IXICO (LSE:IXI) — Interim results for the six months ended 31 March 2025

0:01 Good afternoon and welcome to the IXICO PLC Interim Results Investor Presentation. Throughout the quarter presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and could be submitted at any time by the Q and A tab situated in the right corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives from the meeting itself, however the company can review all the questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you to CEO, Graham Gordon. Good afternoon to you, sir.

0:31 Well, thank you very much, and and welcome, everyone. Delighted to be presenting the h one interim results for 2025, which are, as you may remember, the first for me. Started as CEO summer last year. Obviously, Grant is a somewhat more familiar face to you, I think, with our CFO and and recently also promoted to chief operating officer. So with that, let's dive into this. I wanted to remind everyone of who we are and what we do, just to make sure that we set the scene correctly. You see us actually using a somewhat different language maybe than what has been seen before, Precision in neuroscience because that is very much who we are. So we, run an AI driven technology, a platform that does analytics of neurological clinical trials.

1:28 And behind that is, of course, an entire team also that helps with the end to end analysis of these, of these data. So if you look at us at a glance, as I just mentioned, that the one hand, an AI driven platform, basically is a backbone, which we call trial tracker that then is equipped with algorithms, with biomarker algorithms, and we'll come back to that because they're at the heart of the success that we've been having also over the past six months. And and, obviously, already since many years, we're celebrating our twentieth anniversary, actually, as you see in our little logo as well. And that IXICO expertise and experience, which is the team of experts and thought leaders that we have. And again, you'll see that we've actually made some extra investments there. So what this platform and this team does is that the one hand, imaging biomarkers development.

2:20 So we need the development of novel biomarkers that will deliver insights for our customers who are the biotech and pharma companies mainly. Trial management, so helping them with the actual management of radiology images, and then data analytics, which are actually the most important ones because they then actually inform what the insights are. And those insights are regarding drug safety, patient eligibility, drug efficacy. So all the major insights that pharma requires, as you see on the bottom of this slide, during their clinical trial programs in order to inform whether molecules will actually make it to the approvable treatments for patients waiting, especially in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease. And that's what you see at the right hand side of this slide. We are very much focusing on neurodegenerative diseases and are actually unique IXICO in that space.

3:15 So when I came on board, we did a a capital raise right away because we wanted to make sure that we provided ourselves, I would say, with some fuel in order to, at the one hand, that you see accelerate growth, and at the other hand, increase the value of that platform and of of the company that we have.

3:49 Apologies for that. If we start at the right hand side here, accelerate growth is very much about pipeline expansion, increasing the pipeline toward the book conversion rate, and then maintaining and enhancing operational excellence. And what we mean by that is very much increasing this addressable market, which IXICO has been targeting since many years. For those who know us a little bit longer, we are dominant, I would say, in this rare neurodegenerative disease space, especially also in Huntington's disease where we really own this market, I would say. But we've really set ourselves on this mission to go much deeper also into some of the other important neurological areas such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. And that, of course, immediately also then delivers an addressable market, which we believe, increases with a factor three to four, based on the estimates of these market sizes.

4:45 And the second objective here is increasing the value, which at the one hand comes with that increase in revenue, obviously, that we are now embarking on. But at the same time, also looking at what are other revenue streams that we can access through the platform, not necessarily in the CRO model which we are having today. So in order to do that, we, decided to focus on three levers and invest in all of these areas. So innovate needs scale. Innovate, the first one, is very much about differentiation. And so equipping our platform with these very specific biomarkers, which will especially unlock Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease opportunities in the space. And as you will see, that is where progress is coming from also in this first half of the year.

5:31 Then the technology expansion, I already mentioned that what we're doing is very much around an AI driven platform, which we call trial tracker. We have launched a next generation version of that platform at the beginning of the year, and that is being deployed now on on many new customers. And then disease expansion, which as I already mentioned, has very much to do with them equipping ourselves into those spaces of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease and to a certain extent also others such as multiple sclerosis. Lead has everything to do with making sure that the market is aware of that innovation that we have brought on platform or that we are developing. And basically, if you wish, making a little bit more noise about that from a medical and from a scientific perspective. So giving visibility, bringing some new experts on board as well to very specifically work on those medical affairs campaigns at both sides of the pond. And then footprint has to do with making sure that we actually have what I call the feet on the ground, especially at the other side of the ocean as well in The US for us.

6:35 Scale then has to do with order book and revenue increase as a result of some of these earlier investments, and then new revenue streams, as I already mentioned, where we start to look at can we partner with some of the other players in a multimodal fashion, and can we look at how our platform could potentially also access other revenue streams through also new, revenue models.

7:03 And so if you look then at what is the progress that we have made because we're very much measuring ourselves, I should say, across these three levers. You see at the right hand side that there are three key performance drivers for the 26% uplift that we had between h one of this year and h one of last year. The first one, I'm happy to report, is that revenue increase that is also much more diversified across disease areas. And so that is moving away from that more rare disease space into some of these bigger indications, as I already mentioned, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The second one is an exciting one as well because this is about existing customers, teams who we are working with, and together as top leaders exploring what other analytics can be done, what more biomarkers should be interrogated.

7:53 And at the end of the day, that, of course, then increases scope and revenue for us as a company. And then the third one is an exciting one as well, which has to do with unlocking new industries. And very specifically, for those who know IXICO, we're very much focusing on the biopharma, so biotech and pharma customers. But more recently, we've also started to work with some of the diagnostics players. And if you look at our space, there is some very exciting progress that are going on, especially also in the blood based biomarker space, with even most recently first FDA approval in the Alzheimer's disease space. And those customers find their way to us as well because, obviously, if you want to get approval for these biomarkers, you're going to validate and compare yourself with the gold standard, which is imaging.

8:38 As you will hear me say in the future as well, we do see this very much as partnerships and believe that some of these multimodal biomarkers can also come on platform, at IXICO. So to put it in a nutshell, in terms of innovate, it is that deployment successful deployments of our trial tracker platform with customers, new products offerings, in AD and PD, and I'll come back to that in a little bit more detail because it is crucial. And then that multimodal momentum, which I already mentioned, which has to do with the fact that we're now starting to look at other biomarker modalities, and that also translates into revenue. Lead then has to do with resources that we have brought onboard, especially medical resources, who, as you will see in a minute as well, have been very active this past half year on stage at the major symposia during webinars and also, of course, working on publications and making sure that there is sufficient scientific communication around our innovation.

9:43 And then scale is much more in the commercial side where, as already mentioned, and I will introduce this person on slide here today, our head of commercial who is US based. And with that person, also a team that we are building and increasing, worldwide. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Graham who will walk you through the financial results. Thank you, Graham, and good afternoon to to you all. So I'll start by talking through our financial performance over the first half of this year. As you can see, we've split this into three graphs, revenues, gross margin, and EBITDA. Starting on the left with the revenue graph, the headline figure for the for the six months up to March was revenues of 3,200,000 and a 26% growth in revenues compared to the first half of last year.

10:42 But we're obviously very pleased with that growth. That comes from and it's been driven by contracts that we've signed over the last twelve months, both long term contracts across multi years, but also an important some shorter term contracts allow us to convert new contracts to revenue in a in a quick quick manner. That is important not only in terms of the headline growth, but also we're pleased because the market itself is still experiencing some challenges, particularly in the biotech sector where macroeconomic events mean that there are still challenges for biotechs in particular to access capital. But, of course, that's why we raise capital to make sure that we're making the right investments to maximize the opportunity that exists, but also as the market recovers, which it absolutely will with the growth in incidence of neurological disease, that we are best placed to to capture that and continue the growth that we've seen over the last six months.

11:42 I then want to draw your attention to the middle graph, which covers gross margin. Again, some great news to report that compared to the same period last year, we've gone from a gross margin of 40% to a gross margin of 50%. So over 20% improvement in our gross margin.

12:01 That is driven by that revenue increase. And to reemphasize, this is something that we've talked about previously, but the operational leverage that exists within this business. So at the scale we're operating at the moment, the cost base that we operate to is largely fixed. What that means is that as we generate greater levels of volume revenue volume, so a significant chunk of that revenue drops down into gross profit and drops down into EBITDA. So quickly, you see an improvement in gross margin, and you see an improvement in in the EBITDA position. I'd like I'd also like to emphasize that when you compare the gross margin in the first half of this year at 50% to the gross margin in the first half of twenty twenty three, so a couple of years ago, when actually the revenues were at a similar level, you see a 4% improvement in gross margin.

12:55 And that is driven by the fact that we made some cost decision cost based decisions in 2024 that have reduced our cost base and means that at similar revenue levels, we're in we're we're achieving a a better gross margin. And that flows through as well to EBITDA, which you can see on the on the right of this slide, where for six months of this year, we delivered an EBITDA loss of 700,000, almost halving the loss compared to this time last year where we did 1,300,000 loss. And that comes partly from that revenue increase. It comes from that operational leverage that's come through, but it also comes from those cost based decisions we took. And I also want to emphasize that that is done in the context, which is quite different to the context that you see in 2023, where, as you said, similar revenue levels and actually similar EBITDA position.

13:50 But, actually, in 2023, we were still putting a lot of investment in our technology platform. And what that meant is that at that time, we were putting a lot of cost was being capitalized out of our profit and loss account onto our balance sheet. That platform was completed and deployed in 2024, and the amount of cost that's been capitalized has come down very significantly as you'll see on the next slide. So what that means is that although our EBITDA position is similar to where it was a couple of years ago on similar revenues, actually, we've absorbed a lot of extra cost in that number. So, essentially, with the cost decisions we took last year, we've really absorbed cost in the p and l and been able to produce similar EBITDA position off the off that basis.

14:35 I'll explain that a little bit more detail in the next slide. The final point that I want to make on this slide is that having made those cost based decisions, having streamlined our cost base, but also having completed the capital raise in October last year, we put ourselves in a position where we can make some very clear strategic based investments that will feed some cost back into our p and l. But those are very much directed on the innovate lead scale strategy that Graham outlined, where those investments are completely targeted towards driving growth in our top line, having having in the strong position knowing that we've made the investments we needed to make in our technology platform. That is complete. That was completed before we did our capital raise, and now it's about enhancing or augmenting that platform rather than actually developing it.

15:30 Going to the the next slide, this is now really about the capitalization of the business, the balance sheet of the business. And as you can see again, the the graph on the left, which is our cash, we've moved our cash position to 5,000,000 at the end of the first half of this year. That followed the successful completion of 3,700,000 capital raise in October, net of proceeds. We are a debt free business, so that is a strong cash position for us to make the investments that we now plan to make and are making in that innovate lead scale strategy. Again, making the point about our technology platform, if you move to the middle graph here, the capital investment that we've made in the first six months, 300,000 of investments, similar to last year, but a very significant reduction on the investment we made in the first half of twenty three.

16:23 That's because in that first half of twenty three, we were still investing in bringing our new platform to market. We did that successfully in in 2024, having invested more than 6,000,000 in the platform. We've now deployed that platform on multiple client trials, and we are now the investments we're now making are bringing those very specific analytical enhancements in the fields of AD and PD, which Bram will talk to more in a moment, onto the platform that really allows us to differentiate and provide that product offering to our clients and and and partners. So we've made the big investments in technology. Now the investments we're making are to deploy those opportunity those products and really make a song and dance about this in the market such that we can drive that revenue top line forward.

17:16 And we do that from a strong balance sheet position. At the end of March, net assets position at 12,300,000. 6.8 of that is the investments we've made over the last few years in terms of long term assets, both technology and analytical capabilities. 5,600,000 of working capital, so strong working capital position, and then a small 100,000 long term liability position. So we really are very light in long term liabilities.

17:45 Turning to the order book. So as a reminder, when we talk about order book, we are talking about the the contracts that we have signed that we've yet to to deliver. So we have 13,100,000 of contracts signed within the business that we haven't yet delivered. So this is essentially visibility of future revenues over the coming years of contracts already signed. So that is a a strong position for us to be in. It's a well diversified order book, and I'll come to that in a minute. But also very pleased to be able to say, at this point, the half year point, that in that order book of 13,100,000, we have full coverage of the expected revenues for this year within the order book already.

18:33 What that means is if we sign and when we when we do sign additional contracts this year, that gives us opportunities to overachieve in terms of the guidance exact that currently exists in the market. We we're rightly prudent in not doing anything about that at the moment because there are always risk of contracts being descoped. But to be in a position at the half year where we have visibility in our order book, the revenues we expect for the full year is certainly a strong position for us to be. And to give a little bit more color on that, the graph on the right here shows the movement in our order book between the 12,700,000 that was there at the end of March in '24 and the 13,100,000 that was in the March of this year.

19:18 And what you can see is across that period, we signed or extended contracts worth 9,700,000. We recognized revenues of 6,400,000, and we have client descopes or cancellations of 2,900,000. So that's the profile that we've seen across the last the last twelve months. And to give more color to that, moving to my next slide, this, again, takes that order book, that 13,100,000 of contracts, and illustrates it split both in terms of clinical trial phase, which is the the pie chart on the left, and also therapeutic indication in CNS, which is the pie chart on the right. But to to emphasize the diversity, we have 17 clients in this order book, 25 different projects, of which we have our largest contract is our largest project is about 15% of our order book, so a very well diversified order book. The split across different client types is we're about 25% with top 10 pharma, about 10% mid pharma, about 50% across biotech, and then we have the balance split across non not for not for profit organizations.

20:46 But key to to understand is that we we have around about two thirds of our order book with early phase phase one, phase two trials. Now that is important both from an opportunity and from a risk point of view. Opportunity wise, we have a significant pipeline of opportunity that exists within our order book. Because if those phase ones and phase twos are successful,

21:14 then we are very well positioned to follow those projects as they move from phase one to phase two, from phase two to phase three. And that gives us opportunity to grow from contracts that we already have and customers we're already selling on top of the pipeline, which Ram will talk to shortly.

21:33 But that also means that we have a well diversified order book, which means that if there are particular trials that don't succeed, any individual trial that doesn't go forward doesn't significantly undermine the business' opportunity to move forward. Then in terms of therapeutic indication and in terms of the strategy that that we've laid out at the back end of last year as alongside the capital raise, we are strong in Huntington's disease and in rare diseases.

22:01 That is the basis from which this organization has come. We still have about fifty percent of our order book in continent disease and about 25 in other rare indications. We can see it within neurodegenerative disease. But importantly, those areas we want to expand are AD and PD, and about twenty percent of all we book at this stage is in AD, just under five in PD. But as the investments that we're making, having done that cap raise, start to have an impact, what we expect to see and what we expect to be showing in future updates is that proportion of a d and p d element of our order book will increase as the overall value of our order book increases. So with that, I'm gonna pass back to to Brown.

22:47 Thanks, Grant. So I think by now you probably have understood that the outlook for this full year '25 in terms of revenues, it looks pretty good. So I want to focus for a moment on h two and how are we going to continue to further build that order book and and focus on that pipeline and also that diversification of that pipeline, which Graham just referred to, and obviously with that focus on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. So in order to do that, I'm coming back to this innovate, lead, scale, theme, if you allow me. And starting with innovate, we said that we wanted to equip the platform when we did the categories. We said that we wanted to equip the platform with three main scientific themes,

23:35 which were the vascular abnormalities, neuromelaning, and then inflammation measurements. Vascular abnormalities are really a novel field of biomarker measurements, especially in the Alzheimer's field. And with our chief scientific officer, doctor Robin Bowles, we have already made a lot of progress there. So this is really about turning that proof of concept now into a product, which as you see, will come on platform in q three, which is as we speak. The second one is neuromelmin. That is very much in the Parkinson's space. That is a biomarker which is already measured and exists already out there. But, again, we have developed a whole new algorithm that sets us apart, and we've actually making been making quite a bit of noise scientifically around this with a lot of enthusiasm, which is now filling our pipeline as well.

24:24 This will then be productized and come on platform in the next quarter, which is over the summer. And then you see that moving further into 2026, which as planned, will have further vascular biomarkers and then also the inflammation measurements, which I mentioned, which will actually fuel multiple indications amongst which, again, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's is the key ones. So this is really the progress in terms of innovation as was laid out at the beginning of the year. If we then look at lead, I know this is a bit of a busy slide, with a lot of pictures, but really what it tries to show in here is that we have been making over these past six months a lot of noise, I should say, from a scientific perspective around that innovation. So in the middle, you see some of our advisers, our privileged consultants, also our own CSO.

25:11 We've

25:12 been at the stages, I would say, of the major conferences, which you see to the right hand side there, always with that focus on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. And then on the left hand side of this slide, you see Terry, who I promised I was going to introduce you with a little picture here. So Terry is the head of commercial based in Boston, and he's very much from there building up a further footprint from a commercial perspective at that other side of the pond. He's are global responsibilities. Obviously, we've got our people also here in The UK and elsewhere in Europe. So then the third lever scale, the way I wanted to show this and and especially show progress, and I hope that this slide does a good job, is by showing per main indication what is actually the progress that we've seen on platform, which is, of course, linked to these biomarkers that I showed you two slides ago. But then also how does that now start to translate into that diversified pipeline.

26:12 And so if you look at Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's disease, MS is notable sclerosis, you can see with these green bars what is the progress, the differentiation that is perceived in the market and that we believe really sets us aside from competition with major progress in Alzheimer's disease, nascent progress in Parkinson's disease, and then, of course, that very dominant function in Huntington's disease. We always said that we were going to focus our resources on those three indications, which is also explaining why MS is sort of more of that left hand side than treated opportunistically, which is exactly according to the strategy. So what you see then with regards to pipeline is that Alzheimer's disease has now resulted into 15 pipeline opportunities, Parkinson's into six, and together that actually constitutes forty percent of the pipeline.

27:03 You may remember that Grant was mentioning the order book where we were around twenty percent for Alzheimer's, in the low single digits for Parkinson's disease. So you really start to see that ramp up. And, of course, the expectation is that we will also more successfully convert this into deals, which then will refine the future revenue, especially going into '26 as well. You can also see on this slide on the right hand side that this is by far not a dominant market share yet, except for Huntington's disease, of course, where we have more than eighty percent. So that really leaves that opportunity still to very competitively come into that market of Alzheimer's

27:38 and Parkinson's, also in some of these later stages of the clinical development cycles. Below this table, you see some of the underpinning levers which I have already been mentioning, such as the increased US footprint, new commercial resources, systems, and processes, the technology platform innovation, as mentioned before. But I think it requires repeating that we are deploying a next generation platform now with our customers. And then increased marketing and business development, which also has to do with partnering outreach as we do as a company aspire to be looking at partners for further commercial expansion. This is sort of a somewhat cartoon esque way of depicting the organization, but I thought it was important to share that with you this half because we have made a few changes at the top to also support this new emphasis, I should say, on certain areas. At the left hand side, you see some of the current existing roles, which are, of course, still very important for our company with the incumbents that have been with the company since a long time as well. Then we've got the expanded roles. I already mentioned at the beginning that I've asked Grant to step up and become the chief operating officer. For those who know our company, they will not be surprised because I think that's very much what Grant has been doing within the company, but I

29:09 think it's good to formalize that. Secondly, Robin, chief scientific officer, has also become chief medical officer. And importantly, that allows him also to hire some of these medical resources who are more sort of these more general neurology profiles that we need for what we call the lead campaign. And then very exciting as well is the chief technology officer, Mark Austin, who has been with the company for more than thirteen years as really that head engineer crafting the architecture of our platform, and I've asked him to come to the c suite and to my team so that we can much more actively work also with the external stakeholders around exploring what our platform can do, to access new revenues. And then I should say, last but not least, on the right hand side, you see these two blue boxes. Those are two new commercial executives, Terry, who I already introduced to you as the VP global commercial, and then James who James Chandra, who recently joined as chief business officer and who will have as a remit marketing, investor relations, corporate development. Again, very much also with that corporate development function there to have a much more active outreach to, external partners.

30:24 So with that in mind, I think this is sort of the final slide before we we wrap it up. So that partnering outreach, which is sort of for IXICO tomorrow, which is a little bit more of a midterm endeavor, We have actually been making progress there, which is also why James has come on board. And as you see here, there are several avenues that we have identified in which we communicated also during the capital raise where IXICO could position itself beyond that CRO space, which you see on the top right hand side. That is very much our bread and butter, I should say, today. And especially in that darker blue box, multi biomarkers, large data analysis groups, and large scale CROs, that is where we found interest and traction and where we've also seen some inbound interest coming from very large global groups to look at can we compare notes, can we look at how the TTNX platform, so IXICO's platform, can play a role in their neurology endeavors. And so I will be coming back to to this group around what this could mean, but you will see also that this is very much an objective that we're setting ourselves.

31:36 Maybe last but not least, you do also see that we keep, of course, high on the radar the increased post marketing surveillance. Again, as I mentioned, we've now seen the first diagnostic or blood based biomarker diagnostics being approved. We see therapeutics, especially in Alzheimer's, being approved. So that very much now opens that market, which we have been going after as well in terms of post marketing surveillance, which is supporting therapies that are actually on market. So to summarize, h one achievements, revenues up with 26%, which, of course, we're delighted about. But it's something that, of course, we want to continue. So stay tuned for the full year results at the end of the year, based on greater diversification of the portfolio, expanded scope with existing clients, and then this new industry vertical, especially with diagnostics adding to the pharmaceuticals and biotechs.

32:39 And so for h two, we will make sure, first and foremost, that we deliver, of course, on the promises that we've put out there in the market. But we will also work very hard on fueling that pipeline and making sure that we've got an order book which informs as much as possible already what revenues could look like so that we can start to give very clear guidance for, the next year into the market as well. And so as you see here, 75% is a minimum target that we're setting ourselves in terms of informing revenues for the future, achieve a closing order book, obviously, bigger than the prior year close. And then thirdly, as I already mentioned, I'm starting to communicate around some of these partnerships which we are actively pursuing at the moment. So with that in mind, and and this will conclude the the presentation, I did wanna reiterate what is the investment case for IXICO, what is that mission and that journey which we have embarked on. It's really around three main levers or drivers, commercial diversification, a technology leadership position, and then growth trajectory, especially in terms of revenue top line in the in the first twelve to eighteen months, and then later on also a growth or a value increase of the company.

33:58 You see some underpinning elements there. So for commercial diversification, hopefully, you have understood by now that this is very much around expanding into disease areas where we are already positioned today, especially Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, but really going after those markets and getting a somewhat more unfair share, I should say. As you see as well, this actually increases our addressable market with a factor three. Technology leadership, I think you heard Grant say quite eloquently that there is no technology deficit there. And what we mean is the investments behind the main platform have been made over the past years at the magnitude of £6,000,000 or more. So now it's really about equipping that platform with those biomarkers, with those algorithms so that we can activate it and and differentiate ourselves in the market.

34:49 And then the growth trajectory, as I mentioned, is very much around the return to growth, which obviously you are, witnessing as we speak and which, we, of course, aspire to continue and and to accelerate. So with that, that concludes, the general part of our presentation and of the results that we wanted to share and report out. Thank you very much, and I think we will have a look now at any questions that have come up in the chat. That's great. Graham, Grant, thanks very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions and you can do so just by using the q and a tab that's situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. But while the company take a few moments you, the questions have been submitted today. I'd like to remind you that recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can be accessed via your investor dashboards.

35:39 As you can see, we have received your questions throughout today's live presentation. Graham, Grant, if I could hand back to you to read the questions out and give a response to it, it's appropriate to do so. I'll pick up from you both at the end. Sounds great. Well, there's Stuart d. I hope, Grant, you don't mind if I put this question with you first. What percentage of current and future revenue do you expect to be US derived, and how are you positioning against local competitors? Yeah. So I think best way to ask that is essentially to talk about the market share. And what we see is that the majority of clinical trials in urogenetic diseases have a significant US element. And actually, as was on one of the slides, over forty percent happen in The US only.

36:33 So we know that The US is an important market for us, we also know that even those companies who are based elsewhere in the world, European companies, they often have significant decision making capabilities or units sitting in The US. So this has been part and parcel of why we've made these it's part of our strategy to invest in in the in US, or we've pointed Terry as our as our commercial lead, and while we have put in place both operational and medical liaison capabilities in that US market. So in terms of how we're positioning ourselves against US competitors, We are smaller in scale, but we have a technology platform that enables us to compete on that basis.

37:28 But we also acknowledge that it's not just about technical capability, it's also about perception. So the way that we're handling the perception is we have put operational people capabilities on the ground in The US so that US clients know that they can speak to a US person about their trials. So, essentially, we are we we have a technology to operate a clinical trial that is operating across all nations across the world. But we're also recognizing there is a need to be able to be seen to be present in The US, and so part of the investments that we could be making and we continue to make actually, to to address that. Maybe I'll chime in. And in the meantime, you can read the second question of Stuart there, which I think is for you as well. Yeah.

38:13 It says against local competitors, which obviously refers to The US. I would argue there's no such thing like local in this world of global trials. Right? So, yes, we have two competitors. They are US based. But the trials, and and Grant alluded to it, even of some of the big European companies are actually often being decided in some of The US centers, especially in Boston. So it is much more about making sure that we are being equipped to manage those global trials. It is actually something that IXICO has been doing already from the start. We've actually managed some of the biggest phase three trials in the neurodegenerative space, and and our clients know that. And and I'll come back to that actually because I see that there's a question from Richard around, how sticky are your client relationships? Actually, if you don't mind, I'll maybe answer that question now, and then we get back to, to the second question of Stuart. So how sticky are your client relationship once a clinical trial begins?

39:12 Do you typically, and I need to scroll a little bit here, do you typically remain a partner through all phases, or is there risk of replacement by in house teams or competitors? There is definitely no risk of replacing by in house teams. So we are in the business of analytics of imaging, which is not what pharma is specialized in and what is not what pharma or diagnostics want to specialize in. So this is very much a segment which has been created and which is highly specialized, and so the entry barriers are very high as well. I would also argue that our client relationships are very sticky in in sort of two ways. The first one is the one that you're describing there, which is indeed when you start on a phase one or a phase two trial, you will usually, obviously, provided that the molecule, the the therapy is successful.

40:05 We are, through our biomarkers amongst others, informing whether therapies make it to market. And as you know, unfortunately, not every drug makes it to market. But if that is the case and there is success, we usually do follow our customers indeed into their next phase, and that is also what we have been doing in the past. Having said that, of course, each phase does require sort of its new fight. Potentially, we are dealing with big pharma companies. They have their procurement processes and what have you. So we cannot rest on our laurels, but it is indeed the model for us to start early and then follow them throughout their phases. The second one is that as we work often with these big groups, they will have several programs in several diseases, and especially because we are now expanding ourselves also beyond some of these traditional disease areas that IXICO was focusing on. We have sort of a pipeline within our customer set or our current customer set, and that is very much what we're focusing on. And I'm I'm expecting and hoping to actually report out some deals that hopefully will, underpin, what I'm what I'm just mentioning here.

41:10 So with that, maybe Grant, you go to Stuart's second question. So Stuart has asked how much of the 3,700,000 capital raised in October 2024 has been deployed, and how will future cash be allocated between r and d, platform development, and commercial scale? So, yeah, the 3,700,000 we raised in in October, the cash outflow that we've seen, if you exclude that cap raise in the first six months of the year, has been 500,000. So if you like, that's the that's the the the cash flow that's gone through. In terms of resourcing, we have invested already in commercial as Brad mentioned with additional commercial resources in The US, but also in terms of of marketing and corporate development.

42:03 We've also made investments in terms of that medical piece, which I guess would be come under r and d, and the innovation in our science team to not develop the platform as such, but to enable the platform with additional and capabilities. So as we look forward, I think the best way to answer this question is operationally and what by being when I say operationally, I mean, the team that actually delivers the clinical trials that we are contracts to deliver, that is a function that that very much washes its face. So the revenues we have a positive gross margin, obviously, with 50% as a reminder in the first half of the year. So we are general so the the revenues that we are generating pay for the operational group that delivers.

42:52 We also have a general admin function, which we don't see a need to expand. It's where it needs to be. It's part of fixed cost for the business, and we we're not looking to so the investments we're making are in innovation lead scale. Innovation being r and d, new analytical pipelines that we can deploy on the platform that we've already developed and is deployed. Technology, which is where as we look to leverage some of the technology with the technology platform we already have and partner with with other organizations, that's where investment will come from that. And then the commercial piece, is really around lead and scale. So this is about making a communication to the market of why the innovation we are delivering makes a difference to Charles, why it differentiates our differentiates us as a supplier, and actually getting that message out to both the clients and the wider scientific market out out there. So that's that's the plan for the investment.

43:57 And then I think the final question at the moment for us is from David. What internal KPIs are most important to management when assessing the success of your innovate lead scale strategy? It's an interesting question. We're actually trying to be as transparent as possible with our investor base on some of the KPIs that we use internally as well. I think sort of the the proof is in the eating of the pudding. Right? So it is very much order book mix, pipeline mix, and some of the financials around the diversification of the deals that we see. So those are very much, I would say, the lagging indicators that we're looking at also on a monthly or even on a weekly basis internally. But we do indeed have some leading indicators which are much more around some of the things that we showed as well, which is is innovation coming, or is it being productized, and is it coming on platform, as was specified and according to timeline? So I think especially at the moment because we did this capital raising, we are indeed such a cash rich company now. It is about making sure that we are investing and that we are actually putting it where we said we were going to put it. So it is a lot about making sure that progress is being made on the road map, both technology and science, that resources are being brought on board, which also means human resources and people, which is why today I wanted to introduce some of these people to you. This is obviously not something that we will continue to do. We've made some very deliberate hires and are happy to to welcome these people now.

45:25 And then, the other KPI is very much around partnerships as I already mentioned, and this is something that I have not been highlighting very much here yet. But we're very much looking at, do we understand the ecosystem fully? Do we understand also where there are new opportunities in that ecosystem? And so we've been making some efforts there in better understanding our market, and I'll be very happy to share that also in the future, with this audience. So, hopefully, that, that answers that question. And I think unless anything else comes up on the screen here, that also concludes the q and a for today. Yeah. That's right, Graham. Grant, thanks very much for answering those questions from investors. And of course, the company can view all the questions submitted today, we will publish responses on the investor meet company platform.

46:12 Just before redirecting investors, provide you their feedback, which I is particularly important to you both, Graham, could I just ask you for a few closing comments? Absolutely. So thank you very much again for spending the time with us today. Hopefully, we've been very clear on why we were so successful in h one and delivered that 26% revenue increase. Hopefully, we've also been very clear on aspiring to continue or exceed that guidance that we've put out there, and so finishing 25 on a high. But I think more importantly and probably more interestingly as well, building a company which is fit for a purpose in the future as well, and that has to do with that order book filling and underpinning that with novel innovation, especially in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. So with that, I would say stay tuned. We are very confident.

47:03 And obviously, we will, report that out, later in this year as well. So thank you very much. Graham and Grant, thank you once again for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close this session? As you know, we automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but some should be greatly valued by the company. Part of the management in IXICO PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.