Silviu Itescu
Analyst · Piper Sandler
Thanks, Jim. This next slide summarizes the key accomplishments so far for RYONCIL's commercialization in acute GvHD in children. Importantly, in green, the real-world experience continues to show the difference we're making in these children and their outcomes with 84% survival in -- early in the disease process with treatment of RYONCIL in children who otherwise would have a very high mortality. As I mentioned earlier, the net revenue exceeded the $125 million since launch of last year. We've now got more than 50 centers onboarded. And importantly, insurance coverage shows that more than 98% of U.S. lives across the country are now covered. Medicaid cover federally was in place early, mandatory in every state, and we were very pleased having received a J-Code in October 2025, which continued to contribute to the growth in revenues. Finally, our focus in the next 12 months will be to expand the product adoption in the adult market, and I'll talk about that in the next couple of slides. Next slide, please. So this is a snapshot of strategic approach to continued growth based on identifying and prioritizing those appropriate patients using various tools at our disposal, reinforcing the superior outcomes, particularly the earlier the product is used, the better the outcome in these very, very sick children. We will continue to access reimbursement pull-through and empower caregivers to demand that RYONCIL be used in their children as soon as the disease is diagnosed. Next slide. Now the adult form of this disease is a huge opportunity for RYONCIL growth. There are more than 2,000 adults annually in the U.S. with steroid refractory graft versus host disease. And of these 50% approximately have got Grade III/IV disease, which is associated with high mortality. Ruxolitinib is the only drug that's approved in the U.S. as second line for adults with acute GvHD. However, only about 42% of patients with the severe form of the disease, Grade III/IV, actually achieve a response at day 28 to ruxolitinib. And these patients who don't respond have a very, very dismal survival as low as 20% to 30% by day 100. So there is a very large unmet need in adults who are currently being treated with ruxolitinib or steroid refractory graft versus host disease. In these adults, mortality remains very high. Importantly, those are the very adults who have been enrolled under expanded IND and the compassionate care by Mesoblast for treatment with RYONCIL. And unlike other therapies, which result in, as I said, survival of only 20% to 30%, we're seeing a 76% survival at day 100 in these patients with terrible outcomes. Next slide, please. This is a slide that provides a snapshot of, on the left-hand side, survival in patients who have failed ruxolitinib as second line and who are then being treated with other agents as third line. And on the right-hand side, patients who have failed ruxolitinib and another second-line agent have then been offered RYONCIL under our compassionate care program. And what you can see here is on the left-hand side, the day 100 survival in the -- where the dotted line is, is a dismal 20% to 30%, roughly 25% in this particular report. But on the right-hand side, patients who otherwise meet the exact same criteria have a 76% survival, adolescents and adults when they've been treated for four to eight weeks with a regimen of RYONCIL. Therefore, we believe that this is a treatment that should be offered to these patients, a potential adult market of more than 600 patients annually with Grade III/IV disease refractory to ruxolitinib or any other agents. Next slide, please. But even more proximal than that is the entire second-line market in adults with acute graft versus host disease. As mentioned earlier, there are more than 2,000 adults who annually who develop Grade III/IV disease as part of their disease process after a bone marrow transplant. This is a market that's 3x bigger than the pediatric market. And this is a market that we have currently addressed through a randomized controlled trial of 180 patients actively enrolling across the U.S. These patients in this trial are being randomized 1:1 to ruxolitinib alone versus ruxolitinib plus RYONCIL. We are hoping to see a significant benefit in terms of the day 28 response and a further benefit in overall survival. And if we're successful in this trial, RYONCIL would become part of the second-line treatment regimen in these high-risk patients with Grade III/IV disease. This trial is expected to take a total of 18 months to complete with -- but it will have an interim analysis when approximately 57% of patients are enrolled or close to 100 patients. And we expect that interim analysis to be performed in the fourth quarter of 2027. If successful, that would allow us to move forward with a BLA filing for a label extension. Next slide. Now let me move on to what we think is our largest and most exciting near-term blockbuster opportunity. That's our second-generation pipeline rexlemestrocel for chronic low back pain. The unmet need is substantial. Of the 35 million patients across the U.S. who -- suffer from chronic low back pain, about 60% the cause is degenerative disc disease, which is an inflammatory condition. And of these, about 7 million fit into our criteria of moderate to severe disease within the first five years of diagnosis refractory to all medical therapies, including opioids. The addressable market here is at least USD 10 billion. Major milestones to commercial launch are a Phase 3 trial that has completed treatment. All 350 patients have completed treatment. This Phase 3 trial seeks to confirm an earlier Phase 3 trial, which showed pain reduction at 12 months. This is an FDA approvable endpoint as supported by various meetings and documents with the FDA. The trial readout is going to be in the second half of calendar year '27, followed by a BLA filing with potential approval in calendar year '28. Next slide. This is a diagram that shows what the cause of this severe degenerative disease back pain is all about. On the left-hand side, you see what a healthy intervertebral disc looks like. On the right-hand side, you see what a degenerative intervertebral disc looks like. In the middle of that area in red, right in the middle of the intervertebral disc is inflammation. That's where your immune cells come in to try to restore this integrity. But in the process of trying to repair, they release a cytokine storm, and many of you are familiar with that term from the COVID period, but a cytokine storm that inadvertently destroys healthy parts of the disc, you lose disc height and you have severe pain as your outcome. That's what we seek to address with a single injection of our cells right in the middle of that inflamed disc. Next slide, please. What is the patient treatment journey in this disease? Well, after conservative treatments that include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, there's very little. After patients have failed for three months or more to conservative approaches, many physicians still prescribe opioids. And unfortunately, opioids are very weak agents that reduce pain. They lead to continued requirement for progressively increasing dosing. There's addiction behavior that is associated with it and unfortunately, accidental overdosing. Beyond opioids, there really isn't anything else that can address the severe unremitting chronic pain. And so many patients then move on to interventional approaches that are really surgically based and that includes epidural injections that are guided by radiography, but also radio frequency ablation, spinal cord stimulation and intrathecal pumps. Beyond that, all we are left with are severe invasive surgeries. So there is a large unmet market that we're targeting to treat moderate to severe chronic low back pain that is totally unaddressed at this point in time. Next slide, please. In the earlier Phase 3 trial, this snapshot is taken from -- in 202 patients who received a single injection in blue of rexlemestrocel or in red rexlemestrocel combined with a carrier. What we see is a significant pain reduction was seen as early as six months, maximal by 12 months and durable through at least 36 months. And in comparison to a saline injection in green, which shows very little effect. But just to put this into context, a very mild reduction in pain from a saline injection is about equivalent to what you would expect to see with opioids. So this is a dramatic reduction in pain that is long-lasting from a single injection. And this is -- these are the data that we are aiming to replicate in the 350-patient pivotal trial that has just completed treatment. Next slide, please. Now who are the physicians that administer this product? Today, the dominant caregiver that provides treatment for these patients are the pain specialists in multidisciplinary clinics where a patient either goes directly or where the patient is referred to from his primary care physician. Next slide. And when we've done a formal outreach, a commercial outreach to various types of physicians, what you see in this middle panel circle, amongst the pain specialists who are the experts in this space, 85% of them on reviewing the data from the earlier trial I just showed you are more likely on that basis of those results to recommend rexlemestrocel for chronic low back pain than anything else if these results were to be replicated in a commercial product. Next slide, please. Let me move on to our other blockbuster indication, which is chronic heart failure, also from a single injection with rexlemestrocel. We're targeting the sickest end-stage patients because that's where the biggest unmet need is today as we move forward in the broader indications. Despite an artificial heart, the left ventricular assist device that is currently implanted in the left ventricle of these patients who otherwise would have a 50% death rate in the first 12 months -- the right side of the heart continues to be unprotected, continues to have inflammation and continues to fail. Right heart failure is the #1 cause of death in these end-stage patients despite the fact that they've been checked alive with an artificial heart in the left side of the heart. Next slide, please. And in registry data that cover more than 6,000 patients, this is very recent data in 2021 and continues to -- in 2026 be supported by registry data. The #1 cause of both death, hospitalizations is right heart failure. You can see as many as 28% get right heart failure in these large registry studies. And when you get right heart failure, you have backup of blood in your liver and your gut and you have terrible bleeding. And so they die of multiple complications, including severe bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract. Next slide. Our randomized controlled trial was performed in conjunction with the investigators across the U.S. who performed these surgical procedures. And in that study at both 6 and 12 months, a single injection of rexlemestrocel reduced by fivefold or more the incidence of major life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding. And this was due to strengthening of the right side of the heart and reduction in right side of heart failure. Next slide, please. In addition to reducing bleeding, which was the principal efficacy endpoint in that trial, as you can see here in the top panel, we also reduced hospitalizations from right heart failure by about fourfold at 12 months in all patients and particularly in those patients at highest risk, which were ischemic patients. And most importantly, as you can see in the panel below, survival was improved from a 30% mortality rate in these high-risk patients to about 9%, and this was significant. Next slide. So our strategy is to file for full approval of REVASCOR in this high-risk patient population at risk of right heart failure and severe life-threatening bleeding. And if we're successful to gain FDA approval, then this approval can be extended into the much larger patient segment with Class II/III heart failure where there's approximately at least 1 million patients in the U.S. alone. Next slide. So in summary, the presentation today has told you what we've done, what we intend to do and how we're going to do it in the next 12 months. RYONCIL is commercial today and we seek to have multiple label extensions for this product in order to strongly grow our revenue base. We seek to increase penetration of the pediatric market, maximize early use and position the product as both a third line and a second-line treatment for adults with steroid-refractory graft versus host disease, markets that are more than 3x bigger than the current pediatric market. Our focus beyond that is on additional inflammatory diseases both in pediatric patients and adult patients. And the first that we're targeting is Duchenne's which is a pediatric disease that's progressive without any cures today that begin as early as three to four years of age. In addition, we're pursuing strategic partnering opportunities for inflammatory conditions in both children and adults with various appropriate strategic partners. For our second-generation pipeline platform rexlemestrocel, we've taken the program right to the end and retain full value in the U.S. market for the blockbuster indication of chronic low back pain. The pivotal Phase 3 trial of 350 patients has completed treatment, and we are following these patients through 12 months with the trial to complete mid-2027 calendar year and then if a positive readout positions us for a BLA filing for a blockbuster indication. Our chronic heart failure program is -- we seek to complete our BLA filing with the FDA with the expectation that if approved, that can be expanded into the much larger Class II/III heart failure indication, which will be an opportunity for a strategic alliance. On that note, I think I'll stop, and we would be delighted to take questions.