Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Ultimovacs Q2 of 2022 presentation. Together with me, we have Jens Bjørheim, that is our Chief Medical Officer, and Hans Vassgård Eid, that is our Chief Financial Officer. As usual, I will introduce the key highlights of the quarter. We will go through the operational update, financial, a little bit of the, what is gonna happen in the next six to 12 months. Then, as usual, we will have a Q&A session. Please, if you haven't done so, send us your questions and we will try to answer as many as possible. If we can move to the next slide. Yes, it has been. Of course I have to show you the slide. Let's go to the highlights. Next slide.
As has been really a continuing success, we have had a very strong quarter. You know, we had very good progress towards the key milestones that, as you know, are our phase two clinical trials. Initium and NIPU are on track to the expected top-line readouts during the first half of 2023, with good patient enrollment. Here I want to ask you know, to apologize because although we have in all of the report in our presentation the expected readouts during the first half of 2023, we had in you know, in during the presentation we had a small typo. As in the same bullet point, the summary we had a different date.
I want to emphasize again that the expected top-line readouts for Initium and NIPU are first half 2023, and this is our best estimate. We really don't know when these readouts are gonna happen because as you know, both Initium and NIPU are event-driven studies. Jens will explain a little bit more the difference between landmark studies and event-driven studies. One of the key achievements for the company was the completion of the patient enrollment in Initium in June 2022. I would like to remind everybody that the first patient in Initium was enrolled in June 2020. I'm really very proud of the efforts and the dedication of our investigators, our team and of course the patients, as we were able to enroll all the study in the period of 24 months.
This would have already been a great achievement in normal time, but to do it during the pandemic times, this is really exceptional and I'm very proud of all the efforts that jointly the investigators, patients and our team did to achieve this key milestone. As you know and as you'll see, we continue also with the good patient enrollment in NIPU. Again, as I mentioned, so far we have no reasons to change our guidance for top-line readouts in these two studies in the first half of 2023. The patient enrollment in FOCUS also continues on track. DOVACC has been slower than expected.
Jens will walk you a little bit more through the process of establishing these trials, you know, particularly a complex one like DOVACC in 40 hospitals, 10 countries. We expect the patient enrollment to pick up when more sites are activated. In LUNGVAC, you know, now all the administrative process is also completed. This is a Norwegian study, as you will know. People are back from a vacation, and patients are being screened at the moment and we expect the first patient to be enrolled during Q3 2022. We were also very pleased with the very positive survival data in the UV1-103 trial in melanoma in combination with pembrolizumab. We achieved a 24-month overall survival rate of 73% across the totality of the 30 patients.
This is a very good overall survival percentage and of course we, you know, look forward now in the Q4 to the three-year follow-up survival for the first cohort of 20 patients. If we can move to the next slide. One of our key goals has been, as you know, to continue to present valuable data to the medical and scientific community, and we did that also during this quarter. We had another publication of the long-term follow-up data on UV1 in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, a poster presentation at the CIMT Annual Meeting in Mainz. We are also gonna have a study in progress at the European Society of Gynecological Oncology.
We were also, as you know, in the process of presenting the full package of data for the UV1-103 study at the conference and the publication. Of course, Ultimovacs is not just UV1. We have the very exciting and innovative TET platform, and we continue to make good progress in the development. Although we were expecting the interim safety results from the first 9 patients in the Q4, you know, because these patients came a little bit earlier, we are able to give you that update now. Well, of course, we are very pleased. The good news is that the Data Safety Monitoring Board didn't find any safety concerns, any dose-related side effects that will prevent the continuation of the study.
As we have been informing you, we are planning to add three more, up to three more additional patients, at this highest cohort dose of 960 micrograms. This is very important because of course, you know, the more patients we have, the more data we can collect, and that's one of the key objectives that we have for the TENDO study. You know, the TET platform is not just a TENDO study, so we continue to make continuing investments in the preclinical development of the platform technology and also in the CMC development.
You know, this is also running, and we are collecting all this set of data, not only from the clinical part, but also from preclinical and CMC that will be very valuable to support this very exciting technology. With this, I will give the word to Jens, and I will come back at the end to talk about to the next period of time and to also go through the Q&A. Jens?
Thank you, Carlos, and good morning, everybody. I will present the current clinical program and also discuss the studies somewhat more. If you move to the next slide, here you can see our current clinical trials. We conduct trials in more than 650 patients across different continents in Australia, Europe and US. The top line here is the phase 1 trial, which we have discussed earlier, where we have combined the UV1 vaccine with pembrolizumab. We reported top line results from this trial at ASCO last year. Thereafter, we have also started several phase 2 trials. The malignant melanoma trial is our sponsored trial, which is now fully enrolled.
As you can see from the list here, we have also attracted a lot of interest from other participants in the science field and are part of trials in mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, head and neck cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. I will come back to each of these trials. The common denominator for all these indications is that telomerase is expressed in all these indications, and we combine with different checkpoint inhibitors that are either standard of care in the indication or have shown good clinical efficacy in larger trials. Also, at the bottom, you can see the TET platform as Carlos just recently discussed. I will also come back to the trial, the TENDO trial, coming out of that project. First, there's a small news which you have already seen in a press release.
On the next slide, you can see that we have the 2-year data for all patients in the 103 trial, UV1-103 trial. 73% overall survival after 2 years for all 30 patients compiled. We have compared here to the Keynote 006 trial, which is the filing trial for pembrolizumab alone. As we also had stated earlier, the trial contain patients that are stage four. In our trial, around 65% of the patients are stage four. I will discuss the different trials more in detail now. If you move to the next slide, you can see here the Initium summary.
We started this trial off in 2020, and after two years of enrollment, we enrolled the last patients in June and July this year. It was planned to include 154 patients. When we reached that number, two patients were in screening, and we also allowed those to go into the study. A total of 156 patients were included in the trial. The trial was running and is still running at 39 hospitals in the U.S. and Europe. In Europe, in Belgium, U.K. and Norway. We expect the readout from this trial during the first half of 2023. This trial, as we have discussed before, is a so-called event-driven trial. Just to say a few words about that.
All our phase two trials are event driven, except for the head and neck trial. What is meant by event driven? For this trial, in Initium, we have the same statistical design as in the NIPU trial, which has been presented by the investigators in a publication earlier. An event-driven trial will wait for a defined number of events to occur, and within that endpoints is also important, the time to each of the endpoints. This is in contrast to a landmark trial where we wait for a result at a predefined time point.
In the head and neck cancer trial, which we will come back to, we are waiting for all patients to pass six months of observation, and at that point we will calculate how many patients will have an event in each of the arms. With a landmark trial like that, the time at which the event actually occurred between month 0 and month 6 doesn't matter. In an event-driven trial, also, the time point the event actually happened will have an importance on the primary readout of the trial. In our trial, the Initium trial, and in all other trials, progression-free survival is the primary endpoint together with safety, of course, and we will also disclose the information on overall survival, response rates and duration of response from these studies.
In the studies also, when you reach the number of endpoints for this trial, 70, and the database will be closed, and thereafter the patients will be followed for overall survival over the next years. If you go to the next slide, you can see that as of now, 92 out of 118 patients are enrolled in this phase, in this trial, compared to 78 patients in the Q1 reporting. Expect also here a readout during the first half of next year. As I mentioned just recently, this is also an event-driven trial. We wait for 69 endpoints to occur in this trial. The endpoints here is the same as in the Initium trial. The primary endpoint will be PFS and also for safety. Secondary endpoints, survival, response rate and duration of response.
On the next slide you can see the DUOVAC trial. The DUOVAC trial is then in ovarian cancer patients that have received at least two lines of chemotherapy, and they have responded to that with a partial response or better. More detailed, the patients also are BRCA-negative. This trial is an initiative from the Nordic Society of Gynaecological Oncology working with clinical trials and also ENGOT, which is the European umbrella for such groups in Europe. Started enrollment in December 2021, and as of now, six out of 184 patients has been enrolled compared to four patients at the last report. This is a quite complex trial. It's more than 40 hospitals involved in approximately 10 countries in Europe.
When you start trials like this, it's very often the investigators will discuss and address one or a few of the authorities in the individual countries as a first attempt to get approval for the protocol and the study. This has also been done here in a few countries, and the protocol is approved. This is done because then you can change or modify the protocol if needed in only a few countries before you send it out to all of the countries that will be involved in the study. Up until recently, just one site has actively recruited patients to this trial but this will speed up now over the next months as several countries has approved the trial and things are in place to include patients.
Also in this trial, this is an event-driven trial as Initium and NIPU, meaning that we are waiting for a predefined number of endpoints to occur, and then we will read out the primary endpoint. In this trial, there are three different arms, one with olaparib alone, one with olaparib and durvalumab, and one with olaparib, durvalumab and the vaccine UV1. The statistics in this trial is designed to test if there is a difference between olaparib alone and the triple combination of olaparib, durvalumab and the vaccine. On the next slide, you will see some information about the FOCUS trial. This as of now, 27 out of 75 patients has been enrolled compared to 18 at the last report.
This is a landmark trial, as I mentioned earlier, meaning that at the point where all patients have passed a six-month observation after enrollment, the primary endpoint will be read out from this trial. On the next slide, you can also see some information about the LUNGVAC trial. All preparations are completed for this trial, and patients are in screening. This is a Norwegian trial in non-small cell lung cancer patients, advanced or metastatic lung cancer. Patients should not have EGFR or ALK changes, and also a PD-L1 expression above 50%. For those patients, pembrolizumab has been the standard of care for a while, and we are testing if adding UV1 on top will improve efficacy for patients with this indication. First patient is expected to be enrolled during Q3 this year.
Also here, this is an event-driven trial. We are waiting for a predefined number of events to occur to read out the primary endpoint. The endpoints in this trial, in addition to the primary, will of course also be overall survival, response rate and duration of response. On the next slide, you can see some information about scientific publications over the last period. On top, a presentation that is not given yet. There will be a trial in progress presentation abstract at the ESGO meeting in Berlin towards the end of October, presented by the principal investigator, Mansoor Mirza at that meeting. Also, it was mentioned by Carlos earlier in this presentation, in May, we had two different publications.
One paper in Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, and one presentation at the CIMT Annual Meeting in Mainz. Both of these presentations discuss the long-term immune responses from our early phase 1 trials. As you might remember, and what was not present in the table I showed you earlier, we also have conducted three phase 1 trials in prostate cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and in malignant melanoma earlier. All of those three trials are in long-term follow-up these days, and we have seen immune responses lasting in the patients up to seven and a half years. We are still following these patients for overall survival and immune responses. On the next slide, you will see some information about the TET technology platform and the TENDO phase 1 trial.
The TENDO trial is the first clinical trial coming out of this platform technology. The TENDO trial is conducted in patients with prostate cancer. They have been through surgery, and prior to any new treatment, they are vaccinated with the molecules involved in this trial. The trial was started in February 2021, and as of now, we have included three patients at three different dose levels. The ambition with this trial is to get understanding on safety, dose level, and immune activation with different doses. Just recently, the Data Safety Monitoring Board has found no safety concerns with the nine first patients included in the study. We will therefore add also three more patients to get further information on safety, dosing, and immune activations.
The TET technology, the technology platform, as such, is innovative interesting new way of vaccinating patients. We are exploring or testing and exploring how it works when patients that already have antibodies against tetanus are vaccinated with a molecule with which involves the sequences those antibodies recognize. We have been working with this different towards different lines, CMC development, preclinical development, and we are advancing toward further investigations in this and in the end, also clinical trials with the platform. If you go to the next slide, it seems like we are now moving over to the financials. Thank you, and Hans, please continue.
Thank you, Jens, and good morning, everyone. We can move on to the key highlights from the financial section on slide 17. The key messages are quite simple. Looking at the last quarter and so far this year, we see that operating expenses, both in Q2 and year to date, are lower than expected. This is mainly due to R&D costs being incurred later than we have expected. It does not mean that these costs will not materialize, but they will be somewhat delayed compared to our internal expectations and forecasts. The total cash by the end of Q2 amounted to NOK 486 million, corresponding to roughly $49 million. The expected financial runway is to the first half of 2024.
That is unchanged from the guidance we have given earlier. Moving to the next slide, we can go a little bit more into detail. We see that total operating expenses in the Q2 of this year amounted to NOK 35 million. We had positive net financial items of NOK 13 million, giving a total loss of NOK 22 million for the quarter. Looking a little bit more detailed into the main cost elements, we can start with payroll expenses. Overall, the payroll expenses are around NOK 14 million or at roughly the same level as previous year.
Looking behind the numbers, we did have a one-off cost of NOK four and a half million in the Q2 related to the extension or the duration of the stock options from five to seven years. In addition to this element, there was also NOK 1.9 million reversal of social security tax related to the options. If we adjust for these specific costs related to stock options, also disregarding cost reductions from government grants and some other one-off items in Q2 this year and Q2 last year, the underlying increase in personal expenses was around NOK 0.7 million, so around 700,000. That is mainly due to additional full-time employees this year compared to last year.
Going on to the main cost driver, the R&D expenses, R&D and IPR. As mentioned, we did have lower R&D costs in this quarter and year to date. It's the reason why it's lower is that, and also behind the expectations is that we did have some significant milestone costs and startup costs in 2021. Looking ahead, we expect the R&D cost to increase with further progress in the phase 2 trials, further progress in CMC development and also other R&D activities. Moving on to other operating expenses amounting to NOK 4.8 million this quarter. We did have a slight increase from the previous year.
We have had some more activities within business development and investor relations and also a certain increase in trial expenses now coming out of the pandemic. This quarter, looking at the financial items, we did have a net gain of NOK 11.9 million in the Q2 related to the currency hedging positions we have taken. We have a euro account and some euro NOK future contracts to hedge the expected costs in euro in the main projects. With the development in the euro NOK exchange rate during the Q2, we did get this net gain of close to NOK 12 million. Having said that, it's worth mentioning that so far in the Q3, we have had the exchange rate euro NOK moving in the other direction.
Based on the current exchange rate, this gain will to a large extent be reversed in Q3. It remains to be seen what the exchange rate is at the end of the quarter, of course. Having a quick look at operating cash flow. The operating cash flow from operations has increased steadily over the last quarters, but this last quarter in Q2, we saw a reduction in the negative operating cash flow. Looking at the operating expenses, they have been lower both in the Q1 and the Q2 of this year compared to the previous quarters. We will quickly see that on the next slide. We should expect quarterly variations in cost in the R&D area.
The R&D expenses are the main driver of operating costs. The R&D costs, they will be influenced by factors such as initiation of sites and patient recruitment in the clinical trials. When we reach milestones in larger projects that often then triggers payments and costs. Also the CMC development has a varying cost from quarter to quarter, and the same with other R&D expenses, including the tech development. As we have said before, it's it's somewhat challenging to predict precisely when these R&D costs will incur. It's easier to predict the total cost related to each project. That's why we continue saying that delay. These lower costs are mainly delays. The guiding of the financial runway is unchanged.
Lastly, we have this specification of the operating costs for analytical purposes. We can just quickly see that the total operating expenses then amounted to NOK 35 million in the Q2 and NOK 32 million in the Q1, which is somewhat lower than at least the period Q2 to Q4 previous year. Okay. Those are the key messages on the financial section. I will then like to hand the word back to Carlos.
Thanks, Hans. Thanks, Jens. Again, has been a very busy year, but let's talk a little bit about the future. You know that this year we very importantly, as already communicated, we got the two-year overall survival follow-up now for the 30 patients in the UV1-103 study. We are approaching in the Q4 very important piece of data. That is the three-year overall survival update for the first 20 patients in cohort one. And this is important because, as you know, part of the mechanism of action of UV1 and vaccines in, you know, in general is to, you know, really extend as well as already showed as immune memory, the tail of survival.
The three-year overall survival is really starting to be very important, and we are really looking forward to see you know this data. We also, as mentioned, expect until the end of the year to have the first patient enrolled in the LUNGVAC study. You know, as also communicated, although we were expecting initially the interim safety data on the TENDO study more towards the Q4, you know, we were able to achieve that this quarter, what is always good.
In terms of then what is expected to happen, you know, for the rest of the year in addition to these updates on the studies is, of course, as mentioned, we are also planning for scientific presentations and also publications, and we will keep you updated regarding those. Of course, you know, 2023 is gonna be a very exciting year. As mentioned, we expect to get the top line results on the initial NIPU during the first half. This is, as I mentioned, an estimate. We don't know when it's gonna happen. It's important to already start telling you know, what are we gonna do, you know, assuming the data is positive in these trials.
Because this is very important, and this is part of a lot of the activities and investments the company has been doing so far. After we have the readouts, as Jens mentioned, you know, we will communicate the top line results, and this means that is the primary endpoint, all the rest of the information, and save all the rest of the information, as you already know, it's very valuable to be presented by these key opinion leaders at medical conferences and also to be in publications. We will communicate that this data. You know, there are two main areas where the company will continue to develop. You know, one specific area is the regulatory part.
After we have the data, we will be meeting, requesting meetings with the authorities, both European authorities and the FDA, where we will discuss these results, also, you know, what will be the next step in terms of development. As we already mentioned, you know, depending on the value of the data, if it's very positive, we will also be discussing with the authorities if there will be, you know, a possibility for accelerated approval while the company runs the phase three studies. All these activities, discussions with the authorities are extremely important also to define what will be the next step in the development of UV1. We also are, as you know, making important investments in CMC, meaning the production of the UV1 product. As you know, we transfer the production to PolyPeptide.
It is a major producer of peptides, you know, worldwide. This is very important because by the time we will have the data from these studies, we have what we call a commercial process in place, and this is extremely valuable, not only for us, but a potential strategic partner for the next phase of development because it makes it less challenging. Of course, the other big group of activities are related to business development activities. You know that we keep in regular contact with potential partners. This is, you know, what companies do. You know, every time we have new data, we keep them updated. After we have this data, then these contacts, and of course, assuming it's positive, these contacts accelerate.
The normal process is that then, you know, you share the data under CDA or confidential disclosure agreements, disclose this data, enter into initial negotiations, and normally a non-binding term sheet. Then depending how many companies are in the process. You know, I can tell you from experience in multiple negotiations that I was involved that, you know, this process from the point in time where we share the data to a signing of a potential agreement, you know, can go from six-12 months, you know. This is not gonna happen from one day to the other.
The important part is that everything that we can do to facilitate these discussions and also discuss with them, you know, what will be the plans for the future, will help and facilitate these interactions with potential partners. You know, for us, we are talking with, you know, dozens of companies. Of course, there are the companies that have the checkpoint inhibitors. These are, you know, the usual suspects. For Ultimovacs, you know, the UV1 concept is that we can be used across the board in multiple cancer types in combination with the different checkpoint inhibitors. We are really agnostic at which checkpoint inhibitor UV1 is combined, being the ones that are now in the market or the new ones being in development.
For us, really this expands the potential and the number of potential partners, even if they don't have checkpoint inhibitors, because then the UV1 can be used across the board. We are also, of course, continue to look at ways of expanding the usage of UV1. You know, and we see the progress of the field moving into treating patients at the earliest stage. This is, of course, part of the discussions that will also be with these companies that are moving the development of checkpoint inhibitors to the adjuvant or the neoadjuvant setting. You know, a lot of very exciting potential, you know, again, assuming that the data is positive.
This will be really from a perspective of the core activities. From a technical perspective is the regulatory initiatives, very important, the CMC, so we conclude this commercial process, and of course, all the discussions with potential partners and participation at, you know, business development conferences. Of course, you know, it's not just initial in NIPU. You know, we are also then have expected towards the end of 2023, and of course, you know, we will give you at the next, the Q4 report for 2022, a better guidance on when do we expect these results. You know, now after we see what, how the enrollment is happening.
We will have DOVACC and FOCUS, and this is important, as Hans mentioned, that you know, we have a runway to the first part of 2024. You know, while we have a runway, we are gonna have this very important and potential very data, you know, if it turns positive. Very exciting periods approaching. You know, it's just around the corner. We don't know when these events are gonna happen, but what I can tell you is that as a company and as a team, we are operating, of course, under the assumption that the data's gonna be positive because that's how we need to operate.
We are prepared so that when these events happen, you know, we can move to the next steps, as I mentioned, in terms of regulatory business development and other activities. Very exciting period approaching, and of course, we appreciate all your support. If we move to the next slide, you know, I want to also talk about another set of you know activities to raise awareness of Ultimovacs and UV1. We already talked about the scientific and medical community, the business, you know, the pharma community, but let's talk about you know our shareholders potential investors.
As you know, we'll be, you know, as far as I know, this is the first time, you know, a biotech will organize, this type of meeting, in Norway. We are going to have the first of a series of, meet the team meetings coming now in Oslo, September sixth. Please, if you have not yet registered and you are interested, go to our website and register. You know, we really want to give the opportunity to our existing shareholders or interested investors, supporters, to meet part of the team that is dedicating their time and energy and effort in moving along with our projects so you can meet with them. We will also give you the opportunity to ask questions, clarify misunderstandings.
It's an excellent opportunity in a very informal setting to have that. After Oslo, you know, we are planning also in Bergen, Göteborg, Stavanger, Stockholm, Trondheim. You know, we will be assessing how this first meeting go and then really try to meet with as many as possible with all of you. In addition to this meet the team, we are also presenting the company at multiple investor events. We are until the end of the year already in place. We are gonna be presenting the company at the Pareto Securities Conference in Stockholm. I'll be presenting the company at the H.C. Wainwright Conference in New York, the LSX Conference in London, the BioStock conference in the south of Stockholm.
You know, at the Redeye event also, in Stockholm and there will be other ones in addition to meeting one-on-one with potential investors. This is a set of activities that are also going to require dedication from the team, but is, as you can imagine, very important that we spread the news and the expectation for the data coming from the phase 2. I want to emphasize here that this data is not only important for Ultimovacs, but also for the patients and for the cancer vaccines in general.
Because you know, we will be one of the first ones, you know, with randomized comparative data that if the data is positive, this in a way supports the concept of cancer vaccines that, as you know, has not had the data to support them. This is gonna be important not only for us, but for the field in general. If we move to the next slide, I just want to kind of wrap up before we move to the Q&A, you know, with the key takeaways from this report. Again, very proud that Initium recruitment is completed, NIPU is on track, and that again, we are just around the corner for the top line readout during first half of 2023.
We continue to accumulate very good data with the running studies, you know, in addition to the old ones, you know, with the UV1-103 study, the 24 months overall survival rate of 73%, that is very good. Also, as I mentioned, the expected 3-year survival rate, you know, in the Q4. As you see, very important we continue to present and inform the medical scientific communities with the valuable data, and also, as you also mentioned, really increase the awareness of Ultimovacs and what we do and the data coming so soon among investors in conferences and individual meetings. As you know, we put a lot of emphasis on the innovation, the potential for the TET platform.
We are very pleased that the safety so far has been very good. Of course, we continue to make investments to really get additional data on TET. You know, we will be informing you and communicating when we can give you a little bit more information, not only just on TENDO, but the TET platform and the potential in general. As you know, we have several patents at the moment under analysis. You know, when those are out, then we will be able to talk a little bit more freely. I think very important in these volatile times, you know, we are very pleased to be, because of your support and our main shareholders, that we have a cash position giving us a financial runway to the first half of 2024.
These times are very difficult for the biotech sector in general, even worse in the US. We are very pleased that we don't need to look for cash in this very challenging times. With this, you know, I wanted to thank you for listening to us, and we'll be ready to move now to the Q&A section. I want to thank you beforehand on all the ones that ask us questions.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you, Carlos. Moving on to the Q&A session. We have so far not many, but a few important questions. We have received a few questions related to competitive landscape, and I think they can be summarized into the following. Could you please describe the competitive landscape in general and also specifically, are there any competitors that have telomerase as a target for cancer therapy that you know of?
Sure. I appreciate this question because it's indeed very important. You know, and I apologize already, you know, but it's really critical to understand this space. It's a very busy and active field, the oncology in general, but also the immuno-oncology space. Let me try to simplify it and separate it. On one hand of the equation, we have the big group and the big class of the checkpoint inhibitors. You know, the pembrolizumabs, the nivolumabs, the ipilimumabs, the new LAG-3. These class of drugs are very important, not because they are really going to have any direct interaction with the cancer cells or destroy the cancer cells, but because they are gonna block their defense mechanisms.
Because cancer cells, as you know, are very smart at avoiding the immune system that ultimately is what in the bodies of patients destroy cancer cells. The big benefit from these class of drugs is blocking this defense. You have a multitude of different classes of drugs, you know, some that are more general, other ones are more targeted. As you can imagine, I cannot cover all of those here because they are very specific in some cases to mutations to specific tumors. If I talk about the, you know, another group, a class of what I call the immune primers or the immune activators, you know, where we are, then there are different approaches. Oncolytic virus, personalized vaccines, you know, of course, cell therapies. You know, you have the cancer vaccines.
Their ultimate goal is in different ways or formats to educate, activate the patient immune system. We believe that here we have a series of benefits versus some of the other approaches and that are quite valuable. For instance, some of these approaches require the patients to go through a biopsy to select, take a piece of the tumor, select what are the antigens involved, then, you know, ship it to a place where they are gonna manufacture a vaccine specific for that patient. Very valuable to that patient, but as you can imagine, not being able to be used in a very wide, and the cost is enormous.
We see all developments, all options, alternatives of treatments for cancer patients as you know, the more, the better, because we want to solve that big problem. We see this approach as a valid approach, but we believe that we have a much more beneficial approach because as you know, UV1 is ready to be administered when needed and is an intradermal injection. You have other approaches like cell therapies, oncolytic virus, where you need to then inject a product in the tumor. You know, so we don't have that challenge, so we see also a benefit there. Another one, as Jens always mentions, we don't need to do any pre-selection because of the peptides we have. You know, we can use it in the general population.
Very important then for the usage and the commercial success is that these are production of peptides that are easy to manufacture. The cost of producing UV1 is not unreasonable. That of course is very helpful. I think this is, you know, in general, the different classes of immune primers. Again, the more are out there and have data, the better. We believe that the fact that we are easy to apply, no pre-selection, relatively inexpensive to manufacture give us very key important benefits. You know, if we continue to, you know, go down the funnel, and we move then to the companies working in the telomerase. You know, this has been going on for years, different approaches.
As you know, we have what we call a next generation, a telomerase vaccine where we use longer peptides and really the result of selection of peptides, you know, a great work done by our Chief Scientific Officer, Gustav. As far as we know, because as you know, we can only know what other companies are doing by what they publish or what they communicate. As far as we know, there are two companies working kind of in the similar space. It's Invectys and Inovio. We haven't seen a lot of information coming out, so we don't really know what is happening there. We know that Inovio is primarily in glioblastoma brain tumor.
You know, the information we have is that they are behind us in development. We don't see a lot of activity, and clearly they don't have the broad phase 2 program with five comparative studies in five different indications. You know, as it's natural, we will continue to monitor the competitive landscape. We are always following up and see where it happens. What so far we have seen is that some of the negative results in some classes don't affect us. Some of the new approvals like the nivolumab with the LAG-3 compound, we see that as also a potential for UV1 because we can also be combined with the class of drug.
You know, all in all, I think we have quite a very good position in this competitive space. Of course, you know, if we have positive data, that will be transformational, as I mentioned. Apologies for the long answer, but I think this is important to really clarify that although it is a very busy space, in reality, when you start looking at it a little bit more attentively, it is not so complicated. Hans?
Thank you, Carlos. Yes, a long answer, but also an important question. There is, it seems only one more question today. Also another important question. What's the advantage of entering into a partnership after phase 2? Why not run the phase 3 trials yourselves?
Another excellent question, and what I can tell you, as a company, it is our job to be prepared to do that, and we are prepared for that. That's why we're making investments and already have the plans. We can do it. You know, of course, we'll need to get additional financing. But as you can imagine, you know, a biotech, you know, we could run one or two phase 3 studies. What we are trying to show is that because of the broad potential that UV1 has to be used across a multitude of cancer types, you know, really a strategic partner would maximize the value, not only for our shareholders, but particularly for patients, because they have.
If the data is positive, they will have all the tools in terms of data, regulatory strategy, commercial process in place to move into phase 3 in multiple indications. What, of course, as you can imagine, with our resources and financial position, we could not do. As a company, we are prepared to go by ourselves if it's not the right deal. A strategic partnership will definitely increase the potential for UV1 that they can, it can be used in multiple phase 3 studies. Of course, that will give, make UV1 more accessible to more patients and of course, increase the value. That's the real rationale. As I mentioned, as a company, it's important that we are also prepared to go ourselves.
Thank you, Carlos. There are no more questions today.
Okay. Well, that maybe I take that as a compliment that we, you know, Jens was very clear, and Hans, you know, but again, I want to thank you all that listen to this webcast. As you know, you can always reach out to us and to Anna at the investor relation email if you have any specific questions. Again, please, if you haven't done so and if you are interested, register to meet the team and I look forward to meet some of you in those events. Thank you so much and have a good rest of the day and a good week.