sheet. As of December 31st, 2025, we had 48 million in cash on hand. Based on our current operating plan and budget, and assuming no additional funding beyond what is already secured, this cash position positions us toward the next phase one clinical milestones and interim readouts targeted in 2026. To conclude the financial section, I'd like to highlight a few upcoming opportunities to meet us. In early March, I'll represent expression at the European Life Science CEO Forum in Zurich, where we'll engage with both investors and potential biopharma partners. Later in March, I will also present at a life science investor conference in Copenhagen hosted by . In May, Bent will present at the Biostock Global Forum in Lund. We look forward to connecting with stakeholders and shareholders at these events. In summary, 2025 reflected higher grant supported income, a streamlined cost base and improved underlying performance, while maintaining a cash position that supports continued execution towards our next phase one clinical milestones in 2026. With that, I'll conclude the financial update and hand it back to Michael to begin the Q&A section.

Perfect. Let's jump into the question. I think you already mentioned that in the start of the presentation, just to clarify. Is the timeline with triability data mid-2026 and phase 1b immunogenicity data by year end 2026 still on track? I think you alluded to it in the start of the presentation, Ben.

Absolutely. That's on track. We are having our current pipeline or the ES2B and CW1 program timeline as i just mentioned and that you just mentioned so we'll have some interim data coming out here from the first part of the dose escalation phase here by summer and before end of year we'll have the dose expansion part covered as well that's still the case perfect and then there's any news on the wuxi deal No, not at this point. We have our relationship and have been exploring various initiatives. But so far, I think it's on a co-marketing level. I can't be more precise than that.

And then maybe to Keith, in general, I think if you reduce a lot, if you If you take out the tax refund, it seems like that your cost base is kind of around where we have seen the last three quarters and your cash outflow. Is there anything, and I know you don't guide on it, that we should look at either going up or going down in 26 or is that a good level to think about going into 26?

Michael, good question. I'll take that in two parts, the historical and then the guidance part. Historically, I'd say your assessment's correct. It's been fairly consistent over the last several quarters. And if you look at it, taking out the R&D tax refund, it is on a very consistent basis. Looking forward, what I'd say is that there's not a material change to what we've guided previously, so it's remaining very consistent with what we've said previously and what I said in my preferred comments.

Perfect. Then a little bit about the NIFA virus. Do I actually pronounce it correct? I think I do. There's a lot of questions, and of course, because of the headlines starting to show up in the end of the year, which you also noticed, What value are you expecting from the Nipah virus? And maybe more, how big is the Nipah virus market?

Well, first of all, the Nipah virus vaccine project is fully sponsored by an EU grant under a so-called pandemic preparedness scheme. So Nipah virus is on the list of WHO's potential pandemic threats. so far it's been emerging primarily in east India and Bangladesh and so far it's not been a serious infectious disease burning out like COVID-19 but you never know with these times types of diseases there's certainly been precautions actions in Asia to test people at airports because it is a potential very contagious infectious disease. It's a bat-borne disease and it can lead to influenza-like symptoms and ultimately it can also be very grave. Now, with respect to the Nipah virus consortium, the VT disease consortium, this is a group of collaborative researchers, which include Expression Biotechnologies, AdaptVac, our associated company that we own 34% of, and which holds the BLP technology platform, as well as other European partners, including Radboud University Medical Hospital, And this is actually the same constellation which was backing up the COVID-19 vaccine initiative six years ago when the pandemic broke out in early 2020. And we also received a fund back then from the EU. And you all know the story behind the outbreak and how eventually, aeronautically, they acquired a license and, in fact, later clinical phase two and phase three, and it's super nice for both expression biotechnologies and ADAPBAC because our platforms are clinical phase three validated. And by the way, the same technologies, expressions, production technology, and ADAPBAC's VLP technology, that's exactly the same platform in our ES2B-C001 breast cancer vaccine asset. So we have a very good way to start the Nipah virus vaccine project. We know the platform works and it's fully funded and we have just passed this very crucial step of having selected a lead antigen and we have chosen our contract manufacturing partner and have announced that this is Northway Biotech, which is a Lithuanian production company with factories both in Lithuania and in main Europe as well as in the US and a very capable manufacturing partner to scale this up to commercial scale and not least to make the clinical supply for the preclinical safety studies and the phase one trials that we're going to conduct and which is also part of the fully funded project so far. So it carries some prospects to be prepared for potential pandemic. The commercial potential at the end of the day may be in the form of stockpiling when we have an asset that works and the EU will have a first right to purchase this type of vaccine.

And I guess the reason why you don't put out a market size is that there is no treatments right now. So I guess it must be hard to estimate what could be the market size. And I guess because it's probably emergency use that is going to be used. So how much are people going to stockpile? I guess is that why it's hard to quantify maybe a market size?

It is. Just imagine with the mpox from Bavaria Nordic, they developed this 20 years ago in a similar type of project and who knew what that disease could emerge into. So yeah, it's about preparedness and I think we're in a good spot on this project for that.

And there's also a question, how long is it funded? You mentioned this Horizon funding. How long does that take, this study actually?

It's a four or five year funded project, which includes the clinical phase one study. So we'll get some clinical evidence in this project as well.

Okay. The next question, have you had any details into why the six patient didn't show drug specific immune response?

I'm not sure. Can you repeat?

Have you had any details into why the six patient didn't show drug specific immune response?

We have seen drug specific immune response from the patients. And we've seen five out of six patients have reacted positively. And you have seen in the slide that I just showed on the geometric titer score that there's a very nice increase over time. across the patient visits and the first doses we see a dose response and then kind of a plateau at the end so this is very consistent with what we actually want to to see perfect and there's a question what about the ssi upfront any any comments on that is the question i don't think i can detail it more do you have any comments on that uh not not really it's it's been paid and i don't think it shows up in our books here for 2025 right yes then there's a kind of a broad question and i guess you i don't know how you comment on it but anything on the on the cash run rate do we expect new emissions in

our capital raises in 2026?

I can comment on that. I think as we've always said, or as I said earlier, our runway has not materially changed from what we've previously stated. And we're always evaluating the best ways to access additional capital, whether it's non-dilutive or dilutive funding with a preference to non-dilutive funding.

Check. And then there are some of the patients in the ES2B0011 study on combinations products.

Well, some of these patients are first of all late stage cancer patients, and they have tried other medications, including the non targeted therapies, but also the two targeted therapies such as monoclonal antibodies and antibody drug conjugates. It's a bit of a mix, some of them have also concomitant medication like antibody drug conjugates. So we're looking into that. But what we are reporting on this geometric titer graph, that is a very specific antibody that is raised due to our vaccine. So not being interfered with the standard of care treatment. So that's why we are thrilled with that graphical output so far.

Perfect. I will just check. But I think that was the last question. Thank you to you, Keith, and Ben, for taking us through your results, the news flow, and of course, the financial reports. And thank you for answering the question. And thank you for the audience listening in.

Thank you.