Earnings Labs

Abeona Therapeutics Inc. (ABEO)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Tue, Mar 27, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to Abeona Therapeutics Fourth Quarter Business Update Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Christine Silverstein, Finance, Investor Relations. Thank you, Ms. Silverstein. You may begin.

Christine Silverstein

Analyst

Good morning and welcome. On the call today are Dr. Timothy J. Miller, President and CEO; and Jeffrey B. Davis, COO of Abeona Therapeutics. Dr. Miller will begin the call with an overview of the fourth quarter highlights and more recent developments at Abeona. After that, Jeff will provide commentary on the quarter, a brief overview of financials and provide a snapshot of our financial position. Following that, we will open the floor up to a few questions. Before I turn the call over to them, I need to remind our listeners that remarks made during this call may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements on this call are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions and Federal Securities Laws. Information contained in the forward-looking statements is based on current expectations and is subject to change and actual results may differ materially from forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ are discussed in the reports filed with the SEC. These documents are available on our website at www.abeonatherapeutics.com. With that said, it is now my great pleasure to introduce Dr. Timothy J. Miller. Tim, you have the floor.

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst

Good morning, everyone. I would like to start with some overview. The fourth quarter was marked by several notable achievements in our clinical programs. Significant progress was made in the two lead clinical programs, EB-101 for Epidermolysis Bullosa and ABO-102 in MPS IIIA, and we initiated our third clinical program, ABO-101 in MPS IIIB along with additional enrollments at our global clinical sites for MPS IIIA. Data reported from these programs continue to underscore the durability and clinical benefits observed after administration of gene therapy. The strong safety and biopotency data observed in the three active clinical trials and the strategic initiative of building an in-house commercial GMP manufacturing facility further strengthens our position in developing gene and cell therapies to treat these devastating and rare pediatric diseases. Most recently, the FDA granted our Epidermolysis Bullosa program EB-101 with the Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy or RMAT designation. This program continues to advance as we finalize the clinical protocol before initiating the pivotal Phase 3 trial this year. Our MPS IIIA program now has four patients enrolled in Cohort 3 for the expanded Phase 1/2 clinical trial at a dose of 3E12 vg/kg while our MPS IIIB program reported initial safety and biopotency signals at 30 days post administration, demonstrating that the therapy is well tolerated and continuing to show very similar early biopotency signals as the MPS IIIA program, particularly with regards to significant reductions in the disease-specific heparan sulfate reductions in cerebral spinal fluid, urine, and plasma and greater than 300-fold increase in NAGLU enzyme activity. In our preclinical work, we achieved additional regulatory -- designations for our Batten or infantile CLN1 program. And in addition, we continue to work on optimizing our AIM vector platform, which continues to demonstrate exciting progress including enhanced tissue tropisms compared to naturally…

Jeffrey B. Davis

Analyst

Thanks, Tim. I remind the listeners that we have recently filed the Form 10-K where you can get all the specific details on our financial results. But in summary, our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of December 31, 2017 were $137.8 million compared to $56.5 million as of the end of the third quarter of last year, September 30, 2017. Net cash used in operations for the 12 months ending December 31, 2017 was $22.9 million compared to $13 million in the same period of 2016, an increase of $9.9 million. There were a number of things that impacted our cash balance in the fourth quarter and obviously through the aggregated annual results, both included an equity financing that was completed on October 19th where we announced the closing of $92 million underwritten public offering and the full exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares. Again, that closed on October 19th. It was 5.75 million common shares at a public offering price of $16 per share. The gross proceeds to the Company were $92 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses paid by the Company. We want to thank our bankers and our underwriters, and most importantly, syndicate of leading investment funds for participating in that financing. As Tim mentioned earlier, we also announced in October, a $13.85 million grant from a global network of nine Sanfilippo syndrome foundations for additional clinical development of our MPS IIIA and B gene therapies. From a revenue perspective, our revenues were $215,000 for the fourth quarter of 2017 compared with $256,000 for the similar quarter the year previously. 12 months ending December 31, 2017, the revenues were $837,000 compared to $889,000 in the same period in 2016. Revenues consisted of the combination of royalties from marketed…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Liav Abraham from Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Liav Abraham

Analyst

Good morning. Just a couple of from our end. Firstly, Tim, can you update us on where you stand with respect to EB-101 as it relates to a dialogue with the FDA? When do you anticipate being able to communicate a final trial design? And I’m assuming this trial design will be very similar to your first trial. If you can make any comments on that, that would be helpful.

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst

Sure. Hi, Liav. So, as part of the Breakthrough and RMAT designations, we get six scheduled meetings with the FDA. These usually get broken up between clinical, CMC, talking about the TPT. [Ph] So, we’ve had the first couple of these in -- and you continue to go back and forth. We’re very close to the finalizing the trial and design. We anticipate that the trial will start in the next couple of months. We’ll certainly provide guidance towards that. But again, as I think we’ve guided previously, the design is very similar to the Phase 1/2 with similar endpoints and similar number of patients. So, I think that we’ll be well-positioned for accelerating the enrollment from that as well.

Liav Abraham

Analyst

And then, secondly, on your ABO-102 program, any comments on -- I guess, you probably do have a desire for Breakthrough RMAT designation. Any comments around timing there and whether you filed for that would be helpful.

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst

Yes. Certainly with the number of treated patients that we have to-date and guided towards certainly would be -- and especially with the amount of data that we’ve shown, Breakthrough or RMAT certainly designations that we’ll be looking at and look forward to guiding you in the future that results when we might have those submissions and some of those designations.

Liav Abraham

Analyst

And then, lastly on that same program, can you provide an update on number of patients enrolled in your ABO-102 program thus far? And particularly, given FDA allowing you to reduce the age of patients to be enrolled, whether you’ve identified the younger patients, what the willingness is of parents to enroll of their young patients, six months in that age range in that trial? Thank you.

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst

Sure. We have -- in addition to the FDA, we have received regulatory approvals to treat down to six months of age in both Europe and in Australia now, and certainly have been working with the clinicians and really the global community finding and enrolling patients in that age bracket from six months up to two years. So, we look forward to presenting more of the enrollments. And we haven’t guided to the amount of patients that we are looking enroll at this point. But, we do go through pre-screening for many of these patients and look forward to updating again at some point in the near future.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Maury Raycroft with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, this is Besma [ph] on for Maury. I have a couple as well. So, we’ve heard something about status update for MPS IIIA patients. How about the MPS IIIB enrollment? Can you provide an update on that?

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

On the MPS IIIB, we’ve announced that we have treated one patient to-date. I think we have guided previously that as we enroll additional patients, we will be reporting more data out, primarily at the cohort level and especially as we move through some of the pre-specified endpoints whether it’s 30 days or six months. So, we look forward to providing again more guidance on that in the second half on the enrollments in MPS IIIB.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Sounds good. Thank you. Back to MPS IIIA, can you provide any status update on the patient queue [ph] from Cohort 2? And would you expect that the patients’ results would improve in the 12-month analysis?

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

We don’t have any update at this time. I believe that a patient’s due for an upcoming follow-up visit in the next few months and we will guide based on what clinicians provide us with data at that time.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Sounds good. And I have a one final question on your preclinical program, just a clarification. Are you planning on using any of the new AIM vectors for CLN1 and 3 or will you be going away AAV9, as you presented in the preclinical data? Thank you.

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

That’s a great question. So, the AIM vectors and certainly as we’re moving into non-human primates now, we have identified a number of lead candidates, both for intravenous administration for CNS-based diseases as well as intrathecal or other direct injections. We’ve identified some targets for intramuscular. So, certainly, we are looking at how we layer the AIM vectors into our existing pipeline as well as building out for some of our undisclosed target diseases.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Any specific on CLN1 and 3, since you’re in IND studies, I would assume that you have vector picked out but if you can provide any clarity on that? And that’s it from me. Thanks.

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

We look forward to providing some more guidance on that as preclinical studies move to completions.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Kennen MacKay with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Hi. Good morning. This is Nick [ph] on for Kennen. Thanks for taking the questions and congrats on all the progress. A question -- two questions on the MPS IIIA program. I was wondering if you could provide any color regarding how many additional patients worth of data we might see at ASGCT, particularly in Cohort 3. And I guess more broadly, what biomarker and neurocog updates we might -- we could expect at the conference? And then I have a follow-up question as well. Thank you.

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Sure. I am not sure that we will comment much on the number of patients that we will present additional data on at ASGCT. I think part of that is always a function of amount of drug and weight of patients. So, we’re looking for, as you enroll younger patients, they weigh less, so you can also enroll more of them. So, we are certainly forward to discussing additional enrollments in the MPS IIIA program. And with -- specific regard to biomarkers, we previously reported out on plasma, heparan sulfate for example, some enzyme activity. We are looking at other markers of reduction of neuronal loss such as GM2 and GM3. We talked about that at our recent R&D Day as something that has been tracking very explicitly with reductions in CSF heparan sulfate. So, we believe that those are also part of the totality of the data package, demonstrating efficacy after a single intravenous administration of the AAV gene therapy.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Great. And regarding a potential registrational trial for this program, have you had any discussions with the FDA or is this scheduled, or is there something in the current Phase 1 dataset that they’re looking towards, prior to initiating that process?

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

I think, we’ll provide guidance in the second half about how we’re looking and working with both the EMA and the FDA on our regulatory strategy for registration.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the Elemer Piros with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.

Elemer Piros

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.

So, the question is coming back to the enrollment, Tim. So, in the first quarter, have you enrolled any IIIA or IIIB patients?

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.

Yes. It seems to be a very active topic of discussion, Elemer. We’ll provide some guidance on our additional enrollment at some of the upcoming investor and clinical conferences.

Elemer Piros

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.

Okay, okay. And also with the EB-101 program, do you anticipate that you’ll start the Phase 3 trial in coming months? So, where would the product be produced, at the Stanford facility or in Cleveland or maybe at different source?

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.

So, actually it’s going to be produced at the Stanford facility, which produced the material for the Phase 1/2 trial. Stanford has really been a great partner and both the clinical and the CMC process. As we continue to build out the Cleveland facility and go through validation, we’ll certainly be looking to do a lot of patient comparability study going forward. And we’ll provide some more information on that as the facility moves to validation.

Elemer Piros

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.

Okay, okay. And has this thought crossed your mind that now with the RMAT designation in place that you would discuss with the FDA on filing on the existing database for EB-101?

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.

Yes. It’s a very interesting question, Elemer. We, with both the RMAT and the Breakthrough status -- that’s certainly been an active part of our discussions with the FDA. They have been very, very supportive of the program and trying to find additional ways to work with us for the success of the program for registration filing, again, as we move that program into really the Phase 3, certainly looking at ways to accelerate any path towards registration.

Elemer Piros

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.

Okay. And my last question is on the cognitive and behavioral instruments that you plan to use for IIIB patients, if you could talk about those, because in the Leiter and Vineland scores, there appears to be a gap between the ages of two and six from the historical data.

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.

We’ll be using the same neurocognitive and developmental neurocognitive instruments, Elemer. The Vineland and Mullen in particular are valid from birth through 98 years of age. And with I think the wealth of the natural history study data, the compare out there certainly looking forward to seeing very -- I would expect very similar results compared to MPS IIIA program. I think, it’s important to know too we’re looking at volumetric changes by MRI in the IIIB program as well as the IIIA program. We reported out on that late last year, showing improvements in different areas of the deep brain architecture, which again supports the clinical hypothesis of treating earlier and treating younger with again these fair doses of AAV gene therapy.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Ram Selvaraju with H.C. Wainwright. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please proceed with your question.

Hi. Thank you for taking my question. This is Julian [ph] on for Ram. Regarding EB-101, now that you have received RMAT in addition to Orphan and Pediatric Rare Disease designations for the drug, do you have any updates at this time regarding how long you would expect FDA to turn around an NDA for the drug if you were to submit one?

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst · H.C. Wainwright. Please proceed with your question.

Well, I mean, these pathways enable instead of a 10-months turnaround and a 6-months turnaround, so certainly looking forward to utilizing an excavated review path.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions in queue. I would like to hand the call back to management for closing comments.

Dr. Timothy J. Miller

Analyst

Thank you, everyone. I can tell that there’s a lot of excitement around our MPS IIIA and EB-101 programs. And as we get additional patients enrolled and some more regulatory guidance, we look forward to updating everyone at additional conferences in the second half. Until then, best wishes and talk to you all soon.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.