Poolbeg Pharma (LSE:POLB) — Investor Presentation

0:00 Good afternoon, and welcome to the POLBEG PHARMA PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded meeting, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. It could be submitted at any time by the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Simply click on Q and A, type in your question, 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 publish responses where appropriate to do so. I'd now like to hand you over to Kyle Farrell, chairman. Good afternoon, sir.

0:27 Paul, thank you very much, and I'd like to thank everybody. This is a vast number of people coming on tonight to hear the update, and my colleague Jeremy is here. He's in London. I'm here in London. So we're Dublin. Yep. Getting us both from Dublin and London. Look. I think, people were waiting for this update. We didn't want to rush it out last Friday or Monday or Tuesday, though we wait till Wednesday. There's a bit of an irony where we waited today. Today is the day. We were supposed to announce the the completion and the binding, the signing of the merger agreement and the 2.7 announcement and the irony finally that didn't happen. So we thought we'd coincide it to have her update today today that today the deal didn't happen. But look, what I would like to say, I know people are asking what the hell went wrong, what was that all about, why the share price collapsed, everything. So look, we're here tonight to answer all the questions.

1:17 I think we've got a really good news for you tonight in regards to the prospects of the company. So let let me take you through the next five, ten, fifteen minutes. How we got here today is probably the best way. And why as the largest shareholder, I've written checks for over a million and a half, single largest investor in the IPO, and I increased my stake last year when I stepped up to work closely with Germany team as executive chairman. So I think you'll probably see my demeanor. I'm not I'm the one that should be depressed. I'm the one should have my wife kick in my round of list for what happened to share price, but I'm not. I'm actually believe it or not, as a result of the HOOKUPIT transaction, I'm even more energized and more excited, and I have more even more faith. I've always had faith in POLBEG, but even more faith in it. And here's I'm gonna tell you the story why.

2:06 First of all, let's go to brass tacks. We were very positive about the HOOKUP deal. It was an exciting it was an interesting deal. And per announcement last Thursday, being frank, we were surprised and we were disappointed. We got, bloody well no notice. We got a we were working up and said to close the deal or whether we say close it to get the 2.7 announcement we were scheduling for the day. That means the signing of the binding and merger agreement. And on the back of that, we we we had to announce a certain level of commitments in the funding. We had that as well. So everything was good. We got twenty minutes and that was it. The warning POLB deal's over. We honestly don't know. I'm sure the other side, hook up and have their reasons. However, day one, we were warned by our adviser in New York that be careful, guys.

2:53 There's two very large shareholders. Gilead have 19.9, and Baker Brothers have 35. So in that scenario, one never knows what might happen is all I can say. And therefore, we structured the deal, that they were the bidders, and we were the recipient of the bid even though it was gonna be a reverse takeover that in on completion of the deal. POLBEG, you, myself, Jeremy, and everybody else with a 55% of the large company, and the hookup of folks with a 45. We would have four board seats, they would have three. So it was very much our deal. We would have been in control, but we did structure it that they would take us over. And for the simple reason, avoid board costs Because on their side, they had a squadron of lawyers, a squadron of advisers, working up documents, so they had to draft all the documents and send them to us and we had to review them.

3:47 So all we can reassure everybody, the majority of the board costs are on their side. The the the actual board costs are minimal. So I know a lot of people are concerned, oh, did you rack up a big bill? No. The bills on our side are insignificant. We do have or we do we definitely still have an in house lawyer, and he would have worked carefully with Jeremy, myself, Ian, the team. So we didn't like everything in POOLBEG, we did most of the deal in house. We didn't hire a squadron of lawyers because we had one in house. We yes. We got a small but external legal help on it. But so all the costs were really our time inside. So I can reassure people there's been no significant damage of that very large cash sum of money that everybody knows we have on our balance sheet that stretches back to original IPO.

4:40 So that's all I'd like to do. I wanna reassure them. I would say it's probably was a a very hard four months for all of us on the deal. I said there's a squadron of lawyers, a squadron of advisers, I've always said I I started young I started working at 16. Last year was I was 60. It's my forty fourth year working. I'm being honest with you folks, Last four months is probably the hardest four months I've ever worked in my bloody life in forty four years. So I will reassure people listening. It was bloody hard work. I don't regret a minute of it, those last four months, because, it meant we didn't mess up. We didn't listen in. We did everything we wanted to do. And for some reason, it's up to the other side. They decide not to go ahead. I think we have our own views in that, which we we probably better keep to ourselves for the moment. However, the exciting part of that entire process is that during the process, and this was up on our website, that Oppenheimer were arranging a roadshow of which we basically had to manage and run, and they set up meetings with a vast range of North American biotech investors.

5:48 Very, very reputable ones, people who do nothing, multi multi billion funds, and they would know this industry really well, way better than any of us know. And the interesting thing is we would have presented the the combined HOOKUPPA, POLBEG team, and in virtually every one of those meetings, the investors came, hey, we wanna see the zero zero one product, and the meeting revolved around them. And every one of them, the investors said, well, your POOLBEG zero zero one product is way more exciting, way more valuable than anything in HOOKUPAC. So that was quite ironic quite ironic that the feeling was that we had a more valuable asset, we're more we always knew, and I reassure people, that zero zero one was very valuable. But this was amazing and interesting validation by large pharma companies, but really by large specialist biotech investors in North America who to the ones that, well, do you know that product could literally double the bispecific market, which is currently a 5 or $10,000,000,000 market? That product could double the CAR T market.

6:55 And why do they say that? Well, let let me tell you what came to this conclusion. They said currently, bispecifics and most of these cancer treatments in CAR T, have a very severe, CAR T or CRS response. And as such, the administration of those oncology cancer treatments has to be in a very expensive specialist cancer center to manage the patient when they're because the CRS response can be up to 20 of the individuals have got very major reaction. However, if one, if we run the trial that we're envisaging, hopefully for this summer, can show efficacy, that means anybody on some of these cancer treatments, particularly by specific CAR T and a range of them, if they take the product R001 prophylactic is an oral pill, a week or ten days in advance of their treatment, that means the physician administering the oncology treatment knows there's not going be a CRS issue and therefore the patient can be treated in the community hospital and even potentially by the local district nurse in their home.

8:00 That is how you double the market and that means the rate limiting for many oncology treatments, particularly bispecific, is the unit can give the treatment in the specialist center. There's a limit up by the beds, the specialist centers are far away from the home of the individual, so that certainly an individual with a severe, cancer issue can have their treatment in the community and that delivery vastly, vastly more people can avail. There's never been a product with supply of these treatments that bispecific CAR Ts, rate limiting, and Jeremy's going take you through insurance, has always been the venue, the number of beds available to administer the therapy therapy Mhmm. In those centers. So that's exciting. But furthermore, many of these, investors who know us, say they're specialists biotech and that really, really like the the LPS challenge study we did, and they said that proved efficacy.

8:55 However, they made it very clear, we need to prove the drug works in humans, and that's the key cause. She tested in humans with the car with the the CAR T, but more important, the bispecific drug. And they've said, wow, folks, if you can just run a very small low cost trial this summer, this autumn, and prove your drug that you actually give it to real world patients. So you will remember our our bispecific, trial we did over a year ago did prove its accuracy, but that did not involve with the treatment. So the plan at the moment that we've come up with is that if we run the zero zero one with a bispecific,

9:35 or a Karuda product, and there's no adverse reaction, well, suddenly, it's an an absolute game changer for POOLBEG, a game changer for zero zero one, but a game changer for anybody delivering bispecifics, suddenly the market doubles or triples. So that's where we're going. The plan would be that trial would be a relatively low cost trial. Jeremy's gonna bring you through the trial design. Definitely substantially below $4,000,000. So I don't want people to think, wow. What's suddenly a big expense? It's not. The most expensive part of that trial will be the product. The bispecifics can be $2.03, $400,000 per patient. So that for the trial, it could be in the region of $10,000,000. We already know there's a number of pharma companies, and it was up in our deck that that we're pretty certain that we'll supply the products. Imagine the reason we'll supply the product is we can improve taking our product in combination with our therapy. There's no CRS reaction. So it actually and there's a view in some world that it could actually improve improve the therapeutic phase as well, but that's new research. Yeah.

10:41 So that's kind of where we're going. I'm looking forward to Jeremy that's gonna talk you through in a few minutes how that trial will work. Furthermore, that other people looked and said, wow. You guys have a GLP one oral. That's another asset that we know we've talked about. That trial is kicking off this summer. And, again, in humans testing oral GLP one, we all the whole world knows this. Even Musk is injecting himself in the tummy for his GLP one, which is the obesity treatment. Nobody has a working oral one. We're not gonna be expanding again the POOLBEG model. We just want to prove proof of concept that it works in an oral treatment, and our plan then is to hand it over to the Lapardi to take it from there and monetize that point in time. So look, what I would say, there is a lot of questions that you see, and there's actually even questions coming in as I'm speaking.

11:33 So what I might try and do is Jeremy will bring you through and talk you in more detail of this zero zero one trial. Of course, it is not guaranteed. We we're we're looking at funding options as we speak. Our expectations, we'd hope a large pharma would be part of the funding option. We know the large pharma will provide the product, which is the biggest part of the trial, but we we're very excited we can do with this. This is actually proving zero zero one works alongside one of these, cancer treatments, and that'd be really exciting. So I'll let Jeremy talk you through that, and then we'll quickly get back to questions. It's about 10 or 15 pre submitted questions. There's a lot of the similar questions that we try and bring people through them. We don't want to dwell too long, but we will wrap up within forty, forty five minutes if that's okay. So, Jeremy, over to you. Thanks. Thank you, Carl, and thank you everyone for joining us this evening. I just wanna start by acknowledging the the POOLBEG team. I you know, from the inside, I've seen how hard, you know, that Kyle and Ian and John and David worked and and the broader team over the last four months. Tremendous amount of effort. As Kyle said, we were surprised, disappointed last Thursday, but there was a lot of learnings to these kind of experiences, and, yeah, yeah, we'll take that and move on. So what I plan to do tonight is kind of, I guess, reorientate a lot of the kind of investors to what would be now our two main programs and where we were, where we came from, and, of course, where we're going. So I'll spend maybe ten or twelve minutes or so going through the, a bit of a slide deck, again, as I say, just to kinda remind as you're going. So the focus, as

13:04 as Kyle has outlined, is in cytokine release syndrome, and this is, where your immune system is, overreacting to to a to a threat or to an event. And where we're focused on now is these cancer immunotherapies who, from an efficacy standpoint, do terrific work. They basically, you know, redirect your immune system to go after a tumor. You know, typically, they go after, say, bacteria or viruses, but to go after the tumor themselves. And what happens as a side effect, you have the cytokine storm, cytokine release syndrome, which is, you know, for one of a better expression, a headache, not just for the patients, of course. They they have, severe side effects, but for the health care system because it really kinda clogs up that health care system. So we believe we've got an oral, a prophylactic solution for this, which really has drawn the attention of pharma companies. So we see this as a you know, from a, you know, an you know, a prophylaxis standpoint, a market opportunity that we've we've done independent analysis is greater than $10,000,000,000. And, of course, that grabbed our attention when we were, you know, pivoting in that direction. And I guess the basis of this is that this new generation of cancer immunotherapies, these CAR T therapies, these bispecific antibody therapies that trigger the immune system, over seventy percent of these patients experience cytokine release syndrome, which is a challenge.

14:14 Was an issue, as I say, for the patients, but for the health care system to, you know, basically, they have to, you know, deal with these patients as they crash into this cytokine storm. Up to now, there's no approved therapies, you know, for prevention. What they do, they react. If a cytokine storm develops, they give them tocilizumab. This is an antibody against a cytokine called interleukin six, which will become relevant later on. But, they have run trials to give that prophylactically. But what I heard firsthand early this week was just it's just too expensive. It's an antibody. And to give an antibody to everybody, you know, as a prophylactic is too expensive, and the insurance won't pay for that. The docs don't wanna give that because it just is a financial drain on the system. So, ideally, what they're looking for is a small molecule pill, something like POLB zero zero one. So I think we're in a very exciting market here. Again, as a reminder, POLB zero zero one, we're targeting p thirty eight MAP kinase. It's a small molecule orally delivered. So it does prevent this extra excessive inflammation, but without affecting the immunosuppression, without, you know, again, where patients might be at risk of getting an infection post, post delivery of the drugs. We don't see that. We've been building a patent portfolio again focusing in on on CRS and and also looking for this orphan drug designation. And I won't go into details here, but that helps us kinda get to you know, kind of market exclusivity and even, you know, potentially fast track to get reviewed. So, again, we built a really nice dataset both preclinically, which again, I'll share some data later on in the CRS space, but also clinically. You know, we've been in over 90 patients, healthy volunteers typically, for the phase one study initially with POLB

15:45 zero zero one to get safe and, well tolerated. And then more recently, you know, alluded to was the LPS challenge study where we gave them a bacterial fragment to trigger their immune inflammatory response and saw terrific data. And, again, I'll just share one slide on that. So, this builds us nicely to, to to move forward into the CRS space. And as I say, looking at, you know, broader range of cytokines and inhibiting cytokines, as I say, interleukin six is a key one that I I'll touch upon later on. I think what's worth mentioning is, you know, POOLBEG when we spun out of HVO back in 2021. We we were at the outset because of our origins. We were focused in on severe influenza. We knew that POD zero zero one could play a potential role in the cytokine storm associated with severe influenza. But as I say, we did this strategic analysis looking at other potential acute inflammatory conditions where, your POLB zero zero one could play a role, and that's where we, you know, came across the cytokine storm, cytokine release syndrome associated with cancer immunotherapies.

16:43 Again, we were rapid to you know, file patents on that in 2023, generate data that, again, will kind of, you know, make these patents more robust. And I said we presented that that in 2024 at ASH conference in you know, in in San Diego, sorry, in both 2023 and 2024 on the data we've been generated and really turned heads, really turned heads on the pharma companies who are developing these terrific bispecific antibodies who are having, you know, very good efficacy, but the side effects is what challenged them. So they saw and then, you know, what we were doing and are very, very interested. So as I say, we've got a nice dataset here now, a nice market opportunity, great endorsement from key opinion leaders about the approach that we're taking. I'd say, ready now. We're phase two ready and keen to get this in the clinic. And by the clinic, mean inpatients, in multiple myeloma patients, where, again, the feedback we've gotten from the roadshow is that give us data in, you know, in these multiple myeloma patients and then the world's your oyster if it comes back positive. So we're keen to move forward in that, very rapidly.

17:38 As many of you know, I'm a scientist by training. I can't help myself at times sharing data slides, but, I'll be brief on this one in particular. So this is, again, a validation model where we, generated cytokine storm in a humanized mouse model. And what that means is we kinda remove the mouse immune system, give them human cells so they'll react, like, like a human scenario as best you can. So what we did is, then introduced a tumor into, into this mice and triggered the cytokine storm by giving it a c d 28 antibody. And that, again, as they activates the immune system. And what we wanted to do was to test three different doses of POLB zero zero one. So, do you have the low is light blue, medium is dark blue, and then green is the high level. And that was compared to no, no CRS, which is red, which sorry. No treatment, which is red, and then an anti TNF antibody adalimumab, which is in gray. And what we see here across the board is on the left hand side, see the CRS levels go up across the the study as expected with no treatment. You see the red line is quite, quite high.

18:42 And in that second graph here, study day 10, you can see the highest dose in green here of POLB zero zero one is doing a really nice job of suppressing that cytokine storm, so cytokine release syndrome. And when you look at the various cytokines we looked at here, interleukin six I mentioned, which is, say, the antibody is given to treat CRS, that your levels are quite low in the high doses of POLB zero zero one. And similarly interleukin eight, of course, TNF as well. That's a TNF necrosis factor is a is a key driver of of many other cytokines. So we were really happy with this data. We presented it last year. I was at, you know, the the the stand presented the poster. A lot of interest, which was terrific. And, of course, we use this data then to to build out our patent portfolio. So very encouraged with that. I won't dwell on this too long because, you did, we did present this previously. But I think what's important is, again, reiterating the human data we've generated, this LPS challenge study. Again, here, we're seeing significant reductions into in TNF alpha in the medium and high dose. And, again, this is where the immune system is triggered by this bacterial fragment LPS.

19:46 And, again, importantly, we're seeing dramatic reductions in the levels of diluvan six. Again, this important cytokine that, you know, the the physicians right now, you you know, use the antibody to to reduce. So we're seeing reductions across the board in these cytokines. So, again, very exciting data that that, again, we've presented to you previously. But where we're going next, I think, is is what's really exciting. And this is work that was going on in in parallel to the the discussions. So as said, we weren't slowing down. Like, the the company didn't grind to a halt in that. So we were looking at this in parallel, building out what a phase two a clinical trial looks like. And, again, this is from feedback from the field as it were. We wanted to get this drug into these relapsed refractory multiple myeloma patients. We wanted to give them a bispecific antibody that they normally get, this kind of standard of care. But what we wanna do is give POV zero zero one to these patients before they get bispecific.

20:37 So, again, us keeping their immune system somewhat in check so that they don't get that cytokine storm. But, of course, the bispecific does the job of what it's supposed to do, which is bringing T cells closer to the tumor, and then the T cells eradicate the tumor. So we have this trial designed. We've discussed at length with key opinion leaders. The study is adopted by the the UKM myeloma research alliance. Again, they see the approach. They want to to see this done. We have a host of key opinion leaders, Martin Kaiser. Many of you have have seen Martin present before on the work. He's, he's at the Royal Mars, and they're they're head of, multiple myeloma there, and, Garrett Morgan in The US. But we've got a number of UK clinical trial sites that are ready to go, as I say, where we'll give our drug. It'll be a single arm study. We're looking between thirty and forty patients, and we just wanna give a single dose level. And, what we're looking at on the right hand side here is the instance of what's called grade two CRS. And this is where the pair you know, the patients are progressing and they need some kind of anti inflammatories to address the the the CRS at developing.

21:37 And, again, we look at all grades. We wanna confirm the safety and pharmacokinetics and other biomarkers, which I won't go into detail here. So I say we've got a nice clinical trial design that we can run very effectively, and, of course, it's very cost effectively with the number of trial sites that that we've selected. And, again, as I say, focusing on the on The UK. And this is what the you know, as I say, the both the investor feedback, but also the pharma companies that we're speaking to would like to see this data before they, as they make their huge, you know, decisions about, you know, whether it is acquiring a program to bring into their own pipeline. I think, you know and, Kotlin mentioned the bispecific antibody, you know, component of that clinical trial. Thankfully, we have two pharma companies that are ready and willing to give us the the advice of the grant, but it's a test, you know, try and reduce the the CRS that they are experiencing themselves with the drugs that they have. So we're very encouraged by that. Here is the kind of, I think, the overall market issue, the patient issue. We did a full analysis, of the the marketplace.

22:36 We looked specifically at, multiple myeloma and diffuse large b cell lymphoma only. And what that does, that's about five hundred thousand patients. But what the challenge is, if you give them CAR T or bispecific, they have to take these drugs in these specialist cancer centers. And what that does, they take up beds. Because of the risk of CRS, they gotta stay in their beds for one week or two weeks to see if it develops. And if it doesn't, then they go home. If it does, at least they're in the right building to get the treatments they require. So what we wanna do, the CRS is a bottleneck where we can't get the drug, the bispecific antibodies, to enough patients rapidly, quickly. So if we can remove that bottleneck using POLB zero zero one, then it effectively opens up the market where the all of these patients can get drug quicker than what they would have done because of, you know, say, with this CRS issue. Again, we see this as a $10,000,000,000 opportunity when we, when we model out, the cost of drug, etcetera. So very excited with that. Down the bottom, I won't go into into detail on these quotes we've mentioned before, but Martin Kaiser, in particular, I think it's, short and sweet. But if there's a therapy that was orally delivered, I think that's key.

23:40 And, obviously, a whole lot of the infrastructure requirement falls away. And he knows that these patients can take the drug at home, and then they can come into the clinic, and then they go back home. Sort of frees up beds for these patients. So he's excited about the potential of this, and I'd say

23:52 he's been very active in the in helping us kinda move this forward. So that's on the POLBEGPHARMA One side, I do wanna dwell a little bit. I mean, it's been a a crazy, you know, four, six, twelve months in the world of of GLPs. It really has progressed. You know, Lilly's market cap has has has exploded because of their programs. But what we're looking at here is a market on the left hand side here of a 150,000,000,000 of GLP one agonist projected by 2031. It's a huge market. Now the majority of these are given by injection. There's one sole therapy on the market that's given orally, but it's got a 1% bioavailability. So you gotta get a lot of drug on board, know, for it to be to be effective. That costs a lot of money. But as I say, the the obesity epidemic, as they're calling it, has almost $350,000,000,000 impact on the, on The US economy. And as I say, the, you know, these numbers are quite staggering at forty two percent of The US population are effectively categorized as obese. So we feel that if we can kind of progress and move forward and orally delivered to an orally encapsulated GLP one receptor agonist, you're gonna create some market space for yourself. I say, take some of this $150,000,000,000 market that's there. We have spoken before. We've partnered with colleagues, Anabio.

25:03 They're, based down just outside Cork. They've got a large, you know, state of the art manufacturing facility, FDA accredited. And they've essentially kinda generated that kind of proof of concept where they're commercializing these fragile bioactives, be it vitamins, etcetera, the food science sector. So now they're applying their validated technology into the pharmaceutical sector, and as they're moving forward with the with the clinical trials that, that we've got planned as a as a proof of concept. And similar to POLB zero zero one, as I we don't intend, you know, to move that, forward into deeper clinical trials that where pharma steps in. So as I said, the trial, we begin later this year, but we should have the expected top line data in the first half of next year, which will essentially tell us if the drug is getting on board and if it's having effect on key biomarkers, in this case, it's glucose tolerance. So we know that the drug is surviving through the stomach and getting into systemic circulation and then having the necessary effects. So very excited to see the data come out of that.

25:56 So that's the snapshot of the company. As I say, we do wanna leave, you know, plenty of time for for questions because, as I said, given the events of the last week or so, you know, we know that a lot of the investors, you know, have questions for us. So, again, happy to address those. And, Kyle, I'll I'll hand it back to you to to take the lead, and I'm happy to address any questions, specifically for me. Jeremy, thanks very much for that. Yeah. Look. There's quite a few pre submitted questions we're gonna work our way through, and also quite a few have now come in. So, look, we're here to answer questions. We're not gonna hide. So happy to answer them. But quite a few here just coming in about the share price and what's going on and what's taking along for a deal, all that. So may look. Maybe what I might say, I'm not being defensive, all I would say is that, look, this is my third, public company I've led. AMRED PHARMA went from $50,000,000 at IPO to 1,480,000,000.

26:50 I was the cofounder with Joe Wiley. So and people who hung in there made six, seven times their money, so that was pretty okay in six years. I would also point out we IPO'd, Open Orphan in June 2019 at five p. Even at its depressed price today, that's still three x's, 300 x last four years. We all know it was much higher, 28. I thought '28, 29 p was a a pretty good price to sell out to institutions, and I made it very clear that was where I exited. Two tranches last year, I didn't try and be underhanded by keeping a small stake. So I think if people reflect, I know people are upset with the share price. We are paying ourselves. I'm probably one of the cheaper, executive chairman's in the entire market. I don't pay myself a big salary. So I just think when when people say, look, I know people are upset with the share price. All I'd say was, look, give us a bit of a break as well.

27:45 If you don't like what we're doing, I'd always say, you you can sell the shares. But I think my view at the moment is this is the third company in this space, in the life science, and all I'm saying and a lot of the question and answer is that we remain very excited. There is no company IPO'd and raised money in 2021 that still has a substantial portion of its cash. I said there is our annual account is coming up the relatively near future. Let me say, can't say exactly when, but it's coming soon. And you'll see there is a large chunk of cash. So we want people thinking we'll run out of cash. We're not. And that's not but I'm what I wanna get ethos across is that you you get invest in these companies. We do believe and we do see upside, substantial upside in where the sharp price is at the moment. We do believe we've good products. I see a lot of the questions here, and then I'll summarize it, Quinn. Why is it taking so long for the zero zero one?

28:42 Why no deal after three years? Well, we're only IPO'd, three, three and a half years. We got up and running. It was a spin out of H. Vivo. It was a virtual company. And what I would say in zero zero one, if you go back, it was originally an influenza product, and influenza would have been interesting. Yes. We could have got a a certain price for that. However, we have Jeremy and the team and Lame and Brandon and everybody else has developed very substantial IP, have done a challenge study, and have proven that zero zero one is not alone in this little niche called flu. It's not a cancer treatment, and it's applicable to a vast range of cancers. So what I would say to people, given a hard time in the questions here, is that, yeah, it's taken a while. But I do say there's not a single company who raised money on IPO in 2021 or 2022 that has not that has that has managed to maintain the cash that we have. It hasn't been burned through in wages. It most of the cash has gone into doing trials, developing the products, and the very fact that I'm saying is that some of the largest biotech investors in America felt it was a lot more valuable more valuable in POOLBEG, particularly in zero zero one, than Hookupa.

29:54 Bear in mind, HOOKUPBER raised 400,000,000, dollars in the last four years, and their share price went down 99.97. It had started at at a billion, and we were talking 22,000,000. So I'm not saying our share price is going down any further, but all I would say that the theory tonight is we're here to ask questions. We're here to address the market. We're here to reassure investors that we have substantial cash reserves and point out that we're very more excited than ever, that zero zero one has a very interesting future and that we need to show efficacy alongside one of these cancer treatments this summer, this autumn. And at that point in time, it it works. And if it works, it's kinda game over for the product. That's the point of reflection of what we do with it. So maybe that kinda hopefully summarizes.

30:46 So I say all that was a bare weather is the product has evolved from flu, which would have been a nice product. But the upside where we are, we're looking at something substantially better. And I would emphasize that, I know people are giving out we many companies IPO ed in 2021, and many of them have gone. They've disappeared. We believe we're in that with our strong fighting chance to create a final, and really into success. And you won't see me start another, life science company until we get this one through. And it was the same with Amrit, and and it's the same with OpenOffen. So one primary life science. And I mean, in a quasi full time role closely with Jeremy and the rest of the team as executive chairman to turn and help and guide everybody forward.

31:31 So next questions. Let me see. Taking it from the top. Look. I think I've, most of these ones have come in. I've actually just run through them by my high level, but let me just take three for more detail. The next one that came in, why did HOOKUP have pulled out of the deal, and have they left the door open? Yeah. We said we're surprised and disappointed. I'm not sure, being honest with you. I have my own views, and I think I hinted it earlier around two large shareholders, but the the interesting one was everybody we roadshowed to, including some of the biggest, most prominent, life science investor in North America, clearly agreed with us the value isn't here as well. And I'd be curious strongly, folks. If you just do that trial this summer in autumn, you're gonna have something that's of immense value. So I would be saying on that, as I said earlier, with hindsight, we were giving away 45% of the company to hook up it. We've we've we get to keep all of the upside.

32:27 We've got to deliver it subconscious. Do management believe that many mistakes with regards to hookup potential deal

32:34 that and has resulted in depressed share price? It was a bit ironic when we announced the deal, and it's sometimes running small public companies, you can't win. We announced the deal. People didn't like the deal, the share price collapsed. And then last week, when we announced the deal was off, the share price falls again. So, like, folks, like, it's I know it's a very skittish and it's a very tricky market, but I'm being serious with that. You know, it's the deal people don't like. The share price goes down. And then a couple of months later, the deal's off, and the share price one would expect to pop back up because we're a relatively cash rich company. It still goes down. But to answer the question in all serious, did we make mistakes? No. I don't think so. Looking back, we have no regrets. The big regrets that we didn't work hard enough, I think I made it very clear in Jeremy with her, it was a hard, grueling four months for everybody involved.

33:22 The positivity. So I don't think there was any mistakes. Yes. We could have made big mistakes. We could have had had a squadron of lawyers and financial advisers run up fortune and fees. We didn't. It's insignificant, I'd say. We have one in house lawyer, and Ian, myself in Germany, everybody else did all the work internally. And so we basically made use of our own time, and I say, everybody, we got Christmas Day off. There was calls on Christmas Eve. There was calls on New Year's Eve. There was calls on New Year's Day. So it's the first time in my life I've worked the entire Christmas, bar Christmas day, and the entire New Year's period. So I don't think there's any regrets in our side. There's looking back, no mistakes. But the positive side is we've always known zero zero one, but now we have a trial, a very low cost trial that we would hope and plan on running, later this year as soon as we can find a solution to funding it. And I'd say it's a subforming in trial, so it's not a particularly expensive trial.

34:22 Just looking at the next one. How do management intend to restore confidence and boost the share price? Yeah. But the share price is where it is. I think we have to prove to people we can get that trial going and that we have a funding solution for it. And then I'm absolutely convinced once that trial's underway and particularly the inter international

34:40 media, international investing, wow. This is a product that virtually every so many oncology products in the world needs because it stops that adverse reaction. So I would say and tonight, we didn't wanna go rush out panic in Friday or Monday Tuesday that we went tonight, and this is the the starting of restoring confidence. We're fully aware the share price did drop. There was a problem during the period once you announced the deal in the January 2. We're subject to The UK takeover rules, are, being honest, we are quite strict. So the amount of times we could speak, say, do anything were virtually zero. When you're subject to takeover, the managing team literally have to go into silence mode, and there are very, very strict rules around that. So unfortunately, while that bid was there, we were literally muzzled.

35:26 So we're starting it. Question, the share price experienced significant decline of 70% over the past six months. This dramatic fall is disheartening and raises concerns of the company's overall financial health and strategic direction. Can you please provide an update on the current situation, specifically providing time scales, key catalysts that we expect to influence the share price recovery? When is the company planning to achieve the target share price previously indicated? Yeah. Look, I think tonight, Jeremy went through in quite a lot of detail, what the plans are. That trial design, looking shorter clearly, we have the GLP one trial kicking off. So we we're quite unique for a small biotech company listed in London to have two very significant trials, one starting and one hopefully about to start.

36:12 So I think there's a lot of catalysts coming down the track there. So I think and yeah. So I I think Jeremy made that clear. Mhmm. What is the financial position of POOLBEG? I think we made it clear tonight. I think that was the one of the big key reasons we were coming on tonight to update people that we've only we only spent a modest amount of money, a very modest, like, very small amount of money on the BART cost is tiny compared to the bidder. The bidder incurred a very, very substantial revenue, very substantial cost. And our model as well, separately from the bid, is always to do everything in house, and that's what we did. As such, our financial position is not impacted. I think most

36:56 people know we're in a very strong financial position and we feel comfortable where we are. We've always followed as well a very disciplined capital allocation policy, and we always pay very, very modest to low salaries. We've made the money that we raised in 2021 go a long way, generating strong data and IP around our products. And we'll certainly update the market when we announce the financial results in the very near future. Next question. What clinical work is being carried out at present on our product zero zero one, and why for many months have we heard nothing regarding this work? Because I think, look, Jeremy's made that clear. Yeah. There's a lot of work. Is that that right, Jeremy?

37:37 Yeah. There's a lot of work a lot of work has been done. I kind of outlined some of it, but as Colin said, one of the frustrating things and we're used to, you know, frequently engaging with with our investors on the work we're doing. But because of this kind of hookup of process, we did have this kind of stay quiet on certain things. But then, know, as I say, we weren't sitting on our hands. There's a lot of work going on in background. So I think for the POLBEG here, one, you know, I see this as, you know, as I say, the next step is not too far away. We're we're kind of in discussions with with the pharma companies. We've got the trial designed and endorsed. As I said, I think we'll get some, you know, quite interesting data from that. It's all kinda you know, will be statistically relevant. You know, reduction of that, you know, CRS grade two is a key, was key keenly attractive to pharma companies. So if we can demonstrate that, I think that's as I say, the feedback we've got over the last several months was that getting it data in patients that really is that inflection point. As Colin said, like, it's it won't take too long to get that. I always reiterate that these studies that we run, yes, it's in cancer patients, but we're not measuring the kind of cancer regression. We're just measuring that measuring that immune or inflammatory response in, you know, in response to the drug that they're given the bispecific antibodies. So these are relatively short clinical trials. So, yeah, as I say, we should have that top line data readout in 2026.

38:49 So I think it's not too far away. So, yeah, plenty of inflection points. But I said there's a lot of work around the background that we couldn't speak about because of the the hookup of process.

39:00 Next question. Are Gilead interested in any of the products?

39:03 And if so, why can we not sign a deal with Gilead? Think, look, being perfectly honest, I can't really comment in any way Gilead. They were the second largest shareholder in. We can't comment what they may or may not do. They did see what we have, and I think they were certainly impressed as were everybody else. So, look, I I think the least we say about Gilead for the moment is the best. Sure. I will add, yeah, will add, Cochel, that Gilead do have you know, they did acquire a company, Kite, who have CAR T programs. So they know the CAR T CRS is an issue, particularly with with CAR T. So they're aware of kind of what we're doing, what our efforts are. But, again, having that data in, in multiple myeloma patients, that's that's the trigger point where that would, you know, generate significant interest. And I'm not saying Gilead in particular.

39:53 I'm just saying all pharma companies, but, certainly, it would be in, Gilead's interest to, to talk to us with that clinical, that multiple myeloma clinical data in hand. Thanks, Jeremy. Next question. I think we're done to probably our last couple of questions here at the moment. Let me see. Is there an active plan b? Is there serious interest in PO zero zero one that's been expressed given management and the belief the deal is close, is close with the other party? Yeah. Look. Our take is absolutely a deal could be done on zero zero one. However, our belief is there's a vastly bigger value creation if we run this various low cost, modest trial testing zero zero one with a product. I think people have to bear in mind, the reason we all and I'm a rave the prolific investor, other small cap companies.

40:46 The reason we all invest in AIM companies is not to get 10%, but I don't 20%, but we invest to get three or four or five x. That has always been if you want 10%, buy Pfizer, GSK, buy even Gilead. That that is where you'll get that sort of they do go down from time to time, but they don't go up double or triple or quadruple. So we all invest in them. That's why I invest in POOLBEG is not to get 10 or 20%. It's just so our belief at the moment is that we can deliver a serious result. And all I'm trying say to people, I know people upset with the share prices. This is my third outing. Jeremy's last company, In FlumZone, people made 10 extra money. It was a private company, so public didn't get a chance. It was private equity backed, so people didn't get a chance. You buy these companies.

41:32 All I'm trying to say is I know people are upset. As bear with us, I think the proof will be in the pudding over the next six, nine, ten months. If this product works, it's a complete game changer, and we get to share the whole upside. I think the mistake we might have made if Hookup had done the deal with us, and, hypothetically, we run this trial this summer autumn time, and suddenly, it's a bonanza, and the hookup folks walk off or run away with half the upside. So that that's what I'd say in that regards. Just looking at some of the other questions. I think Lots of we've answered quite a few. Look. There's quite a few here. Is there still plans to list in The USA? Yeah. Look. The USA would be nice to have.

42:19 We came pretty close with. Sometimes when you it's an old saying, be careful what you wish for. Being on NASDAQ can be massively expensive. We we had a close shave. We didn't incorporate costs. So I think we we don't rule anything out, But my belief at the moment is where we have POOLBEG and where we have the two trials lining up, we don't have rush going anywhere. Let's deliver the results in those. Another question here is probably one of the final ones towards Jeremy. What I think, Jeremy, maybe you've already done this, but what are the near term plans? Can you confirm the pipeline table Yeah. Phase two? So maybe I'll hand that one back to you, Jeremy. Yeah. That's fine. As I did speak about the main program, says zero zero one, and, we indicated the timelines for that as well. And then GLP one, I think it's worth to I know a lot of people are kinda questioning around the collect we got the cash and finances, but it's worth, you know, pointing out that the the zero zero one trial is is relatively modest for the the dataset we get. And I think importantly then, the GLP one is essentially a primarily funded by our partner. The way we structure the deal is that they'll be funding that. So that'll be very little output from from a POOLBEG standpoint on the GLP one trial. But, you know, this you know, significant upside will come from that. If it's positive, as I say, if we do see that, you know, bioavailability and pharmacodynamic response of the already delivered GLP one, then there'll be significant upside for POOLBEG's. And, again, relatively short time frame, let's say, top line data in 2026.

43:44 So, you know, near term, everything's got everything's relatively near term now with these two programs. Jeremy, thanks. Look. I think, folks, we've tried to answer virtually all the questions. Most of them will come in quite a lot of the same theme. I think the theme is everybody's pissed off about the share price. Yes. You've a good right to be. We're pissed off as well. However, instead of running away and hiding, we're here talking, and we're not saying, oh, we're gonna do a new deal, go somewhere else. We're focusing on the netting, and the knitting is our belief is zero zero one is the company maker. That has been validated very, very strongly, you by the whole hookup process. People might say, well, it was so bloody great, why hookup and walk away? I think, look, the proof and the answer to that will probably come clear in the next month or two, and I think I hinted it earlier where it is when you have a very large pharma company and a small depressed Nasdaq company. So let's wait and see. I don't think, that was gonna happen, but look, let's see.

44:46 All options are on the table, and hopefully, I've as a six year old, one could say I have better things to do, than spend a lot of my time here in London trying to work with POOLBEG and REBOTA. But being perfectly honest with you, as a six year old, I've worked forty four years. I'm very excited. I'm delighted with the hardest four months of my life has just passed. There was, there was no mistakes made. I didn't work that hard, I kept saying, shit. We should have done that a little bit more, but I'm really happy. I know what you say. Let's see. All that say, let's see where this trial goes. Let's see where the GLP one goes, and bear with us. I say it's a public company, but people are pissed. The beauty about it, you're not locked in. You can sell. But I actually think when you look at today's share price, it has only one way to go. And, hopefully, it's gonna go serious places. Not right away, not the next day or next week or two, but once we get these two trials underway, there's something wrong if we can't create serious value for you all, everybody, but also including ourselves. We're all shareholders in this company. So Well said, Paul. Well said. Okay. Without further ado, I think I'll hand back to our organizer, Paul, and thank you very much. And we will look. We will keep involved.

46:06 I will, as the executive chairman, we continue to work closely with Jeremy, our CEO, and we will be updating the market as where we go. So thank you very much for taking time to listen to us tonight, and hopefully, we've reassured you there is no issue in the company. It has been disappointing. It did come as a surprise, but there is upside. And the upside is that we now have valid verification from major funders that we actually have a seriously interesting asset or two or three on our hands. Fantastic. Fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you very much, Carl, Jeremy for updating investors' data. Please ask investors not to close the session. It should be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations.

46:55 This will only take a few moments to complete and is greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team at POOLBEG PHARMA, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thanks, Paul.