Jeff Riley
Analyst · RBC Capital
Thanks, Kris, and good afternoon everyone thanks for spending some time here with us this afternoon. I would like to begin with a recap of the progress we have made through the third quarter and we accomplished a lot. Here is a brief rundown of the very exciting achievements we have made at Synthetic Biologics'. We continue to make great strides in the clinic. Firstly, we initiated two SYN-010 Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation or IBS-C. We completed patient enrollment in the first Phase 2 clinical trial for SYN-010 and continued to successfully roll patients from the first trial into the second Phase 2 clinical trials as we speak. Secondly, we initiated three SYN-004 Phase 2 clinical trials for the prevention of C. difficile Infection. A Phase 2b proof-of-concept clinical trial is going on in up to 370 patients at up to 75 global clinical sites. We also two Phase 2a trials in ileostomies participants and that’s ongoing to provide data which will help further to development of SYN-004. We reported results in line with our expectations from four participants from our first Phase 2a trials in July of this year and we completed participant enrollment in the first Phase 2a trial. We acquired an exciting novel biotherapeutics, designed to treat PKU from Intrexon Corporation expanding our portfolio of microbiome-focused products. Also The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a grant to UT Austin or academic Pertussis collaborator to generate preclinical proof-of-concept data to test the hypothesis that administration of our antibody at birth may also have a role in the prevention of Pertussis. And lastly, we amended license in clinical trial agreements with UCLA to further strengthen our MS intellectual property claims and we’re informed that MRI data analysis are ongoing to evaluate changes in the brain that correlate with improvements seen in the clinical outcomes in the relapsing-remitting study. Also we expanded our leadership team as we moved through late stage Phase 2 clinical trials, and prepare for Phase 3’s next year. Specifically Steve Shallcross joined us as CFO and brings with him public company operational, financial and international biotech experience. Maureen Early joined us as Vice President at Commercial and will lead all commercial and marketing efforts. Dr. Klaus Gottlieb, joined us as Vice President of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs, having served in Senior Management positions with both Quintiles and the FDA. And most recently Ray Stapleton joined us as Senior VP, Manufacturing and brings more than 15 use of pharma related manufacturing and operations experience with Merck. In July strengthen our balance sheet by completing the public offering of 17.3 million shares for net proceed of $42.6 million which provides us with the resources to move our lead drug candidates through Phase 2 clinical studies. And finally our clinical and operational progress continues to gain attention in the financial community as evidenced by additional coverage from three new sell side analyst for a total of five covering analyst to date. Now I would like to provide an update on our two lead gut microbiome-focused clinical programs, both of which are in Phase 2 clinical trials, SYN-010 our IBS-C program and SYN-004 or C. diff prevention program. Let’s turn to our SYN-010. A program that is addressing IBS-C, a function of GI disorder characterized by gas, abdominal pain, bloating and constipation, while the illness affects both men and women, almost two-thirds of diagnosed sufferers are women. Current treatment options including FDA approve drugs and over-the-counter laxatives treat the symptoms of constipation; intend to cause an IBS-C patient to swing from suffering from constipation to suffering from diarrhea. Synthetic Biologics' is developing SYN-010, our proprietary, modified release formulation of the lovastatin Lacton to target a major cause of IBS-C, the abdominal pain, bloating and constipation not just the symptoms, SYN-010 unique mechanism of action is intended to reduce methane production by certain micro-organisms in the GI track and restore normal bowel function to IBS-C patients without disturbing the balance of the patients gut microbiome. During the third quarter we complete patient enrollment in the first Phase 2 randomize, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial which is evaluating the ability of two dose strengths of SYN-010. To reduce product of methane in the gut of breath methane-positive IBS-C patients. Secondary points include improvement in the number of bowel movements per week and improvement in the abdominal pain and bloating as per the standards scales required per FDA guidance. As a remainder this clinical trial enrolled approximately 60 patients who are been randomly assigned to 1:1:1 ratio to one of three groups including two different SYN-010 dose groups and placebo group. Patients are scheduled to receive a single oral doses of SYN-010 or placebo each day for 28 days, analysis of patients date is ongoing and we expect to report topline data from this trial by the end of this quarter. Second significant milestone for the SYN-010 program was the initiation of the second Phase 2 multi-center open-label clinical trial. Patients who complete the first Phase 2 SYN-010 clinical trial are eligible to immediately roll over into the second Phase 2 clinical study. The open-label eight week extension study is evaluating the sustainability of the effect of the higher dose of SYN-010 on breath methane production in breath methane-positive patients with IBS-C. And will also evaluate key clinical outcomes including frequency of completes spontaneous bowel movements, abdominal pain and bloating. More than a half of the patients who have completed the first Phase 2 trial of SYN-010 have already rolled over into the second Phase 2 trial, and we anticipate reporting topline results from the second Phase 2 clinical trial during the first half of 2016. Now let's turn our attention to SYN-004, and talk about our second gut microbiome-focused program for the prevention of C. difficile infection, our product candidate SYN-004 is designed to protect the gut microbiome from the effects of certain commonly used IV beta-lactam antibiotics for the prevention of C. difficile and Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea. Again rather than treating a patient who already have been established C. difficile infection, we design SYN-004 to be what we believe is the first point of care preventative therapy that is intended to prevent the onside of primary C. difficile infection and Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea. Our novel Phase 2a clinical trials of SYN-004 are evaluating safety and the ability of SYN-004 to degrade IV ceftriaxone in the gut alone and in the presence of the presence of the proton pump inhibitor, esomeprazole in participants with functioning ileostomies, these healthy volunteers have had all or a part of their colon removed and are fitted with an external pouch system for waste. Therefore enabling easier sample of intestinal kind. I would like to clarify the design of the two Phase 2a clinical trials and why recruitment has been slower than anticipated. The Phase 2a trails were not design as a hurdle to move the clinical development SYN-004 into a Phase 2b proof of concept trial rather they were design to generate additional PK and PD data to support SYN-004 and in the case of the PPI study to analyze any potential drug-to-drug interactions. When designing and conducting a clinical trial using a novel approach they are always unknowns, what we and our principle investigators under estimated was the challenge of recruiting healthy ileostomiesed patients who were willing to simultaneously take, ceftriaxone, SYN-004 and in the case of the second Phase 2a trial APPI. We are grateful to these at risk participants for taking part in these studies that are intended to help further development of SYN-004. During the third quarter we enrolled enough participants to complete the first Phase 2a trial analysis we anticipate the results will be consistent with our expectations. And the positive PK and safety results demonstrated in the SYN-004 Phase 1a and 1b studies previously reported in March 2015 and the first four participants in the first Phase 2a previously reported in July 2015. Data from these first four participants demonstrated SYN-004 degraded IV ceftriaxone in the chyme without affecting the ceftriaxone in the blood stream. We expect to report top line data from the first Phase 2a clinical trial by the end of this quarter and from the second Phase 2a clinical trial during the first half of next year. The most significant milestone for the SYN-004 program during the third quarter was the initiation of the Phase 2b parallel group, double blind, placebo controlled, proof of concept clinical trial intended to evaluate the effectiveness of SYN-004 to prevent C. difficile infection, C. difficile associated diarrhea and antibiotic associated diarrhea in patients hospitalized for a lower respiratory tract infection and receiving IV ceftriaxone. Before initiating the SYN-004 Phase 2b clinical trial safety and tolerability were demonstrated in two Phase 1 studies, a single ascending dose study and a multiple ascending dose study full analysis of the Phase 1 studies were completed, instead reports were submitted to the FDA. The trials anticipated to enroll approximately 370 patients at up to 75 global sites many Phase 2b clinical sites are open for enrollment and actively screening for patients with additional sites expected to open as we approach the cold and flu season. The majority of which are anticipated to be up and running by year end. It is difficult to predict the completion date for the Phase 2b proof of concept trial as it is dependent on incidences of respiratory tract infections such a pneumonia and bronchitis. In addition to our two lead microbiome focused drug candidates we have three additional programs we are putting our efforts into. First one PKU. In August we were pleased to add an exciting new discovery program to our pipeline. A program for the development of novel biotherapeutics for the treatment of phenylketonuria also called PKU a chronic disease that can lead to profound cogent impairment and behavioral disorders. The development of these biotherapeutics expands our pipeline of products targeted for release in the GI track without adverse impact on the natural balance of the patients gut microbiome. Through an exclusive channel collaboration with Intrexon Corporation we are utilizing Intrexon's active biotics platform to provide a proprietary method of delivering therapeutic proteins and peptides to the GI tract through food grade microbes. We believe a biotherapeutics based approach has great potential to provide relief for PKU patients managing this divested disease an opportunity to improve upon current therapies that rely on constant dietary monitoring and drugs who increased their phenyl alumina breakdown. Our second program is in Pertussis, our monoclonal antibody program to target and destroy Pertussis toxin which is responsible for Pertussis or whopping cough is expanding to include the prevention of Pertussis in new born. In addition the treatment of newborns and other at-risk group with Pertussis. With up to 300,000 death reported annually primarily among infants during the first four months of life in the developing world, the prevention and treatment of Pertussis is a growing unmet medical need. Along with our collaborator Intrexon and our academic research Collaborator University of Texas and Austin we have had many discussions with international nonprofit health organizations to secure non-dilutive funding to advance our monoclonal antibody program for Pertussis. These efforts were rewarded when we were able to announce that The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the grant to UT Austin to generate preclinical proof-of-concept data to test the hypothesis that antibody administration at birth may also have a role in the prevention of Pertussis. Dr. Maynard, the principal investigator of the grant at UT Austin will test this hypothesis by using our monoclonal antibody. The grant award will be used to evaluate the potential of our monoclonal to prevent Pertussis in non-human primates and provide support to move the prophylaxis program into human clinical trials. During the third quarter, we amended our license and clinical trials agreements with UCLA and were informed by UCLA that MRI analysis were ongoing to evaluate changes in the brain that correlate with improvements seen in clinical outcomes of female relapse and remitting MS patients in the UCLA led Phase 2 clinical trial for multiple sclerosis. Upon receipt of the MRI dataset as is typical with academic collaborations we intend to conduct a thorough third party analysis in order to confirm UCLA’s results for potential business development discussions. We expect to report top line MRI data 30 days following receipt of the data and the related analysis from UCLA. In the interim we continued discussions with potential strategic partners regarding Trimesta pending MRI data from UCLA and subsequent third party analysis we intent to advance our discussions with potential partners. Now I’d like to turn the call over to our CFO, Steve Shallcross. Steve?