Aptamer Group (LSE:APTA) — Full Year Results

0:01 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the APTAMER GROUP PLC full year results investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time via the q and a tab that's just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we would just like to

0:32 submit the following poll. And if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I would now like to hand you over to the executive management team from APTAMER GROUP PLC. Aaron, good afternoon, sir. Hello. How are you? Well, good afternoon, and welcome to APTAMER GROUP full year results for the twelve months to the 06/30/2024. So the presentation will be structured with an an intro to the presenting team, a quick look at last year's results, an explanation about company changes, strategy, forward momentum, and then on to some question and answers. So please submit any questions you have as we go along.

1:13 So an introduction to me. So I'm one of the cofounders and CEO of APTAMER GROUP. I founded the company, GROUP, more than sixteen years ago to help bring the technology to the forefront when I realized there is a great potential both scientifically and commercial for the technology platform. I have a background in structural biology and biophysics, and I've essentially run the day to day activities of the company for the past twelve years and built the company to a position of IPO in 2021.

1:43 Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Andrew Repson, CFO of APTAMER GROUP. I've just got over twenty years experience now as a chartered accountant. I joined APTAMER in August 22 and took on the role as CFO in August 23, and I've worked in the AIM environment now since 2015. K. Thank you, Andrew. So at its core, APTAMER GROUP is a contract research based company founded by myself and a guy called David Bunker in 2008. We have a a proprietary platform for the discovery of of high value molecules called APTAMER, which we essentially use to solve high value problems for pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies.

2:28 We're recognized as a key global player in the space, and we now have relationships with all of the top 10 pharma companies and 75% of the top 20 companies. We have a talented team of 34 people, 70% of whom have PhDs or masters level qualifications as is needed in a highly technical company of this nature. We're based in the North Of England, and we did our IPO in December 2021.

2:57 So so what is an OPTIMA or or an APTAMER? So what is our technology? So OPTIMAs are our proprietary technology. They're essentially short synthetic strands of DNA or RNA that combined with high levels of affinity and specificity to various targets that can be of commercial value. So an an APTAMER is a type of APTAMER optimized and designed to improve upon natural limitations of traditional APTMAs and antibodies. As a company, we're we're pretty IP rich. We have around 50 patents. Our platform has unique properties such as broad target applicability, which means we can generate binders to virtually any target that is sent to us. Speed of discovery is fast because we have an automated system. And once we developed a molecule, because they're synthetic, they're essentially printed, the the manufacturer is reproducible and scalable, which offers us a niche in the market.

4:02 So as we discussed on the last slide, APTAMAs are affinity ligands or binders, which we develop as an alternative to antibodies using this automated discovery platform. So automating the discovery is one of our USPs. It leads to higher project success rates and faster completion of projects for all of our customers. So as a business, we're essentially paid on a fee for service basis for solving these difficult, often unsolved scientific problems for our clients. Now the affinity ligand or binder market is huge. It's around a $170,000,000,000 to be exact and and growing at a healthy compound annual growth rate. The market is currently dominated by antibodies, but interestingly, around 50% of antibodies fail to perform. They're expensive, slow to develop, and so there is a genuine need for alternative solution providers.

4:54 So we're one such provider, and we sit alongside other platform companies such as our Jenks, Bicycle Therapeutics, Molecular Partners, Ablynx, or or even APTA. We we generate revenues by solving these problems in three broad areas. So in reagents for research purposes or drug development purposes, often defined as critical reagents. We develop tools for assistance for the development of diagnostics, but also more recently, we've been developing molecules for therapeutic delivery, but also to support the therapeutic development process. But due to the versatility of our offering, we've even found use for the molecules in the fast moving consumer goods industry, which is what we we have on the the bottom right hand side there in the yellow cog.

5:42 So our business model is to essentially to use our platform, which is represented by the the blue cog in the middle, to solve difficult, unsolved problems for our partners and develop IP backed assets and eventually passive revenue streams from licensing and royalties. So easy to say that, but building a high value IP backed revenue stream requires two key components. Number one is a strong platform effectively with protection for IP, which as I said earlier, we have with around 50 patents protecting it. And two, the ability to solve unique problems in generating new IP and licensing opportunities, both of which we have a tick against. So here are three examples of fee for service work that we have been paid for and we've turned into potentially high valuable IP based licensing opportunities, which which we believe demonstrates the model. So the first one on the on the left hand side is our project with Unilever, which you may have seen if you followed our story.

6:47 Here, we were asked to develop binders that can be used to treat malodor or or body odor by silencing the ability of the bacteria that live in in the armpits, essentially, from making the compounds that cause the smell. To date, we've had excellent results from the lab and have signed an extension with Unilever recently aimed at taking this through to one person studies by the end of the year. Number two, our partnership with Neurobio, which represents the use of our molecules in diagnostic devices. Here, we're trying to develop a diagnostic test for the detection of early stage Alzheimer's, potentially up to ten or twenty years earlier than symptoms occur. So we've developed the binders in house, and we're now exploring ways to convert the the the binders and the assay to a user friendly format like a lateral flow device similar to similar to a COVID test. We're currently negotiating commercial terms on that particular asset.

7:43 Thirdly, the use of APTAMER as delivery vehicles to, in this case, treat liver fibrosis is another exciting area that we're working on. And we're focusing on this area due to an unmet therapeutic need and huge commercial potential. And as far as I'm aware, we're the only company with a fibrotic delivery asset in development. And because of this, we already have a couple of active partnerships with big pharma who have drug molecules that are in need of selective delivery to various tissues within the liver. We also have internal programs developing the biomarker, which our binder recognizes, which I'll come on to a bit later and explain what a biomarker is. We aim to develop this further over the next twelve months. So essentially, structuring the business in this way allows us to focus on generating revenue as a fee for service business, but also addressing these huge 21,000,000,000, 4,000,000,000, and 14,000,000,000 markets with a targeted IP based asset strategy. And we're very excited by the progress here.

8:44 You know, any one of these opportunities taking off would be transformational for the business. So we do look forward to exploring more opportunities and presenting those to the shareholders as they arise. So I'll now pass on to Andrew to go through the finances for the past year and give his view. Thanks, Alan. Yeah. So if we go on to the income statement to start with, in the current year, revenue reduced to 900,000, from 1.8 in the prior period. We had a a challenge in h one following the fundraise in August 23 and reported only 300,000 of revenue in h one. Much of h one was spent rebuilding the sales pipeline and and these efforts were rewarded with a few excellent deals that we signed in December 23 totaling no 800,000.

9:33 One of these was a genetic medicines gene therapy delivery contract worth up to 500,000, which is progressing very well through the lab at the minute. This contract supported 300,000 of our revenue for H2, and so we delivered 600,000 in the second half to close the year at 900,000. We had a strong finish to the year in sales with a million pounds of deals being won in the last quarter. This put the production pipeline in a good position with which to commence FY twenty five. As we stand today, we have visibility over 900,000 of revenue for f y twenty five from sales contracts that have now been delivered to the lab. At this point, it's worth just taking a moment to look at how the sales pipeline converts to revenue.

10:19 The 900,000 of revenue visibility that we've got for this current financial year, all relates to work that has been passed over to the lab and customers have delivered target material to us to begin our work.

10:31 I mentioned that, to give everyone a better indication of translation to revenue because there's two key areas that impact conversion of our sales pipeline to revenue. And, the first one of those is the is the likelihood that it will be scientifically successful and thereby being able to complete the contract. Typically, achieve 60 to 70% conversion of a sales contract value to revenue. We often refer to this in our announcements as scientific attrition. The second area is target material. So understanding when target material will be delivered by the customer for us to begin our work in the lab, it's it's not unusual for us to wait, six months plus for target material to be manufactured, to be procured, so it can be delivered to us and we're able to start our work raising an APTAMER against that target. It's only when we start working on the target material in the lab that we can start recognizing the revenue.

11:26 So hopefully an understanding of those two key points there helps you to understand how we convert contract value to revenue. As we work through the income statement, the admin expenses for the period reduced to 3,200,000 from 4,000,000 in the prior year. This reduction is a result of the cost based restructure that took place in q one, along with the fundraise in August 23. 1,200,000 of this cost reduction came from staffing costs as a result of reducing the headcount to 34 from 46 for the prior period and implementing a leaner board cost. The remainder of the cost reduction was spread across admin and operational costs, as we reduced advisory costs, equipment use and marketing activities to realign with the cost base with the activity levels then. We continue to monitor the operating costs and have looked to reduce these a little further for the coming financial year to circa £3,000,000 per annum.

12:19 Most of this has been achieved through senior management and board changes, which have not affected the scientific capabilities within the company. New more material line on the P and L this year was the operating income. We saw two new income streams there. We received 81,000 in grant income, partnering on a European EuroStar project, where we successfully delivered Optima binders for use in medical devices to detect placental disease. We've also sublet part of the office space during the year, which was part of our efforts to reduce our operational footprint. This subletting started halfway through the period and contributed £46,000 of income during the year. So the adjusted EBITDA loss of 2,800,000 for the year versus 4,700,000 from 2023 was mostly a result of cost reduction exercises that allowed us to significantly reduce our cash burn.

13:19 Move on to the balance sheet. The net assets at the period end were stood at 900,000, versus 0.3 for the prior year. The increase in net assets is a result of the fundraisings that took place in August and September 23, where we issued $370,000,000 shares at a penny and a further 28,000,000 shares at 1.1p. Cash at the end of the year was 900,000, which increased slightly from 200,000 in June 23. Post year end, we've raised a further 2,600,000, which then gives us good forward cash visibility on a reduced cost base of circa £250,000 a month. Onto the other components of the balance sheet. An impairment charge of £2,600,000 was recognized in FY 2023 as a cash balance and requirement for investment was a clear indicator of impairment.

14:12 This impairment charge is recognized across the CGU, and we've done the same assessment this year, but no further impairment was deemed necessary. And intangibles have increased slightly, as we continue to protect our intellectual property. In the year we filed a patent for the malodor OPTIMA that we're working on with Unilever. The right of use assets increased slightly as we replace some essential lab equipment. Another notable item in the assets is a tax receivable, which relates to R and D tax credits. We have a history of claiming tax credits. This data relates to the latest the latest period, and we normally expect these to be paid in in January, February time following filing of the tax returns. The amount receivable this year was reduced a little bit, and that's because of a reduction in the cost base and also a reduction in the rates related to R and D.

15:04 Shared receivables, payables and accruals have all reduced in line with the cost base and activity level reduction. So that that concludes the review of the balance sheet. I'll and the financial review in in general. I'll now pass over to Aaron again to take us through the operational and the post period highlights. K. Thank you, Andrew. So our our new approach after refinancing focused on focuses in essentially on two areas. The strength of our platform in order to generate ongoing revenues from fee for service work, and two, a priority focus on product development to really look at leveraging IP based passive revenue by building a portfolio of high value assets while keeping the cost base low.

15:53 So the start of the financial year, we reorganized the board with the skills necessary to raise the finances and restructure the financial and commercial side of the business, which I feel we've done a a really good job of. Over the last twelve months, we've built a pipeline capable of sustaining the required revenue for financial year 2425. This has led to an increase in signing of deals in the final quarter, as Andrew mentioned, totaling around 1,000,000. We've advanced our discussions, and it's important to reiterate this, we're always advancing discussions towards licensing some of our assets across a few different areas. We moved on to the second phase of developing assets for neurobio. We launched our new technology platform, which is called APTAMER Plus, and made two commercial sales within several weeks of launch. We have also focused on developing more data to support our

16:45 liver fibrosis asset. So post period highlights are, in in my opinion, a lot more a lot more exciting. We we feel we've made tremendous progress over the last few months. We've continued our momentum. There are a few a few take home messages for this slide that I would really like to to kinda try to drive home. So we successfully raised an additional 2,600,000 to assist working capital and help develop key assets. We restructured the board, this time with a focus on the asset development and the licensing opportunities that we feel are now within touching distance. And it was important to do this after we got the company back on a sure footing in terms of cost base commercial momentum. We signed a new contract with Unilever to take the the kind of the deodorant project to the next stage of on person testing.

17:37 We actually delivered on our genetic medicines project that Andrew mentioned earlier, transferring test amounts of material for in house testing, adding a potential new IP based therapeutic asset to our portfolio. We've delivered working binders for our prenatal diagnostics project, adding another potential IP based asset within the diagnostics arena here. And we've made exciting progress with the liver fibrosis project, and I'm in the final stages of identification of the biomarker, which we will seek to patent if it turns out to be novel. And this happens to be a key step in our our ability to license this asset. So I said earlier, I'd explain what a biomarker is. If we take a brief segue, essentially,

18:23 a biomarker is a measurable indicator of a condition like prostate specific antigen or PSA would be for prostate cancer, but in this case it's for liver fibrosis. Once it's patented, what it effectively gives us is exclusive rights to use, develop, or license this marker for use within that area. So the identification of a novel biomarker offers substantial value potential for the group and for the company.

18:53 We've also restructured the sales team, focusing more on pipeline build and generating operational revenue. We've taken the pipeline from 2,100,000 July 24 to around 4,300,000 currently. We've 1,000,000 in signed and locked in deals in production waiting to go through the lab, as Andrew explained earlier. And finally,

19:16 further development of our liver fibrosis assets attracting a collaboration with AstraZeneca to explore our first in kind liver fibrosis delivery vehicles. So, you know, generally speaking, we feel the operating highlights are much better post period because we've been able to apply ourselves and focus on advancing the science and advancing the pipeline after restructuring and without having all of the kind of hassles associated with refinancing and cost cutting, which which do take a lot of management time.

19:49 So as I mentioned, the refreshed board with the skills and experience needed to take the company to the next level. So in addition to myself and Andrew, we've also got David Bunker, Adam Hargreaves, and Tim Sykes. So David, you will probably have seen in other presentations previously. Dave's one of the world leading experts in APTAMER technology. I've worked with Dave on a daily basis since around 2004 when I met him during my PhD. And essentially, not to be too to be too cliched, but what Dave doesn't know about APTAMER technology isn't worth knowing. Adam is our current chairman. So Adam is a pathologist by training with lots of preclinical drug development expertise. Adam worked for AstraZeneca for a number of years and has many big pharma contacts with great business acumen, but more importantly, the skills and the knowledge in order to help us navigate this kind of development and preclinical path that the company is moving forward to.

20:50 Tim has a lot of broad board experience in the AIM environment. He's he's been very useful over the over the last several weeks and months since he's joined the company. He's worked as both a CFO and CEO, offering great mentorship to myself and Andrew, and has worked with technology and life sciences businesses, the likes of APTA and various other companies.

21:15 And we feel we've got a solid board to move the company forward to the next phase of growth. So so this this slide exemplifies what we're aiming to do over the next couple of years and the progress we've made so far in this year. So it's generally split into three sections. Financial year 2425, and '26 across the top with the four main kind of drivers of value for the company down the left hand side. So in order so with Unilever, last year, we streamlined the performance of the binders to increase

21:52 the ability for them to be functional. We've proved that the technology is functional in our hands and Unilever's hands with excellent results from both sides. And we've both filed patents protecting this to look after the downstream value. This financial year, we signed an extension to the contract to allow further development and and kind of set the foundations for this on skin testing of the compounds, which Unilever have told us will begin this calendar year. We anticipate the project to be completed by the end of financial year '26. And as cosmetics don't take as long as therapeutics to commercialize with less kind of barriers to entry, we would hope to begin to see the economics develop of this kind of opportunity around this time.

22:39 The project with Neurobio so last financial year, the optimists were were validated in both our hands and in Neurobio's labs and shown to recognize the targets. They were further validated to work on biosensors and lateral flow devices with a clear remit of being used in future for testing clinical samples. We're now developing the lateral flow strategy for our diagnostic test with a view to test completion by the end of financial '26. So thirdly, the drug delivery systems. So last year, we continued the development of our fibrotic liver delivery assets, including in vitro demonstration of performance, and we've shown significant therapeutic effect in lab based assays. This has enabled us to sign any a research evaluation agreement with AstraZeneca to look at our platform with their own siRNA therapies.

23:35 We're also working on the identification of the biomarker, as I said earlier, with an aim to take this whole project into an in vivo or an animal model to confirm functionality by the end of financial '26. And finally, our fee for service pipeline has been rebuilt, and we will continue to expand this and sign contracts that that will turn into high value opportunities like the ones mentioned previously.

24:02 So in summary, I'd like to leave you with around four key take home messages. Our platform targets a 170,000,000,000 market for affinity ligands. We've established relationships with all top 1075% of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies globally. We've now developed three prime assets that have been further moved forward over the past year, and we have plans to take these forward with strategic partners for future licensing revenue while we continue to put more projects to our platform that will deliver future assets for growth. Our business model is to secure IP and therefore leverage lucrative IP based licensing and royalty revenue streams.

24:47 And and now we are fully funded to take these assets forward to licensing underpinned clearly by our fee for service business. So we've got the foundations. We already have the relationships. We've reset the business. This is a platform for growth, and we're working very hard to deliver opportunities in news flow. And we look forward to updating shareholders with exciting news and updates. So so that concludes the presentation, and now we will move on to the questions and answers. Perfect. Aaron, Andrew, if I may just jump back in there. And thank you very much indeed for your presentation this afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q and A tab that's situated on the right hand corner of your screen.

25:34 Just while the company take a few moments just to review those questions that were submitted already, I'd just like to remind you that a recording of presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can all be accessed via your investor dashboard. Guys, we have received a number of questions that were both presubmitted ahead of today's event as well as as well as those that have made their way through throughout your presentation this afternoon as well. So firstly, thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. And, guys, perhaps if we dive straight into it, the first question that we have here reads as follows. Are there any plans to consolidate the share price in order to make it more attractive to institutional investors? Do you wanna take that one? Yep. Thank you. Yeah. I'll I'll take that question. So we don't have any plans to consolidate the the number of shares in issue at the moment.

26:22 We're mindful that there's been a large number of shares issued as a result of the last two fundraisings. We'd only look to consolidate the shares when the timing is right for shareholders. It's something as a board that we will will keep on the review for much of the the near term. Perfect. Thank you. The next question that we have here, we've actually had a number of questions that have come in on this theme. So perhaps if we take this one as I I think it will speak to the others that have come in as well. Given the pipeline of opportunities, do you have enough funding to deliver these, or will you need to raise further capital in the next six months? Okay. So I can take this one again. So there's there's no plans for capital raising in the next six months. The opportunities in in development can all be delivered to the milestones that we set out for the next two financial years. And we we've got all the capability and the capacity within the current team to be able to deliver on the sales pipeline as well. So so there's so there's no plans on on fundraising in the in the next six months.

27:28 Perfect. Thank you, Andrew. Are you able to reduce the time frame of contract signing and start of revenue recognition and cash flows? So we look to retain our intellectual property as as much as possible, and and this often means that deals can become quite complex and they take take time to agree. As much as possible, we look for upfront cash on our on our deals to pay for each phase of of development. We do everything that we can to to minimize the time it takes to get to to the rev revenue recognition. Aaron Aaron, do you wanna Yeah. I've got I'm on to that. I mean, I was I was in the lab this morning going through some of the process efficiencies that should be able to make the scientific delivery somewhat shorter, which is obviously fantastic for recognizing revenue faster and for our customers.

28:21 But the the deal signing takes the most time, and I'm involved with quite a lot of these deals personally. And it's just how the big pharma companies work, which is which is why the increase in the pipeline is so significant for us because it it should aim to help smooth out these kind of these kind of issues over time. Perfect. Thank you. The next question asks, will you be making further cost reductions across the group? So we've made significant cost reductions in in quarter one of the FY twenty four period. We've done done the bulk of what can be done, but we'll continue to look for efficiencies as as I as I mentioned in the presentation. We've already identified some further savings, and we think we'll get that down to about £3,000,000 per annum.

29:11 I think if you do do anything further, it runs the risk really of compromising the the skill base and the and the capacity within the team, to be able to deliver on the plans that we've set out in our milestones. And we're focused on really delivering those asset opportunities and and converting the the commercial pipeline. Perfect. Thank you. In terms of the sales team, do you have enough capacity to capitalize on commercial deals in The UK and overseas? So that's a good question. So at the moment, where the pipeline stands, we've got more than enough staff to manage the existing pipeline. But, obviously, as the as the need grows, we will we will look to expand the team when needs dictate.

30:00 But as it as it currently stands, it's it's manageable at the moment. I mean, if you look what we've done with the pipeline, we've increased it. And just to to set some kind of concerns straight, we are we are signing deals. We signed a million in the last quarter of last year. We just don't announce everything that we do. We we, you know, we've just signed a a 200 k level deal with the top pharma company with potential for licensing. We've got multiple other deals in late stage development, 70% of which are with big pharma, all going through legal discussions and IP negotiations. And just to to keep the the shareholders updated, we will be putting this out by RNS as and when we can.

30:51 Perfect. Thank you, Aaron. The next question here asks, how do you plan to further exploit the consumer goods space, for APTAMER use? Yeah. That's another good question. And I don't I don't mind taking that one, Andrew. It's it's important to to kind of consider that the fast can the fast moving consumer good space is not just deodorants, and the likes of Unilever don't just work in deodorants. And there are more opportunities in personal care such as things like shampoos and skin creams. I mean, I've personally spoken to the the VP of r and d from Unilever, and they are interested in exploring additional work in due course, and we will update as and when we're able to. So, you know, there is technically no reason that these products can't work in other areas, and we'll look to explore those opportunities as they present themselves.

31:44 Perfect. Thank you. The next question that we've got here, I think we've touched on previously, but perhaps if there's anything further to add. Can you reduce the delays in converting the sales pipeline? Do you know I I can try to take this one. So to to build on the kind of theme, the the typical time for a sale is anywhere between three and nine months. Sometimes they can be a bit quicker. Sometimes they can take a bit longer. And that all depends on the complexity of the deal, the funding situation for the the companies, and how complicated the legal negotiations are. We could move some deals a bit faster if we gave the IP away, but, you know, that would essentially cannibalize the opportunity for revenue downstream and ultimately where we see the value of the business.

32:32 But to be honest, a lot of our work is it is with big pharma, and these companies are absolutely huge. There's tens of thousands of staff, multiple levels of approval from the initial scientist who's interested in the solution all the way through to their manager, vice presidents, budget holders, procurement team, legal team. And then it gets to the place where we have to get the materials delivered from the scientist to start the work. So as a business, we can only really go as fast as the the kind of slowest part. And unfortunately, big pharma have many stakeholders, and they're just not as responsive and nimble as we are as a as a business, which is again why this bigger pipeline is so important for us. I don't know if you've got anything to add there, Andrew?

33:18 No. I think I think we we covered that a little bit earlier, but, yeah, the the key is is really protecting ourselves on intellectual property, and rather than rushing the conversion through on the on the sales pipeline for lower value deals, we try to protect value for for shareholders by protecting our intellectual property. And then, hopefully, on success, we're in a better position to to maximize the value of those deals. Yep. Perfect. Thank you both. Just turning to the next question which asks, how is the r and d budget being allocated to support future growth and innovation? Yeah. That's definitely Yeah. I'll I'll take this one. So the R and D budget is being allocated to deliver the milestones that we've just set out in the strategy.

34:05 Specifically, this involves advancing the fibrotic liver delivery asset and the lateral flow device for Pneumobio. We're continuing to develop our platforms including APTAMER Plus, and really it's about producing a best in class class offering. Perfect. Thank you. Do you see the downturn in conditions across the life science market improving? Difficult to answer that for the industry on a whole. We'd you know, it's difficult to say whether it will turn up or not, we've just seen our pipeline double, which could represent an uptown an uptown in people looking to spend more money on outsourced r and d. I mean, essentially, our services can represent cost and time saving for customers. So for us, we're in a position to capitalize it really in either scenario, particularly now we're operating from a lean cost base.

35:04 So it it looks it looks fairly good for for us from where we're sat at the moment. Perfect. Thank you. The next question has actually come in a couple of times as well. But, what news flow can investors expect, over the next few months? Yeah. I I can take that one. It can't tell you the exact precision what's going to come out because of the the the unpredictable kind of timelines for signing deals. But we would hope in the next few months, as these are kind of related to sign scientific processes, you know, a good a betting person might predict that with an increased pipeline, that would translate to deals being signed and updates in that area. But also updates on the progress as we make it with our key assets and other things that we might be working on in the background that we haven't yet released information on.

36:01 Perfect. Thank you. The next question asks if the feasibility work with Neurobio is successful and is progressed to develop a LFT for early detection of AD, would you consider setting up a joint venture with neurobio, or would the arrangement be a license and payment of royalties? Yeah. That's a that's a good question. As it stands at the moment, the discussions that I'm having with Neurobio are around the licensing arrangement and and not structuring a a joint venture. I mean, to to be to be honest, NeuroBio is owned and managed by Baroness Susan Greenfield. They have other things within the company that they're developing in terms of therapeutic molecules alongside the Alzheimer's diagnostic.

36:51 So I don't think, personally, it's an appropriate kind of vehicle as a joint venture because for for us, there would be no there would be no point in doing that. We would it would be as easy for us to not have the the burden of managing a joint vehicle and just have the licensing revenue. Perfect. Thank you. And that actually concludes all of the questions there. So, Aaron, Andrew, thank you very much indeed for being so generous for your time there and addressing all of those questions that came in from investors. And, of course, if there are any further questions that do come through, we'll make these available to you immediately after the presentation has ended just for you to review and to then add any additional responses, of course, where it's appropriate to do so. And we'll publish all those responses out on the platform. But, Aaron, perhaps before really just looking to redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, if I could please just ask you just for a few closing comments to wrap up with, that'd be great. Yeah. I would I'd just like to say, you know, as always, it's been a pleasure to to update the shareholders, and we thank people for their attention and listening to our updates. And we look forward to updating in the near future.

37:58 And, you know, please please be patient while we rebuild and grow the company. Perfect. That's great. Aaron, Andrew, thank you once again for updating investors this afternoon. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order the management team can really better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of management team of APTAMER GROUP PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session. So good afternoon to you all. That's brilliant. Thank you.