Shankar Musunuri
Analyst · Cantor
Thank you, Tiffany. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining. We hope you and your families are safe and well. Courageous innovation is the driving force behind everything we do at Ocugen. We are leading innovative clinical programs to ultimately make a significant impact on public health and address unmet medical needs around the globe. Developing great science requires harnessing the passion, persistence, patience, and intellectual progress of our entire Ocugen team. And I am very proud of what we are accomplishing. Using this mindset of courageous innovation, we are strengthening our dedication to eye care, pursuing broader commercialization of our vaccines program and we have expanded our pipeline into the orthopedic space, which we will discuss later. The Ocugen team continues to charge ahead. And over the course of this past quarter, we saw great progress in establishing ourselves as a differentiated biotech company. As we continue to meet our regulatory milestones and engage with patients in a clinical setting, I am especially confident that the team is well poised to advance our efforts. Today, we are going to provide updates on our vaccines, gene and cell therapy programs. Starting with vaccines, as we enter the third year of the COVID pandemic, we are facing new challenges as COVID-19 variants continue to emerge. At the World Vaccine Congress in late April, speakers all agreed that public health strategies need to expand and vaccine options beyond what is available in the current mRNA dominant landscape, but necessary to contain the pandemic. This sentiment was reiterated during the recent White House Summit on the future of COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally, consumers want effective options for vaccinating themselves and their children, including vaccines built on a traditional platform. We are up to this challenge as we advance the Covaxin program with our partner, Bharat Biotech. Studies have shown Covaxin provides durability through immune memory and a broader immune response that maybe important for realizing a booster strategy for annual vaccinations. We are still a few years away from seeing an end to this pandemic and the need for delivering an additional COVID-19 vaccine option with a different MOA and the U.S. remains at priority. The Phase 2/3 immuno-bridging and broadening clinical trial, OCU002 for Covaxin is progressing well and we are in the planning stages for starting the adult safety clinical trial this year, pending FDA discussions. Lancet Infectious Disease which is a peer-reviewed journal recently published the Phase 2/3 clinical trial results of 526 children who demonstrated a superior response in the study that have shown in adults. Nature Scientific Reports published a study where Covaxin generated a persistent cell mediated memory immune response for up to 12 months. Additionally, it showed that the booster dose is safe and ensures persistent immunity to minimize breakthrough infections of COVID-19. These studies reinforce the point that Covaxin is effective with a favorable safety profile. Covaxin already has emergency use authorization in Mexico for adults and we submitted an application for pediatric emergency use in the 2 to 18 age group that is under review. We are currently working on commercializing the vaccine in Mexico. Now, moving on to our gene therapy programs and our founding focus retinal diseases is becoming clearer, especially at our vital work in Retinitis Pigmentosa, a disease for which there is no cure, no medicines to block disease progression, and limited treatments to help manage the patient’s tragic journey that ultimately leads to blindness. Ocugen has a deep commitment to its research and development programs for inherited retinal diseases, for which there are no treatment options only one gene therapy modality exists. Our modified gene therapy unlike traditional gene therapy, as shown in preclinical models, to effect the regulation of genes or nuclear hormone receptors or NHRs. Activating these NHRs modulates gene activity and maintains homeostasis. When gene networks are not functioning properly, this unbalanced state can lead to disease, including a family of inherited retinal diseases that cause blindness. We completed the dosing of subjects with Retinitis Pigmentosa in Cohort 1 for Phase 1/2 safety and efficacy clinical trial for OCU400 and the Independent Data Safety Monitoring Board for the clinical trial recommends proceeding to dosing in Cohort 2. We expect to begin dosing in Cohort 2 this month and we will provide periodic updates. This is a significant accomplishment in an innovative therapeutic category, because for the first time, we are evaluating this modifier gene therapy concept that adopts invitation and ophthalmology disease space. By the end of this study, we will collect data from 18 patients, which will constitute three cohorts of three different doses before moving on to a Phase 3 clinical trial. If successful, this therapy has the potential to treat many mutations under RP. Currently, RP has about 150 mutations, affecting approximately 2 million people globally. This is a dire unmet medical need and shows where Ocugen can bring courageous innovation to bear. Our sense of urgency for rescuing one site is critical and for us, it’s personal. Our next candidate OCU410 has IND-enabling studies underway to support a future Phase 1/2 clinical trial targeting dry age-related macular degeneration. Ocugen is currently executing pre-IND studies, consistent with FDA discussions to support a Phase 1/2 clinical trial, which the company intends to initiate next year. We have partnered with CanSino Bio to manufacture clinical trial materials and to support the CMC development for OCU400 and our OCU410. It’s also worth noting that we expanded our patent portfolio in June, then the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued the company an additional patent directed to methods for preventing or treating an ocular disease or disorder associated with retinal degenerative disease. Finally, we are expected to initiate a Phase 1/2a clinical trial next year for OCU200, our novel biologic that has the potential to help those with diabetic macular edema, diabetic retinopathy, and with age-related macular degeneration. We have completed the technology transfer of manufacturing processes to its contract development and manufacturing organization that will manufacture OCU200 clinical materials. Now moving on to our regenerative cell therapies, with the expansion of our pipeline into cell therapy in orthopedics, NeoCart marks an experimental therapy with the potential to accelerate healing and reduce pain, the rebuilding damaged knee cartilage and limiting the progression of osteoarthritis. NeoCart is a tissue engineer disc of new cartilage that is manufactured by growing 100 sites, the cells responsible for maintaining cartilage health, which are derived from the patient. Recently, Ocugen entered into a collaborative research agreement with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School to support NeoCart development and explore expansion of the pipeline. Earlier this year, the FDA granted a regenerative medicine advanced therapy or RMAT designation to NeoCart for the repair of full-thickness lesions of the knee cartilage in adults. We believe this RMAT designation will accelerate our timeline and getting this product to market. Ocugen is currently working with the FDA to finalize the Phase 3 clinical protocol necessary to advance the clinical development of NeoCart for eventual market authorization. In summary, we have ambitious clinical agenda and the rigor in our clinical development process to advance our pipeline in constant pursuit of our long-term vision. What’s important to remember is that the strength of our pipeline is found in the diverse innovation. We are exploring to address public health and unmet medical needs. I am very proud of our team who collectively shares in our vision. We were recently named one of the region’s Best Places to Work by the Philadelphia Business Journal. This recognition is a reflection of all our colleagues and our culture focused on courageous innovation. I will now turn the call to Jess to provide our second quarter 2022 financial results.