Carl Hansen
Analyst · Piper Sandler
Thanks, Tryn. The highlight this quarter is that we are advancing assets from two AbCellera-led programs into IND-enabling studies. The first asset, ABCL575 targets Ox40 ligand and is being developed as a potential best-in-class therapy for the treatment of atopic dermatitis and other indications in autoimmunity and inflammation. We discovered ABCL575 during our collaboration with EQRx as part of the co-development program that was initiated in 2021. We took ownership of this program in September after EQRx was acquired by Revolution Medicines. ABCL575 has been designed with potency, PK and developability to enable less frequent dosing, which provides a potential for differentiation. At present, we believe ABCL575 has the potential to be one of the first assets to follow amlitelimab, which is being developed by Sanofi and which recently had a positive Phase II readout providing evidence for the potential of this new class. Our second asset, ABCL635 is against an undisclosed target with an indication in metabolic and endocrine conditions. It has the potential to be a first-in-class therapy in a market segment estimated at more than $2 billion in annual sales. For strategic reasons, we will disclose more details of this program an indication only once it reaches the clinic. ABCL635 is the first AbCellera-led asset derived from our GPCR and Ion Channel platform and is aligned with our strategy of leveraging our expertise and technology advantage to create an internal pipeline of first-in-class assets. We anticipate additional development candidates in the next 12 to 18 months from this platform, and we will announce them only when we have committed to move them forward into IND-enabling studies. We would caution that studies leading to an IND carry significant risk. That said, if things progress as expected, we would anticipate IND submissions for both ABCL575 and ABCL635 in 2025. For both programs, we see the potential to get early efficacy -- for both programs, we see the potential to get early efficacy data from clinical trials. We believe that these two assets and future programs will provide growing evidence that we can repeatedly generate potential first-in-class and best-in-class therapies. Given the breadth of our discovery activities, we anticipate generating more assets than we will have the bandwidth or capital to advance ourselves. Thus, we will be selective in the ones we bring forward into the clinic and expect partnering and out-licensing to remain an important part of our strategy. Turning to partnering. In September, we announced a new partnership with Incyte working in the area of oncology. We also expanded our existing collaboration with Regeneron. Under the original agreement, Regeneron has exercised its rights to advance antibody candidates from two completed programs, including one against a GPCR target. Other programs are still active. In addition to the two partnerships completed in the quarter, yesterday, we also announced a collaboration with Prelude Therapeutics to codevelop novel precision antibody drug conjugates, or ADCs, in oncology. We are excited to be working with the Prelude team on the development of a new class of therapeutics with the first program focused on antibodies armed with small molecule protein degraders. In summary, I would like to highlight that developments over this quarter are aligned with key business objectives that we laid out last year. First, we said we would elect at least one candidate from our GPCR and Ion Channel platform and at least one candidate from a co-development platform for IND-enabling studies in 2023. With the commitment to advance ABCL575 and ABCL635, we have achieved that milestone. Second, we said we would focus on high-value strategic partnerships. Our deals with groups like Regeneron, Prelude and Incyte are aligned with this strategy. We also said we would advance our T-cell engager platform and expected to enter into a significant transaction in 2023. The science and the development of this platform continue to progress as expected. And tomorrow, our team will be presenting new data at SITC in San Diego. While we haven't completed a transaction yet, we have increasing conviction in our TCE platform, both in its potential to generate internal assets and as a basis for strategic partnerships. And with that, I will hand it over to Andrew to discuss our financials. Andrew?