Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Evogene's Third Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. All participants are at present in listen-only mode. Following management's formal presentation, instructions will be given for the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, November 17, 2022. Before we begin, I would like to caution that certain statements made during this earnings conference call by Evogene's management will constitute forward-looking statements that relate to future events, risks and uncertainties regarding the business strategy, operations, and future performance and results of Evogene. I encourage you to review Evogene's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and read the note regarding forward-looking statements in today's earnings release, which states that statements made in the earnings release and in a similar way on this earnings conference call that are not historical facts may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For example, Evogene is using forward-looking statements in this call when it discusses its expected path to value creation, including potential fundraising at the subsidiary level, its and its subsidiaries expected trials and their expected results studies, product advancements, commercialization, launches, pipelines, milestones, potential collaborations, and other plans for 2022 and 2023, expected burn rate, the potential advantages of its technology and its anticipated entry into new fields of activity. All forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date of the announcement of results. Many of the factors that impact whether forward-looking statements will come true are beyond the control of Evogene and may cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results. Evogene is under no obligation to update publicly or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law. We expressly disclaim any obligation to do so. More detailed information about the risk factors potentially adversely impacting our performance can be found in our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That said, I would now like to turn over the call to Ofer Haviv, Evogene's CEO. Ofer, please go ahead.

Thank you for joining our conference call, discussing and providing an update on our activities in the third quarter of 2022. My focus in today's review will be on two topics. The first one, Evogene's current financial status and our plan to strengthen it; and the second one, update on the latest achievement of our subsidiaries. Following my review, Yaron Eldad, our CFO will provide the financial summary. After that, we will open the Q&A session. As you all know, financial markets are currently very volatile and company valuation, especially in the biotech sector, have fallen very significantly over the past year and a half or so. I want to highlight that Evogene has and will continue to successfully navigate those difficult times, despite the many challenges. Beyond that, the activities of our subsidiaries are advancing nicely and strengthen our belief that each generates significant value for the Evogene group. To address our cash position, as of the end of the third quarter, we have a consolidated $38 million on Evogene's balance sheet. We expect that based on our business plan, it will be enough and take us toward late 2024. The strategic step we continue to pursue made fundraising for our subsidiaries and collaborations with non-dilutive payments we believe will ultimately extend this runway out further. With respect to fundraising for the subsidiaries, we are working hard to identify and bring value adding partners and investors. This was achieved [indiscernible] at the same time. Any investment at a subsidiary level brings a new source of capital to the subsidiary and lowers the demand on Evogene's balance sheet, enabling us to extend our cash resources. It brings a value adding partner to the subsidiaries, which has a strong share in the ultimate success and update of that subsidiary. And for…

Thank you, Ofer. I will now provide the financial summary. Evogene continues to maintain a solid financial position for its activities with approximately $38 million in consolidated cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of September 30, 2022. Approximately $12 million of Evogene’s consolidated cash is appropriated to its subsidiary, Lavie Bio. We do not have any bank debts. During the third quarter of 2022, the consolidated cash usage was approximately $7.3 million, or approximately $4.7 million, excluding Lavie Bio. To-date in the first nine months of the year, our consolidated cash burn was $25.9 million, which included $3.3 million from the impact from foreign exchange and the decrease in market value of marketable securities on Evogene’s balance sheet. For the full year of 2022, excluding the impact from foreign exchange differences and the change in market value from marketable securities, we expect our consolidated cash burn rate to be in the range of $27 million to $28 million. We are aiming to reduce the cash burn in 2023 and are currently building our budget. We hope to provide you with more color in our next conference call in February of 2023. I would like now to highlight some specific items on the P&L. Revenues for the third quarter was $466,000, in comparison to $151,000 in the same period the previous year and were primarily due to revenues recognized per the collaboration agreement of one of our subsidiaries. R&D expenses for the quarter, which are reported net of non-refundable grants received, were $5 million, in comparison to $5.8 million in the same period the previous year. The main contributors to R&D expenses were Lavie Bio’s activities supporting the production and commercialization of its inoculant product and Biomica’s ongoing Phase 1 trial. Business development expenses were approximately $0.9 million for the third quarter of 2022, in comparison to $0.8 million in the same period the previous year. G&A expenses were $1.6 million in the third quarter of 2022, in comparison to $2 million in the same period in the previous year. Operating loss for the third quarter of 2022 was $7.1 million, in comparison to an operating loss of $8.6 million in the same period in the previous year. The net loss for the third quarter of 2022 was $7.2 million, in comparison to a net loss of $8.3 million in the same period in the previous year. As Ofer mentioned, our business plan is to pursue strategies to strengthen Evogene’s consolidated cash position, ensuring our subsidiaries are well capitalized. With that, both Ofer and I would now like to open the call for any questions you may have. Operator?

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. The first question is from Kristen Kluska of Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. So the first one I had is if you could please elaborate more on your business plan. What specifically are you changing or deprioritizing in order to extend your cash balance now for two years? And could you speak to which subsidiaries in particular you think there could be some near-term opportunities for non-dilutive fundraising, whether that's through partnership or other items?

Hi, Kristen. This is Ofer. I will start by addressing the second part of your question. So I think that in the short term, probably one of the companies better positioned for fundraising is Biomica. But I believe that next year, I'm expecting another or two companies will be on the road for additional fundraising. I think that the amount of money we'll raise for the [indiscernible] we raised the $10 million, but we should target for a higher amount. And I think that also Canonic or AgPlenus should start the process of fundraising as well. So for the short term, I will put more emphasis on Biomica, but mid-term I think that and at least in other two companies should initiate the process of fundraising. This is with respect to fundraising. With respect to non-dilutive [indiscernible] actually here, there is a company such as AgPlenus and Lavie Bio and also Canonic, they're in a good position to move forward with it. And also Casterra as I mentioned lately, the field of castor beans became again very interesting, and here too increased demand in the area of biofuel. The first question was related -- can you remind me more what was it? What activity we are planning to reduce? So I think that with respect to the activity that we are going to reduce is that, if you remember -- as you probably remember, according to our business plan, we are all the time looking for a new activity, a new initiative that can benefit from our technology. So this is probably something that we will reduce significantly the level of activity, meaning the business development and maybe developing technology which would be relevant for new forms of activity. So this is probably we are going to put on hold…

Yes, it does. Thank you, Ofer. And then can you give us some context as to what we could expect to see in the spring 2023 update for Biomica? Is this primarily going to focus on safety or do you think we'll get some clues into early efficacy signals at this time? And then are you targeting to present at a medical conference in the spring?

So, actually the reason that Elran is not participating in this call, as an example, is because he participated in a conference in Boston in a very important panel. And I received a very positive feedback from this event. And yes, we will participate in different conferences and we are going to publish it and we're going to present the results. With respect to what I'm expecting in spring 2023, the clinical trial is focusing on safety. So, of course, we are going to disclose information about safety, but the things that you can already see some indication that we are in a good shape, otherwise, we won't be able to move to the third patient. And hopefully, after we will receive positive feedback from the second and the third, we can move automatically to recruit the additional nine patients. So I think that, again, you never know until you have all the results. But safety, this is definitely what we're going to focus on. And I think that we -- at least until now we are in good shape. With respect to efficacy, so of course if we are going to see some indication for efficacy, we're going to disclose this information. Please remember that the patients that we are recruiting for this experiment, they are all suffering from cancer. They all received already one treatment of [indiscernible] that it didn't help them. And now they’re entering into another cycle of treatment with [indiscernible], but this time with our microbe. So if we are going to see some positive effects, it's really going to have a lot of meaning and make us very, very excited. So we are not targeting for this because the number of patients is relatively very small. It's only 12. But if we're going to do some indication like this, of course, we will share this information with the public.

Okay. Thanks. And last question for me is, if you could talk a little bit more about the work that you're doing to understand the financial resource requirements moving forward for each of the subsidiaries?

So we have -- each of our CEO is establishing a clear target for '23 and '24. Each one of our subsidiaries is building the required budget. And we are building our financial plan according to this need. And I think that based on the financial plan that we already established, I think that we are in a good shape. And as I said, I can't disclose much, but I believe that at least some of our subsidiaries, we will be able to raise money in the short term or maybe in the mid-term. And this definitely will support their activity. And I can’t disclose more than this. But we are aware to the challenging environment. And the fact that we currently keeping all of the activity moving forward, I think it should send a message that we are confident on our ability also to fund this activity at this period during next year. And I hope that if our plan will materialize, we will be all with a big smile also for 2024.

Great, thanks again.

[Operator Instructions]. There are no further questions at this time. Before I ask Mr. Ofer Haviv to go ahead with his closing statement, I would like to remind participants that a replay of this call is scheduled to begin two hours after the conference. In the U.S., please call 1-888-326-9310. In Israel, please call 03-925-5901. Internationally, please call 972-3-925-5901. Mr. Haviv, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you all for joining the call today. I look forward to updating you on our progress in our next call. Thank you once again.

Thank you. This concludes Evogene’s third quarter 2022 results conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.