Operator
Operator
Greetings and welcome to the Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. First Quarter 2015 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Bernie Hertel, Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications for Inovio Pharmaceuticals. Please go ahead, sir. Bernie Hertel - Vice President-Investor Relations & Communications: Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today's call may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to our business, including our plans to develop DNA immunotherapies and electroporation-based delivery technologies, as well as our capital resources. Please keep in mind that actual events or results may differ from the expectations discussed as a result of a number of factors, including uncertainties inherent in pre-clinical studies, clinical trials, and product development programs, including but not limited to the fact that pre-clinical and clinical results referenced on the call may not be indicative of results achievable in other trials and studies, and trials may not achieve the results desired, and they may not commence or be completed in the time periods anticipated. There may also be risks related to collaborative arrangements, including the timing and receipt of payments, the availability or potential availability of alternative therapies for the conditions targeted by the company or its collaborators, issues involving product liability, issues involving patents, the adequacy of our capital resources, the impact of government healthcare proposals, and other factors set forth in our Annual report on Form 10-K for the year 2014, our 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, and other regulatory filings from time to time. Finally, there can be no assurance that any product in Inovio's pipeline will be successfully developed or manufactured, and that final results of clinical studies will be supportive of regulatory approvals required to market licensed products, or that any of the forward-looking information provided will be proven accurate. Now, Inovio's President and CEO, Dr. J.Joseph Kim. J. Joseph Kim - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Bernie. Good morning, everyone. In the first quarter of 2015, Inovio set in motion several key activities that could benefit not only our investors, but human health globally, based on Inovio's immunotherapy. Centered are these five Inovio initiatives launched just in the past few months. First, Inovio raised $87.4 million, primarily to fund our upcoming Phase III trial for VGX-3100, our therapy that demonstrated regression of a cervical pre-cancer and elimination of the HPV virus, the cause of the condition that quickly may lead to cervical cancer. Second, in partnership with Roche, we initiated a clinical trial to treat those infected with hepatitis-B virus, and received a $3 million milestone payment for reaching this important milestone. Third, in a small sample preliminary view, we revealed that our therapy for HPV-caused head-and-neck cancer generated robust cancer-killing T-cell immune responses. Fourth, we received a $60 million government grant to further develop our DNA-based HIV vaccine. Finally, in the first quarter of this year, Inovio was selected by the U.S. government to lead a $45 million program to produce and test a preventive Ebola vaccine and a DNA-based monoclonal antibody to treat those already infected. This is an impressive yet also seemingly diverse set of accomplishments. You might ask, how do they fit into Inovio's corporate strategy? Let me take a few moments to discuss this. Our vision is to develop and commercialize targeted DNA-based immunotherapy to fight cancers and infectious diseases. The progress we have seen with the advancement of immunotherapy focused on certain immune-modulating mechanisms has been exciting and clearly validates the important role and the potential of activating T cell. Despite the successes, many analysts have noticed that we have, though really, scraped – just scraped the surface. There's certainly one key stroke coming among all the capabilities that are being advanced. That is, the ability to safely activate antigen-specific killer T-cells in vivo or in the body in a manner that may function strongly as a monotherapy, or in combination with other immune-modulating mechanisms. To create some context, there are mechanisms that inhibit cancer cells' ability to neutralize the killer T-cells that are hunting them down. There are mechanisms that manufacture vast quantities of T-cells outside the body by risk-inducing, significant, detrimental inflammatory responses in the body. To be technical for a brief second, the most natural and powerful killer T-cell immune responses occur by having a significant antigen present visible through the NAC (5:42) class 1 presentation mechanism. Inovio's DNA-based approach using its electroporation delivery method is the only way we know of that uses this mechanism by presenting only the antigen related exclusively to the targeted cancer/infectious disease, while other approaches targeting this mechanism have anywhere from an additional 10 antigenic proteins to 1,000 antigenic proteins associated with the carrier virus or bacteria known as a vector, which ultimately distracts the immune system and attracts unwanted responses. This precludes or reduces the benefits of boosting, which is fundamentally essential to good immune responses. Think about it, just like our brains, repetitive exposure to information is fundamental to learning. It is no different for the immune system. So, undoubtedly, Inovio is very excited about this technology's positioning and its unique potential role in the spectrum of immune-modulating mechanisms. So, let's review our strategy. The essence of biotech development is generating data. With this data, you move up, you move forward. With lesser data, you back up and try other approaches, or perhaps you can de-prioritize or even kill it. Inovio is absolutely committed to generating data through rigorous studies and analyses. We first wanted to be convinced that the ability of our technology platform to generate immune responses with the right characteristics, which we have done in our HIV and HPV Phase I studies. In our first double-blind Phase II study, we have also shown efficacy that is statistically significant and clinically relevant and important. With this evidence in hand, we will proactively progress individual programs through to FDA approval while at the same time, broadening our pipeline. As you know, we have a large and growing pipeline. How are we prioritizing our efforts? First and foremost, Inovio is an immuno-oncology company. Cancer has significant unmet patient need. It represents significant profit potential as well. We are very motivated to advance and expand our cancer pipeline, and we are willing to apply our own capital to do this. Our DNA immunotherapy technology is just as relevant to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. With significant third-party funding, we are pleased to advance these programs. Some such as hepatitis-B may in fact, represent a very large commercial opportunity. Others may sit in to more into the realm of having stockpiling potential. They can all provide financial benefits to Inovio, and these developments all generate know knowledge that can leverage across that platform. It is clear from our performance of recent years we have the focus and ability to secure resources to help us in our endeavor. Within various trusted and securing brands, collaborations, and partnerships, these inputs provide financial and knowledge resources that help to minimize shared dilution, and also contribute to valuable guidance to our efforts. Unlike many of our peers, Inovio has a platform that can generate a multitude of products. Indeed, we have built a very rich pipeline of products. We also realized that we will not be able to fully develop all of our products on our own. What we will do is to secure partnerships for some of our products while retaining some through full commercialization. We can do a partnership at pre-clinical stage like we did with INO-1800 with Roche, or even later, even after Phase II or even after Phase III. We appreciate the validation that comes with credible partnership deals and value the resources that can enhance value for the company and its shareholders. Finally, (10:22) technology and product split within the system of immune-modulating mechanisms and products? These are antigen-targeting immunotherapies of one unique addition that can, by itself, help the immune system to mount a more powerful and effective response to diseases, or would it have to be part of a combination? We are happy to function as a monotherapy or as a part of a combination. However, what we are not indifferent to is establishing a clear basis of data that allows us to characterize the utility of our technologies and ensuring we secure the appropriate value for our approach. We will emphasize that it is not our class of immune technology that is crowded with multiple competitors. We are sensitive to the importance of time, but we'll do the job correctly. It is premature to go into the details now, but I'll assure you that we are being proactive in advancing our monotherapy trials and establishing the immunogenicity of our products in different disease areas. We're also conducting research to assess the technology connectively into framework – into this framework. I'm going to divide them into the categories of cancers and infectious disease. VGX-3100 is our most advanced program. This HPV cancer immunotherapy targets antigens related to a spectrum of disease, from initial viral infection through, for example, cervical dysplasia and cervical cancer, as well as other pre-cancers and cancers. We had repeatedly reiterated in detail the positive results of our randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind Phase II study. I would not repeat the results here, suffice to say that these result a significant step forward providing women and their physicians a non-surgical approach to treat pre-cancers, which our market research has shown is a desired solution. After a lengthy exercise to measure and analyze all the T-cell data after we recorded the top-line data last July, we do look forward to seeing the full Phase II data set being published in a top peer review journal this year. With our next step being a Phase III registration study of VGX-3100, we do need to manufacture the biologic agents of immunotherapy in a same facility we will use for future commercial production. We do have to scale up device manufacturing as well. We will also be meeting with the FDA to review the Phase II data and our proposed Phase III plan. We are working proactively on all of these steps in parallel. We have recently raised $87.4 million in gross proceeds through an equity offering. With these funds in hand, we no longer face on currency regarding funding for this planned Phase III trial. We have all the components in place and are on track to launch this study in early 2016. Last month, we've released our first ever data related to the use of our DNA therapy for a cancer. The preliminary data show that INO-3112 for treating HPV-caused cancer generate strong CD8-positive killer T-cell responses in three patients of four patients with head and neck cancer associated with HPV type 16 and type 18 infection. Whether it's an infectious disease or pre-cancer or cancer, the immune system uses the same mechanism to eliminate infective or mutated cell. In immuno-oncology, it's all about the T-cell, and we showed in our cancer patients that the CD8 killer T-cell responses we generated were in line with the best-in-class T-cell responses that we generated in our Phase II efficacy trials of our cervical pre-cancer study. We look forward to further data from this head and neck cancer study later this year. It is noteworthy that the incidence of HPV-caused head and neck cancer has been rapidly rising, especially HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer in men. By 2025, researchers believe that HPV will the causative factor of 90% of all head and neck cancers. We expect to report additional immune response data from our HPV head and neck and cervical cancer studies, as well as our hTERT study in breast, lung, pancreatic cancers over the next few quarters. We will also soon launch our prostate cancer study with INO-5150. I will tell you that we have a rigorous ongoing effort to characterize a broad set of cancer indications, the antigens associated with these cancers, and our R&D and pre-clinical priorities to advance further cancer immunotherapies into the clinic. We're also conducting research to assess the impact of immune-modulating mechanisms that may be complementary to our novel DNA-based immunotherapies as well. On the infectious disease front, we took an important step with our partner, Roche, by moving from pre-clinical into a Phase I trial for hepatitis-B immunotherapy INO-1800. This large, randomized, open-label, active-controlled dose escalation study is evaluating the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of Inovio's hepatitis-B immunotherapy alone, or in combination with IL-12 based immune activator. This study will help with the design of a future Phase II protocol. Hepatitis B shares characteristics similar to hepatitis C, which has witnessed several notable successful drug successors. Antiviral treatments used to control hep B usually do not eliminate the virus, and there are no cures. With prevalence (17:42) nearly double that of hepatitis C, there is significant opportunity for a hepatitis C immunotherapy able to actually clear the virus. Moving to HIV, having completed the development of PENNVAX-GP under a prior $25 million (18:03) academic collaborators were awarded a new $16 million grant from the NIAID to expand the coverage of Inovio's PENNVAX HIV vaccines to additional HIV strain, and advance new technologies to further improve vaccination outcomes. We have one of the most dynamic HIV programs in the world. Finally, Ebola and our DNA-based monoclonal antibody application. In a half-year period, we have secured with our collaborators, including MedImmune, two awards from DARPA – one for $12 million in October of last year, the other for $45 million this quarter. DARPA, which is Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is the arm of our government that places grants to support the advancement of important new technology with potentially significant benefits to government and society. Case-in-point, the Internet we know today began as DARPANET. Under the $45 million Ebola grant, the Inovio-led consortium is taking a multi-faceted approach to develop products to prevent and treat Ebola infection. Inovio is the only pharma company that DARPA has relied on to develop both a preventive vaccine and a treatment for those infected. This project incorporates Inovio's DNA-based vaccine against Ebola with the first patient expected to be dosed this quarter. It also involves a highly potent, conventional protein-based therapeutic monoclonal antibody product against Ebola. What is exciting is that this award also funds the development of a therapeutic DNA-based monoclonal antibody product or dMAb against Ebola. This Inovio innovation enables expedient design and manufacture using proven fermentation technology that may provide more therapeutic – more rapid therapeutic benefit. DARPA awarded us $12 million last October to develop dMAbs against influenza and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We believe our dMAbs technology has tremendous potential advantages relative to existing conventional monoclonal antibody products, as well as diseases for which monoclonal antibodies cannot be developed currently. This technology could be a self-service foundation for a biotech company. We are pleased to have the resources and programs to advance this technology further. Now, our CFO, Peter Kies, will provide our financial highlights. Peter?