EMV Capital (LSE:EMVC) — Virtual Meet the Portfolio - AMR Bio and ProAxsis

0:00 Good afternoon, and welcome to the EMV CAPITAL PLC investor presentation. This recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged, and they can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll, and I would now like to hand you over to CEO, Ilion Ilion. Good afternoon,

0:28 everyone, and thank you for joining us for this virtual meet the portfolio event for EMV CAPITAL. Now for those of us who who know us on the back of investor request, we started this series with investor meet company where we showcase EMV CAPITAL's portfolio, some of the exciting and ambitious companies that we work with as you get to know the EMV CAPITAL family of companies better. And today, I'm really I have the pleasure of introducing and showcasing two of our very important life sciences companies, EMR Bio, working in the antimicrobial space, and ProAxis working in the respiratory clinical support areas.

1:15 But before I hand over to the leadership of the two companies, a little bit about us. So EMV CAPITAL is, as you know, a a listed venture capital fund. We work with deep companies in the deep tech and life sciences space in The UK and Europe. We've had quite a grow quite a in the last few years starting from 12,000,000 AUM and eight companies in 2020 and reaching £112,000,000 AUM, 70 plus companies at the end of 2025, which is the last publicly released results. The way we go about things is we work with, identify, and closely support high growth companies in The UK and internationally, primarily in The UK.

2:02 We do that through direct investment as well as advised investments. And from the £112,000,000 AUM, roughly for so roughly £39,000,000 is direct holdings on on our balance sheet. We are while we've had a great growth rate, this is the beginning for us. We are looking now how to get to the next milestone of 200,000,000 AUM, which is gonna be on the back of the growth of companies such as MR Bio and ProAxis as well as new investments. In terms of our operating model, we are quite focused on generating revenue and income at in in the capital basis. We are approaching cash breakeven from fee income, and, of course, we look for capital returns

2:47 from exits and carried interest as companies such as the ones you're going to see approach exits and get acquired. We generate revenues from a mixture of corporate finance fundraising fees as we work with our portfolio companies, value creation services fees, which is when we work with companies closely in helping them get to the next milestones, recurring fund management fees where we manage the two funds, capital and The US fund, and, of course, finally, exits and carried interest from the exits. In terms of our portfolio, we've built over the years quite a diverse and exciting portfolio both in the deep tech side and life sciences. As today's presentation is around the life sciences space, we have exposure to companies in the drug discovery and therapeutics area, in med tech and diagnostics, digital health tools and technologies, and we are able to work with experts and advisers as we build depth in these in these areas.

3:51 Now in terms of the presentation of MR and ProAxis, they fit within what we call the venture build program. And our venture build program is a key driver for value for PLC. Our approach here is we target and acquire deep stakes in companies that have really strong IP that might need our help with the strategic redirection. They work within large and growing markets, and we work to restructure these companies using cash or in kind services to build deep stakes in these businesses. And sometimes we also deploy EMV CAPITAL paper as appropriate. Once we inside these companies, once we work with them, we work very closely with management to help them get to to the next stages of their development, but we also syndicate third party capital through our syndication platform to help the companies fund their growth objectives.

4:46 And EMR Bio and Proxis are two such companies. Very different stories, and we work in different areas. EMR Bio joined our portfolio last year for the acquisition of certain assets from a company called Destiny Pharma. It's a phase two clinical program. Andrew will tell you much more about it. And it's at the beginning of its journey with direct fair value stake of 600,000, but we believe a significant upside potential as the company develops its phase b strategy. With ProAxis, we have had a much longer relationship. The company is a spinout from Queen's University Belfast. We've helped them through a pivot that they had a a challenging few years. But now under Louise's leadership, they really are fast tracking their development with some really positive developments you're going to hear about. But across all of that, what, I guess, wanted to take want you to take away as a POC shareholders or prospective POC shareholders is we run a strong capital efficient model with really strong embedded value and significant upside potential with the companies that we work with.

5:49 You can find out more on our website, on our LinkedIn. There's quite a bit of information, but the rest of the this presentation is about AMR and and Thraxis. And, Nigel, hand handing over to you. I I I still remember last summer when you we we were discussing, you know, the potential for this project, and I'm I'm really glad we went forward. It was a really fast and exciting year, but tell us tell us tell us how you've done and what what the future holds. Well, thanks, Helene, and how quickly time passes. Just one very short year. But right now I'd like to try and set the scene, a scene which, all of us at some part of our lives will will encounter.

6:35 Right now we're in an Operating Theater somewhere in the world, it could be in The UK, it could be anywhere, and a patient is being prepped for routine surgery. And roughly one in three of them, that's one third of the patients, is carrying something they don't know about. They're carrying in their nose a bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus. They don't know about it, and in many cases neither do the surgeons that are going to carry out the surgery. The single fact of being a carrier of Staph aureus will determine whether they go home in days or weeks or in rare situations never get to go home at all. They will be fighting a hospital acquired infection.

7:22 And let me stress this isn't a future risk. This is not something that may or may not happen in the future. This is something that's happening right now indeed as we speak. In hospitals everywhere, not just in The UK, not just in The US, but all around the world. And frighteningly, it's getting worse not by the year, it's getting worse by the minute. So let's let's have a a little closer look at these things called bacteria. And the one I I try and look at is is is if we compress the entire history of life on Earth into a twenty four hour clock, bacteria arrived billions and billions of years ago. They arrived before breakfast was served, whilst humans, whilst we have only just turned up a few a mere few seconds before midnight.

8:13 This means that bacteria have had billions of years head start on us. They're they're one of the most successful organisms on the planet, And for every one of these years, survival has meant adapting, mutating, and outlasting whatever tries to kill them. Latterly, that has been man, of course.

8:33 So resistance isn't a new trick that bacteria have picked up to frustrate modern medicine. It's an evolutionary skill they've been perfecting a long, long time before humans, existed.

8:49 So it's not a slow burning distant threat. It's something which is very real, is very much with us today. So let's see if we can look at the first slide, please. This is a slide that I think all of us will find very disturbing if we've not seen it before. AMR, antimicrobial resistance, is on track to kill more people than cancer. And again not in one hundred years, not even in fifty years, but in less than twenty five years. AMR antimicrobial resistance is projected to reach levels comparable with cancer and then quickly overtake the the mortality that's currently that will be caused by cancer.

9:38 That's ten million deaths per annum. And how are they doing this? Bacteria are weakening or bacterial resistance is weakening antibiotics. It's putting routine procedures, and I mean very very simple procedures, at risk and even minor injuries. By the year 2050, even scraping a knee, nothing that needs surgery, usually a band aid and some TLC, will put these injuries at risk of bacterial resistance and severe infection. In extreme cases, you can die. So the solution obviously is to come up with more new antibiotics and those include antimicrobials like XF73, I'll be talking about, but we also need to prevent infections and that's the root of how XF73, the drug from AMR Bio, actually works. On the right hand side of the chart, you will see those various predicted mortality from the WHO and the UN Environmental Program on the death rate, right at the top of deaths

10:50 caused by anything is AMR infection, so outpacing cancer by the year of 2050. Next slide, please.

11:05 So let's have a little closer look at XF73. This is the platform and you'll see it's almost a Swiss army knife. We think it's got a variety of uses. The first indication, the first labeling that we're looking at and will dwell on in this presentation, is the prevention of post surgical staph aureus infections. And there you can see from the bar chart, which you've seen all of this before, where we go all that from the early stages of preclinical phase one, phase two. Ilian's alluded to the excellent phase 2b results we've achieved, which I'll talk to in summary. And now we enter that very, very exciting phase of phase three. We're in discussions with the FDA already.

11:53 This is something that we set up in the over the past six months really since we got started with AMR Bio, and we will be holding a meeting with the FDA within the next two months. But beyond surgical site infections, have which is our primary focus we have wound care where antibiotic where drug resistance is also an issue, particularly in areas like diabetes, but there's also beyond that there's also drug resistant skin and fungal infections, And even beyond that, there there are other infections which we believe XF73 will be help will help to resolve. So here we've got a one platform.

12:40 I've only identified here four applications. I think as we learn more about this this XF73, this new chemical entity, this first in class drug, we'll find new indications beyond these indications on this slide, and indeed we'll be able to reformulate into other galenic formulations which will give us access to other life threatening, in many cases,

13:09 infections and and causes of morbidity and mortality. Next slide please. So I guess the billion dollar question is can you stop infections without triggering resistance? Well, we believe we can, by the very unique mode of action that XF73 has got, which I'll go into briefly, where we target the bacterial membrane. We've encountered no issues of resistance so far. It is applied before surgery in surgical site infections. It's a very simple procedure, it doesn't involve any new technology, it's just applied into the nose directed to the source of or the reservoir of infection in four doses over the twenty four hours before surgery, plus one dose after.

14:02 No complex procedure, there's no need for new techniques or new training on behalf of the anaesthetist or the surgeon or indeed the doctor that administers the preparation. There's no clinical infrastructure, new clinical infrastructure required. How does it work? Well XF73 physically disrupts the bacterial cell membrane, a new mode of action, a unique mode of action, compared to traditional antibiotics, which typically interfere with bacterial biological processes. And it's those bacterial biological processes where the superbugs have got very smart very quickly and they managed to outwit virtually all of the antibiotics we have available today.

14:51 So we can't see a resistance pathway or we haven't seen a resistance pathway developing so far. As I say, it attacks the cells' physical structure rather than biological process, so it actually destroys the bacteria, and the bacteria have no route to evolve resistance that we've seen so far. And it provides protection through surgery, protection from these superbugs by providing effective decolonisation. This is maintained throughout the procedure and beyond. You'll see when we come to look at the excellent clinical results, the infection risk is reduced considerably and not only during the procedure, only immediately afterwards, but for a long period after the surgery ceases. So it gives protection during and after the surgery takes place. Next slide please.

15:53 So what is failing with the current standard of care? And I think the standard of care is perhaps not a very good description of how we prevent bacterial infection at the moment, because, if we look at the problem of antimicrobial resistance, and look at surgical site infections in detail, there are five million deaths per annum currently linked to antimicrobial resistance globally. That's five million deaths attributed to antimicrobial resistance. And the annual cost of this, if we can put things into monetary terms, is around $10,000,000,000 per annum. With the so called standard of care, a very old drug, a drug more than 40 years old, where we have resistance rising not just this year, not just this month, but indeed as we're talking throughout this presentation, there's an ongoing rise in resistance against mupirozine.

16:56 It's we say globally it's around fourteen percent currently. In certain parts of The US we already know it's exceeded twenty percent. So the standard of care is certainly failing. It's it's a problem that won't go away. One in three people carry staph aureus nasally, creating up to a nine times higher post surgical risk. It adds on average ten days to hospital treatment and increases the cost by three to four hundred percent. Indeed one treatment of a hospital acquired infection is written in The States, is calculated in The States to cost around $165,000.

17:42 That's for one single case of resistant staph aureus.

17:48 As well as incurring the cost, US hospitals often get fined by Medicare, Medicaid when an infection actually occurs in their hospital. So they don't want to use these old treatments. Many of them weren't even born when muperidin was discovered in the 40s, in the nineteen forties. They want to avoid any litigation. Above and beyond that, they want the patient to leave hospital. They want the patient to recover their health as quickly as possible. So they want a new standard. We believe the new standard is x f 73. Next slide, please.

18:25 This looks at the global opportunity. I've alluded to it. It's a big opportunity. We think that addressing this surgical site infection just in The States could add about a billion dollars of revenue. Total surgery in The US, so this is the market, these are the number of surgical procedures taking place is around forty three million. High risk patients we think are around seven million and staph aureus is confirmed in around half of them, around three million staph aureus patients or patients that are electing for surgery or have been elected for surgery or indeed are emergency entries to surgery are carriers. So that we think that at the peak we think that thirty five percent of eligible patients will be treated, driven mainly by a combination of factors really the current cost of treatment clinicians and surgeons want a new treatment, they want a new standard of care, insurers want a better better way of treating these infections, so we think that the peak of treated patients should be around about two and a half million patients per annum, depending

19:42 what we charge for the drug that leads us to a number of around 1,000,000,000 a year in revenue for xf73 just in surgical site infections. Next slide please. You can read these slides, these are the outstanding results that we achieved with XTEF seventy three in phase 2b, so a real clinical setting where there was a 99% reduction in nasal in the nasal staph aureus burden versus placebo. This effect was maintained throughout and post surgery and beyond six days beyond. Less antibiotics were required and a minimum of 25% reduction in antibiotic days was recorded and above and beyond that XF73 proved to be very well tolerated with any effects being mild, transient and really of discomfort.

20:42 No serious side effect, no systemic absorption detected. So XF73 hits all of the primary endpoints, exceeds all the regulatory hurdles and excels in an excellent phase three phase two b study. Quickly on to the next slide. XF seventy three is qualified for all of the facts Fast Track rates to regulatory approval. I think it's a better way of looking at it. These include the FDA designation where we've got a Fast Track designation, but also more years exclusivity. The FDA Fast Track, is is very desirable as is the QIDP designation.

21:30 In The UK we've got the MHRIP ILL ILAP designation, which gives us accelerated approval. It also allows us an area earlier access to NICE which supports earlier patient access for innovative medicines and laterally, we've started talking to the European Medicines Regulatory Agency, we've recently been invited to join the alliance of biotech companies, 70 odd companies across Europe, to talk directly with European regulators. So we're well advanced, and we've cleared many of the regulatory hurdles that are in front of x f 70 three. And in many respects, we're now approaching the final furlong If this was a horse race where we've overcome all of the barriers, we passed with flying colors, all of the regulatory hurdles, and we've covered all the bases with key partnerships. Next slide, please.

22:29 This really outlines the ongoing conversations we're having with those key partnerships which include CMC experts that will help us with the development of manufacturing and the active ingredient that we'll need for our clinical trials. We're also present at all the major scientific events within Europe and indeed increasingly in The US. We've had meetings with the European medicine regulators, the FDA and the MHRC and indeed the tax authorities in The UK to give us EIS two approval with the EIS three certificate being issued to investors.

23:14 So we're making great progress on all fronts. Last slide almost coming up. We've thank you we've achieved all milestones in a very short period of time. Ilian reminded it's only nine months since we got AMR Bio started. We've had great support from the team that we put together. I've had the pleasure of working on 33 new chemical entities in my career at all stages all the way through through development to whole scale, a worldwide successful global launch. And I can say this has gone as quick and as easy as as most of them. And we're now into that final stage. We've got great support corporately from EMV. We've got our website launched, our PR PR programs up and running.

24:03 We're building relationship with former partners. We've built out a management team, which I'm very proud of. We've got great regulatory support, and we've covered all the bases that we need for fast track registration. The phase two b data exceeded all expectations, So I'm a veteran of these types of studies. The phase 2b study exceeded all of my expectations, and indeed all of the industry watchers were surprised by the excellent results. Business development, we're already talking to potential partners. They're excited, and we're excited by what's ahead of us with AMR Bio. And just a glimpse of the final slide, if we may, for this part of the presentation.

24:49 We're all backed up by a very experienced team. These are people that know all all the all the way, all the pathways from research, development, all the way through commercialization. I spent all of my career in research and development, but a large percentage of it launching drugs all over the world as part of Pfizer, Glaxo and Sanofi. So I think in conclusion, I hope you've detected it. We're very excited by this opportunity. It's a great opportunity. It's one that I'll come on if I get the opportunity to say a few more words to say why the pharmaceutical industry is equally excited by this opportunity. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Nigel.

25:35 So we're going to do a brief q and a and for about five minutes, and then we'll have we'll we'll go on to the next presentation. But just to flag, if any of you have any questions for Nigel and his team, please get in touch with the three EMV or indeed directly, and I'm sure Nigel will be happy to to answer. So a few questions. So, Nigel, I mean, it's there's so much happening in the antimicrobial space, and you alluded to your significant industry experience. But what gives you confidence that it's x f seventy three that has the potential to become the the new standard of care versus other attempts in this space? I I mean, as always, Eileen, you you you ask difficult but interesting questions. I mean, what we've got here is is a problem that's already identified.

26:27 Surgeons there's only one treatment that we're trying to displace at this moment in time, and that's mupirocin. And mupirocin is failing on basically every clinical metric that matters. 14 to 20% resistance and rising, a clumsy five to seven day course, only seventy percent patient compliance, whilst XF73 delivers a 99% reduction in just four doses over twenty four hours with zero resistance encountered so far. So it's not an incremental improvement, it's a step change improvement. It's a different weapon entirely against an identified problem, a problem that clinicians understand, surgeons understand, they're unhappy giving patients a forty six year old treatment that doesn't work.

27:17 The gold standard is visibly breaking down and a fast clean so far resistant proof alternative exists. Adoption isn't a question of if it'll be a very quick entry to the market, it's when we can get it onto the market, and we're at that final stage of getting readied for market authorization in The States with surgical site infections. So, yeah, that's the reason I'm optimistic, Ilya. Thank you, Nigel. And can you tell the a question around the FDA strategy that EMR Power is is pursuing? And, of course, it's had a it's had a first goal with with the previous entity. So how how would you describe, without giving away, some of the most confidential aspects of your strategy, how would you characterize your FDA approach?

28:09 Okay. Well, I'd like to say it's completely unique, but if it was completely new, I'd I'd perhaps be a little concerned. One other com company, which has been very successful, has gone through this route before. So we're looking for a type B meeting with the FDA. We've asked for that meeting, we've had a response back from the FDA, and we have a meeting in our diaries, which for those of you that know type b approach to the FDA will mean that the meeting is likely to occur within the next seventy days. If we we combine this, if you like, this this unique approach with our clinical study, the unique design of our clinical study into a known de risk path, and what do I mean by known de risk? We've combined that, as I said, with our QIDP and fast track status, particularly with the FDA, which is already hand already in hand, and a successful type b outcome means a priority review, 10 of exclusive exclusivity, and a clear agreed runway through to marketing approval.

29:22 So I see that once we've had the conversation with the FDA, we've already prepared the groundwork for the studies, We will face a study, which we will do, which I'm very excited about, and will become, once we get the study underway, a serious partnering opportunity for big pharma. And and one more final question, Nigel. When you alluded to the partnering opportunity and perhaps you could give us some some insights from your previous experience, you know, companies at this stage, what are the sort of partnerships they're looking at? What's what's in the realm of the possible?

30:08 Well, big pharma big pharma, nine out of the top 10 companies are not growing at the moment. Ten to twelve years ago Big Pharma placed all of their bets onto oncology, but they've been very successful. There are almost 4,000 oncology drugs in development. Sadly there are less than 90 drugs antibiotics in development, so that just gives you a comparison. And of these drugs, many of them will be coming to the market in the next few years. But the problem for big pharma is because they placed all of their bets onto oncology in parallel, and and it's taking longer and longer to develop a drug, by the way. What used to be ten years is now nearer fifteen years and 2 to $4,000,000,000 in in development costs. What's happening is the rest of their pipeline is losing its exclusive exclusivity.

31:00 They're big farmers facing the biggest patent cliff in the last twenty or thirty years, so they need to refill their pipeline. New old drugs are coming off patent and they'll need new drugs both from their oncology pipelines but also from going out and forming partnerships with companies like AML Bio to refill their pipelines with innovative new drugs. So I'm very excited by the conversations I've I've had with my my former colleagues in big pharma that they're they're looking outside of their own pipelines. There's there's a certain urgency within big pharma to refill the pipeline with innovation. And here with x f 73, we've got a new gold standard, a unique mode of action, a drug which is truly innovative and which meets an unmet need, which is the bacterial resistance that we're encountering from these superbugs. So we've we've got a super solution to the superbug crisis.

32:03 Nigel, final question. A question from Cream and one other person on the on the the q and a about how does it fit how does MRBIOS approach with x f seventy three compare or fit with the a competitor's alternative approach that's based on a medical device based sterilization. Are they compatible? Can you do both? Would you do both? I I think there's room for both. We know that the device is at a late stage and I think we're awaiting their phase three results, so I'm sure there's a lot of bated breath as we all wait to see what those results will reveal.

32:50 I think here we've got a simpler approach. I said I think during the presentation it doesn't involve a device, it's a very simple procedure, the administration is pre op for those of us that have had to endure surgery, even minor surgery. This is just a very simple application of gel into the nose pre surgery, very quick, no device, no training required, so we've got a very simple application. We've got something that here with XF73 we know works extremely well. We've got a phase two study which is incredible. I mean it exceeded all the hurdles we put before XF73 during the regulatory process, so yeah, room for both, think, Ilian. I I hope that our competitors do get approval because there there is some unmet unmet need, and, you know, I think I think the replacement of current mupirozine standard of care will be quicker with XF73.

33:49 Surgeons will find it easier to implement easier in their current mode of treatment with the mupirozine and certainly much easier than adopting a medical device. So easier to adopt, maybe more effective, and certainly one where there's perhaps room for for both. K. Thank you very much, Nigel. There were a few other quite specific questions about market pricing, how those were estimated. I think those are best done offline if I can I can hopefully, well, I don't know? I could answer all of the million, but I'm more than willing to have a stab at them. We can do this offline. Thank you so much. Nigel, thank you very much, and thank you for your stewardship of MR Bio and and the rest of the team's hard work on on this really exciting meeting. I'll pass the thanks to the team, and thank you to the audience for listening to me. It's much appreciated.

34:44 Okay. Next up is my colleague, Luis, from ProAxis. It's a it's a it's a real pleasure to introduce Luis to to to yourselves. I I think I want to say something about Luis' leadership style that he has been extremely calm under pressure and under fire, and he's slowly but surely taken the company into a a really good location now with a with a lot of growth and upside. And, also, I think the area of respiratory respiratory disease support around clinical trials is also very close to myself with with people in my family that have long term respiratory disease or respiratory chronic respiratory conditions, which, of course, is one of the major areas of concern globally and one that is growing consistently with environmental change. So I very much support the mission of ProAxis, and I'll let Luis explain to you how they're going about it, Luis.

35:50 That's great. Thanks so much, Ilian, for the in introduction. So I'll just get started by introducing Proaxis and who we are. So we are a protease biomarker led research company with a current focus on respiratory diseases. We serve pharma, biotech, and research organizations across three commercial pillars. So we have our catalog products incorporating our patented protease tag technology. And for our products, we we offer a range of lab based immunoassay test kits.

36:39 And immunoassays are biological tests that measure the concentration of a target analyte in a biological sample. And we also have a point of use test kit or a meat stick test. We also offer in house clinical research services, and this is servicing the clinical trial market and supporting exploratory biomarker research. And we also offer in house bespoke r and d services, so offering bespoke assay development, validation, and often through scientific collaboration projects. So what problem is our technology actually solving?

37:28 So conventional protease assays do not offer the specific measurement of active proteases. They are not sufficiently selective for biomarker studies, either for pharma or for research. So when comparing these conventional assays against SARS, we have total protein immunoassays. So these measure total proteases. I'm sorry. My light has just gone off there, so I just need to move to activate it. There we go. Apologies. So the total protein immunoassays measure total protease. So they cannot distinguish between different forms of target proteases, so the active, inactive, and complex forms.

38:20 And we have substrate based activity assays. However, these are cross reactive with other proteases, so they're not specific for the protease of interest. So the proaxis protease tags, they selectively bind active proteases only. So they allow the specific measurement of active proteases. So why does this matter? Well, active protease measurement provides a more biologically relevant indication of disease activity than measuring total protease. So how does our technology work? So a protease tag is designed against a specific target protease, and that tag binds the active site of a target protease.

39:16 And the result resulting test is a visual readout of active protease levels in a biological sample with a high level of specificity. And our tests show how much protease is actively contributing to disease, and this can support assessment of novel drug effectiveness. And so we are focused on respiratory diseases currently. However, the technology can be expanded into multiple disease areas. So proteases are known to be associated with multiple diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many more.

40:07 So in terms of our product portfolio, we offer three lab based immunoassays for neutrophil elastase, protein s three, and cathepsin g, the targets. And we also have a point of use lateral flow test or NITSTEK test. And this is the only commercially available test measuring active NA at point of use. Now this has been extensively used in a number of bronchiectasis research studies. And last year, we initiated a COPD study for need stick in collaboration with a leading UK university, and that hopefully will allow us to expand into the COPD market.

40:56 So our technology is protected. We have three patents, trademarks. We have many years of know how and trade secrets. So in terms of the market, we are servicing a major respiratory disease market. Excuse me. By 2030, the respiratory diagnostics market is valued at between 9 and $10,000,000,000, And two hundred and thirteen million people are suffering with COPD globally, and this is one of the largest disease areas in respiratory medicine. Closer to home, the NHS is spending 11,000,000,000 on respiratory disease.

41:47 And since COVID, we've seen an increased demand in rapid decentralized testing. So where do we sit in all of this? So currently, we're servicing the respiratory clinical trials and research market, and that's through our kits, our clinical services, and bespoke r and d. And this year, we have a sales target of just under 500,000. And at present, we have just over an up point 3,000,000 already contracted. So thinking ahead, we want to expand not only the current clinical trials and research market, but we want to also expand into point of care. So a successful completion of our COPD research study will open a value multiplier into clinical and home use.

42:42 And it's been forecasted that this will add an additional 1,500,000 revenue in the first three years of launch. So we have three revenue streams with upside potential. So for our kit sales, we sell directly to pharma, CROs, research institutions, universities, and we see here recurring purchase pattern with this. In terms of clinical services, we sell directly to pharma or their CRO, and this can be across multi phase contracts. And this gives us the highest value engagement often across multi year.

43:32 And then in terms of our bespoke R and D, we primarily work here with scientific partnerships, whether that's through the Future Medicines Institute, a consortium based here in Northern Ireland, or the likes of the University of Dundee. But we also sell into pharma in this category, And this is really a pathway into new products and IP. So in terms of our land and expand go to market strategy, this really starts with awareness, and that's through scientific publications, attending key conferences, and KOL networking.

44:18 And that will lead to that first purchase, whether that's a catalog kit products or indeed a a small scale clinical study. And that can expand into, again, multiple kit orders or multiple phase studies leading to multiyear master service agreement across a respiratory pipeline. And we do have a live ongoing example of this with a biopharma client where our engagement started with some bespoke r and d work and clinical services across multiple phase two studies. And they are now wanting to progress into phase three studies, and they want to incorporate our services and technology as part of that.

45:13 So in terms of business highlights, we have a validated revenue generating technology. Capital has been deployed, and we're past that binary technology risk. We have strong gross margin, and we have grant funding secured for future r and d. And as I mentioned, we have patents. The technology is validated, and I'll come to an example in a later slide. We have commercial traction, and we have an experienced team and backing. So to demonstrate our business in action and how our technology can support pharma drug development and ultimately those suffering from disease, we have the Brincipari story.

46:09 So this drug is the first ever treatment approved for non cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. Again, first in class FDA approval last year. And this drug works by inhibiting the activation of neutrophil serine proteases, neutrophil elastase, Progness three, Caffepsin g. And these are precisely the proteases that our assays measure. And this really is a blockbuster drug. INSMED are projecting over $1,000,000,000 in revenue this year. And in terms of the role we played in this story, so we partnered with INSMED in 2017, and this was to support them on their phase two WILLOW trial for this drug.

47:03 So we supplied our immunoassays to their trial testing laboratory and, of course, offered the technical support as well in terms of getting the testing set set up on on during and during that process. The resulting active protease biomarker evidence supported the development of the drug as well as the FDA approval and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. And this was led by one of our key clinical advisers, professor James Chalmers, who is a global expert in bronchiectasis. So in terms of our commercial road map, we want to scale and expand our technology.

47:53 So in the near term, we want to grow our kit sales, our clinical services revenue, and expand our existing pharma and CRO and research relationships. We're wanting to complete our meat stick COPD study and launch that next year for use in the COPD clinical trials market. Then beyond that, we want to expand into cancer. So we'll be looking to identify suitable targets for that disease area. And as well, we want to expand into the clinical and home use point of care testing with the further development of our meat stick two.

48:39 And then beyond that, we want to expand even further into more disease areas. So over the last eighteen months, we have undergone a lot of significant changes, and and we have transformed into an independently funded growth company. We completed a corporate reorganization and form a separation from EMV CAPITAL, giving us operational and financial autonomy. But importantly, we still retain the EMV support, which is crucial. We have really focused our commercial strategy and repositioned ourselves as a specialist protease biomarker led research company for pharma and research partners.

49:36 We've strengthened our relations our leadership and expertise. I've stepped up into the managing director role. We've appointed a new chair and expanded our clinical advisory board. We've also expanded our operational capabilities. We relocated from Belfast up to Antrim, and we're now based within the Randox Science Park. And as part of that, we have expanded our capabilities and strengthened our supply chain. So what's next? So as I discussed, we're wanting to scale and expand our technology, and we are in a great place to grow in future. And to do that, we have an experienced management team, board, and clinical advisers.

50:28 Our head of assay development and chemistry have been with the company since it spun out from Queen's University, so they are highly experienced in our protease tag technology. Our new chair, professor Steven Mint, he is a a serial life sciences founder, investor. He's worked with so many companies. He's been involved with a number of exits, and he has extensive global contacts. Our clinical adviser CVs speak for themselves. They're industry experts, well respected, and have a deep knowledge and association with Proaxis. So in terms of exit strategy, we have three distinct acquirer classes.

51:18 So we have our specialty diagnostics, and we would represent a bolt on to an existing established diagnostics portfolio. This would be particularly attractive when we move towards our NEAT STIC two development, and we have FDA approval of of that test. We have pharma services. And, again, we would add a differentiated biomarker capability to an already existing clinical trial offering. And this will be most likely if our clinical services business scales. We also have strategic pharma, and this would allow a an exclusive use of our biomarker.

52:07 So this would have the highest premium, but, of course, the narrowest universe. So the specialty diagnostics and the pharma services would be the more likely an exit route for us. And that concludes my presentation. So I I welcome any questions. Thank you very much, Luis. And several questions came out in terms of your your work with pharma, and the work with Insmed is a great example of you getting SPECT inside a clinical trial at an early stage. And then this became a a blockbuster, and it's in the public domain that you are part of that. But to the extent you can, can you give us examples of other pharma companies you're you're you're working with?

53:00 So we of course, when we work with pharma companies, we are restricted in terms of naming those companies because of ongoing confidentiality agreements, and, of course, they have own ongoing trials. But we do have like I say, we have an example of a company that we've worked with in earlier phases, a global bio pharma company. We're moving into the phase three stage. We also now are at early discussions with some other companies who are at the earlier phase in in development.

53:45 And what we've really seen is that the Rinsuperi drug story, that's really driving this increased engagement with pharma companies. They've seen the publication of the Willow study, and we're we're seeing very much almost a a replication of that study. So whilst I can't actually name the the pharma companies, we we do we are currently working with a couple of those, and we're in different phases, which is quite exciting. And it's always exciting that we're able to bring on a new a new client, particularly off the back of some previous work. Would it be fair to say that there are four or five tier ones that you work with? Or give those Yes. I would we're currently, I'd say two two to three with some live interactions.

54:42 Okay. Thank you so much. And a question from Patrick. Would you prefer to commercialize the need stick point of care product independently in house, or would you look at doing it with a strategic partner? That's interesting question. So I think we would very much like I mean, we've already started some predevelopment work on this version two NeatStick. And I think, you know, we would have the capabilities of developing this ourselves. But, of course, as part of that, we would be reaching out to suppliers, KOLs, and that we have strong ties with to help support that.

55:37 And so I think it's something that we could very much do in house ourselves with support. But, of course, we wouldn't rule out doing doing that in another way. Thank you. And for the Imperial College COPD clinical study, when do you expect when do you expect the study will conclude? We're currently expecting the study to complete in June of next year. So recruitment of that is ongoing. And, of course, the the the winter season as we approach that would be an important season in terms of exacerbations of COPD.

56:31 And as we get into the new year, we will hopefully be able to close off that recruitment. And, hopefully, by the end of June, we will be able to report out on that. Okay. Thank you very much, Luis. And there's a few other again, as with the previous presentation, there's a few other specific questions that are not appropriate for a public presentation, but please feel free to get in touch with the proxies team, and I'm sure they'll be happy to engage as appropriate. Yes. Thank you. Well, that concludes this edition of the Meet the Portfolio event. So I want to thank Luis and Nigel for their participation, And I appreciate presentations in the life sciences sometimes can be quite specific. It is, you know, it is sometimes challenging to explain and communicate the scientific aspect of these discoveries these platforms, and the market potential in a nonscientific way. But what we're really satisfied at EMV CAPITAL level is that for both of these companies, which are different, one is the therapeutic space that is in diagnostics and clinical supplies, Both of them operate in a multibillion in a respectively multibillion dollar markets.

57:52 Both are close to major value inflection points. And, of course, as you know by now, we are helping those companies run-in a capital efficient manner so that the investors can get a good return on investment once the companies reach their exit points. So thank you very much again for for joining us, and looking forward to seeing you at the next virtual Winter Portfolio event. Thank you. Fantastic. Ilya and Louise, Nigel, thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session? As you know, I'll be automatically redirected to provide you feedback, which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.