Tim Dyer
Management
Hello, everyone. I'd like to thank you all for joining our Quarter Three 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. I'm here with Robert Lutjens, our Head of Discovery, Biology; and Mikhail Kalinichev, our Head of Translational Science. I draw your attention to the press release and the financial statements issued earlier today, which are available on our website. I'll also draw your attention to our disclaimer. We will be making certain forward-looking statements that are based on the knowledge we have today. I will start this conference call by giving a quick overview of our recent achievements before handing over to Robert and Mikhail, who will review our clinical and preclinical pipeline. I will then review our third quarter financial results. Following that, we will open the call for questions. Our partner, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, continues to make significant progress in executing their global Phase 2 study in epilepsy patients and are on track to complete Part 1 of the study in Q1 2023. We continue to be excited by our preclinical pipeline, which has made excellent progress with multiple clinical candidates rapidly advancing towards IND-enabling studies. Previously, we announced the extension of our strategic collaboration on GABAB positive allosteric modulators with Indivior and their commitment of an additional $900,000 of research funding to advance drug candidates through to the start of IND-enabling studies. As a reminder, Indivior's primary interest is in substance use disorder. And under the agreement, we have retained the right to select drug candidates for development in certain exclusive reserved indications. Our GABAB PAM funded research effort has progressed to late clinical candidate selection phase with multiple candidates being profiled in secondary disease relevant model. We expect Indivior and ourselves to select compounds in 2023 to advance into IND-enabling studies. We plan to develop our independent program in Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1A neuropathy, chronic cough and pain. We've also made great progress in our mGluR7 negative allosteric modulator program for stress related disorder, and successfully identified a compound which is now ready to enter IND-enabling studies. In addition, we continue to advance the selection of differentiated backup compound to late clinical candidate selection phase. Our mGluR2 NAM program for mild neurocognitive disorders associated with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and depression is in clinical candidate selection phase. And last but not least, our M4 PAM program is advancing rapidly through lead optimization. M4 PAM is a particularly exciting target for schizophrenia, especially following the recent positive Phase 3 data from Karuna. On the financing side, CHF4.6 million equity financing completed in July has increased our cash reserves to CHF10.4 million at the end of September, providing us with cash runway through Q2 of 2023. Now, I will hand over to Robert, who will give you some more details about our exciting pipeline.