Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Basilea Pharmaceutica half-year results 2021 conference call and live webcast. I am Sandra, the Chorus Call operator . I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to David Veitch, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Hello, this is David Veitch, CEO of Basilea, and I would like to welcome you to our conference call and webcast reviewing our financial results and key achievements for the first half- year 2021 and discuss our upcoming milestones. I would also like to mention that this call contains forward-looking statements. Joining me on our call today are Adesh Kaul, our Chief Financial Officer, and Dr. Marc Engelhardt, our Chief Medical Officer. This morning we issued a press release on our half-year financial report. I will firstly provide a brief summary of our key achievements for the year- to- date. I'm happy to report that thanks to the continued focus and commitment of our employees, and despite the limitations caused by COVID-19, we were able to fully maintain our operations without any significant disruptions.
We continue to see commercial progress and a significant growth in demand for our marketed brands, in particular for CRESEMBA. In-market sales of CRESEMBA increased to $266 million for the 12 months to March 2021. In our reporting, this increased demand is most clearly seen by looking at royalty income, which increased by 27% year-on-year. We also reported a 26% increase in total non-deferred CRESEMBA and ZEVTERA revenue. Our clinical study is progressing well. We reported positive clinical data for patients with FGFR2 fusion-positive bile duct cancer from the derazantinib FIDES-01 study, and we reported encouraging data on the long-lasting clinical benefit seen in EB1 positive glioblastoma patients who were treated in the phase I study with lisavanbulin.
Our licensed partner for CRESEMBA in Japan, Asahi Kasei Pharma, reported the successful completion of the phase III study in deep-seated mycoses and announced that they are now preparing a new drug application in order to gain a marketing authorization for Japan. Our phase III study with ZEVTERA in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, which we are conducting in support of a marketing authorization in the United States, is on track to have patient enrollment completed around the year-end. We're also making progress towards expanding our pipeline. We are conducting the final preclinical studies for a potential first-in-class small molecule kinase inhibitor, which would become, in early 2022, our third anti-cancer clinical program. In addition, we received a non-dilutive research grant of up to $2.7 million from the global partnership, CARB-X, for the development of a novel antibiotic against drug-resistant bacteria. Furthermore, we've executed two strategic transactions.
We divested our Chinese R&D subsidiary for a total consideration of CHF 6.3 million. Also, we successfully carried out a capital increase in the form of a private placement with institutional investors, which generated gross proceeds of around CHF 46 million, which increases our financial flexibility going forwards. Adesh will now give an update on our commercial progress and present more detailed financial highlights for the first half- year 2021, as well as provide the details of our increased financial guidance for 2021. Marc will provide you with more detailed information on the progress of our clinical programs and upcoming milestones. I'll now hand over to Adesh.
Thank you, David. In the first half of 2021, our partners continued to make significant progress in the commercialization of CRESEMBA and ZEVTERA. We see a strong increase in demand across the world. The latest in-market sales numbers available for CRESEMBA show that in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2021, sales grew by 18% year-on-year to $266 million. They continue to grow, as demonstrated by the U.S. sales, which increased 25% year-on-year in the second quarter, as recently reported by our partner, Astellas. Partnerships continue to play an important role in the execution of our global commercialization strategy and provide a strong basis for future revenue growth. Since the beginning of 2021, CRESEMBA has been launched in a number of additional countries. Now it is marketed in 53 countries, and we expect further countries to be added, leading to around 70 launch countries by the end of 2022.
As already mentioned by David, our partner for CRESEMBA in Japan, Asahi Kasei Pharma, is now planning to file an NDA in the second half of 2021. In China, the review of Pfizer's marketing authorization applications for mucormycosis and invasive aspergillosis, which were accepted for review in May and October 2020, respectively, is ongoing. ZEVTERA is now on the market in 19 countries. In July, we announced our latest distribution agreement for ZEVTERA with Moscow-based JSC Lancet for Russia and the other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. Moving on to financials. I will highlight some of the key financial figures that were published today. All figures I will refer to are in Swiss francs. By the end of this year, we will have largely completed the significant change in our revenue mix.
The non-cash relevant recognition of deferred revenue, that means upfront development and regulatory milestone payments received in prior years, has reduced by 94.9% year-on-year, now representing less than 3% of our total CRESEMBA and ZEVTERA related revenue. This gives now a much clearer view on the actual underlying cash contribution of our commercial business. We have reported CHF 46.1 million in total CRESEMBA and ZEVTERA non-deferred revenue at 26.3% growth year-on-year. Royalty income, which most closely reflects the underlying strength of our key brand CRESEMBA in the major territories, grew by 27.2% year-on-year to CHF 23.6 million. The other revenue components amounted to CHF 6.8 million, which is a 6.9% decrease compared to the prior year, mainly driven by BARDA reimbursements, which have decreased in line with the reduced development expenses incurred by us for the ceftobiprole phase III program.
Considering all these factors, total revenue decreased by 21.8% to CHF 54.2 million, largely driven by the phasing out of the deferred revenue contribution. Cost of products sold increased by 3.1% to CHF 13.5 million, R&D and SG&A expenses combined decreased by 3.9% to CHF 56.1 million, reflecting our continued focus on cost management. We reported an operating loss of CHF 15.4 million compared to an operating profit of CHF 12.8 million last year, and a net loss of CHF 19.9 million compared to a profit of CHF 9.9 million in the previous year. Net cash used by operating activities was reduced significantly by 18% to CHF 27.2 million, which provides an indication of the significant improvement in the underlying operational performance in the first half of 2021 compared to the prior year.
As of June 30, 2021, our combined cash and investments amounted to CHF 164.7 million, which includes a cash outflow of approximately CHF 13 million related to the reduction of our 2022 convertible bonds. In order to fully understand the significant progress that we continue to make in our commercial business, one needs to have a closer look at the different revenue components. Royalties, non-deferred product revenue, and milestone payments have all increased year-over-year. These are the components of our non-deferred CRESEMBA and ZEVTERA revenue, and they reflect the actual strength and progress of our commercial brands. As guided for, deferred revenue has declined significantly by CHF 24.2 million in the first half of 2021, which was the main driver for the reported decline in total revenue.
A different way of tracking the continuous progress in our CRESEMBA business is to look at our royalty revenue, which closely correlates with the in-market sales in the major territories. The time course does not only show the continued growth of the business, but also the seasonality of our royalty revenue, which is typically higher in the second half of a given calendar year due to the tiered royalty structure on U.S. sales. When looking at our operational performance, there are important factors to bear in mind. We reported an operating profit of CHF 12.8 million in the first half of 2020. The operating result was positively impacted by CHF 15 million in one-off profit from the sale of our headquarters property and CHF 25.5 million of deferred revenue.
Excluding these factors, the operating loss was CHF 27.7 million in the first half of 2020, compared to an operating loss of CHF 16.7 million in the first half of 2021 after the exclusion of CHF 1.3 million in deferred revenue. This represents an improvement of 40% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis and provides a clearer comparison on the actual underlying operational performance. I'm turning now to our financial guidance for 2021. As a result of the strong performance in the first half of 2021 and our expectation that the performance in the second half year will be even better, we are able to increase our financial guidance. We expect now total revenue to increase to CHF 134 million-CHF 144 million, driven by an anticipated 47%-60% growth in non-deferred revenue contribution from CRESEMBA and ZEVTERA to CHF 115 million-CHF 125 million.
This should be the last year that we separately discuss deferred revenue contributions from CRESEMBA and ZEVTERA, as they will decline by around 93% to CHF 2.5 million now that we have fully recognized the past upfront and milestone payments from our partners Pfizer, Astellas, and Gosun. Based on our higher revenue expectation and unchanged expectation on costs and expenses, we now anticipate a better operating result with an operating loss of CHF 7 million-CHF 17 million, which is an improvement as compared to 2020, excluding the one-off positive impact from the sale of the headquarters property. We assume a strong cash position of around CHF 165 million-CHF 170 million at year-end, excluding any impact from a reduction of the outstanding convertible bonds. In the first half of 2021, the cash outflow related to this was approximately CHF 13 million.
Our year-end cash and investment guidance considers that certain milestone payments and product deliveries may actually occur towards the end of the year, which would result in us reporting the P&L impact in 2021, but the corresponding cash inflow only in 2022. I will now hand over to Marc for the clinical update and upcoming milestones.
Thank you, Adesh. Let me start with our antibiotic, ceftobiprole. One of our key priorities for ceftobiprole is to gain access to the U.S. market, which is by far the most important country for the commercialization of branded hospital antibiotics. Our phase III program includes one study, TARGET, in acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, and another study, ERADICATE, in Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia or bloodstream infections. The program is funded up to approximately 70% by BARDA, this allows us to advance the development of ceftobiprole for the U.S. market in a cost-effective way. As just reported, the funding has been increased by $4.3 million, bringing the total value of the contract up to $134.2 million. In 2019, we reported positive top-line results from the TARGET study.
For the ERADICATE study, we expect that patient enrollment will be completed around year-end 2021. The study is on track for the reporting of top-line results in the first half of 2022. If the bacteremia study is also positive, Basilea plans to submit a new drug application to the FDA, and if ceftobiprole is designated a Qualified Infectious Disease Product by the FDA for these indications, it will be eligible to receive 10 years of market exclusivity in the U.S. from the date of approval. Nearly 120,000 Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia or SAB infections have been reported in the U.S. in 2017. The ERADICATE study targets complicated SAB, which is an area of high medical need with substantial morbidity and a 30-day mortality of approximately 20%.
There are limited antibiotic treatment options, with only two approved treatments in the U.S., which are vancomycin and daptomycin, that cover both Methicillin-Susceptible and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MSSA and MRSA. ceftobiprole, if approved in this indication, would provide a number of important benefits over existing treatments, including its strong activity against both MSSA and MRSA, its gram-negative coverage, its activity in pulmonary infections, and a low propensity for resistance development. Moving on to oncology. Our lead oncology drug candidate is derazantinib, which is a targeted orally available small molecule inhibitor of the fibroblast growth factor receptor, or FGFR, family of kinases. Our development strategy focuses on achieving differentiation over other FGFR kinase inhibitors by leveraging the unique properties of derazantinib. Key differentiating factors include its unique kinase inhibition profile and its clinical safety profile.
Basilea's clinical development program currently comprises three ongoing studies, FIDES-01 in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, or iCCA, which is a type of bile duct cancer, FIDES-02 in urothelial cancer, and FIDES-03 in gastric cancer. In May 2021, we reported further improved top-line results from the first cohort of the FIDES-01 study, which provides the clinical proof of concept for derazantinib as monotherapy in its first indication. This first cohort includes 103 patients with FGFR2 fusion-positive advanced iCCA in a second-line and post-second-line treatment setting. FGFR2 fusions occur in about 15% of patients with iCCA. The objective response rate in these patients was 21%, and the disease control rate was 75%. The median progression-free survival was 7.8 months, which is in the upper range reported for this endpoint with FGFR inhibitors in this patient population.
We're also making good progress in Cohort 2 of the study, which is enrolling iCCA patients with FGFR2 mutations or amplifications. Is another area of high unmet medical need. We published positive interim results in March, indicating similar progression-free survival with derazantinib in this patient group to that reported for iCCA patients with FGFR2 fusions. We're aiming to report top-line results in the first half of 2022. Derazantinib also continues to show a well-manageable safety profile with low rates of retinal side effects, stomatitis, hand-foot syndrome, and nail toxicity. Overall, these results underscore the favorable benefit-to-risk profile of derazantinib as a monotherapy in bile duct cancer. FIDES-02 is a phase I/II study with derazantinib as monotherapy and in combination with Roche's PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor, atezolizumab. This is a multi-cohort clinical study in patients with advanced urothelial cancer expressing FGFR genetic aberrations.
For the cohort with patients who failed to respond to other FGFR inhibitors, interim results are expected in the second half of 2021, both for monotherapy and in combination with atezolizumab. In May, Basilea decided to explore higher daily doses for mono as well as combination therapy in the FIDES-02 study. Initial results from cohorts receiving this intensified dose regimen are expected in the first half of 2022. FIDES-03 explores derazantinib as monotherapy and in combination with atezolizumab and with Lilly's anti-angiogenic drug ramucirumab with paclitaxel in patients with advanced gastric cancer and FGFR genetic aberrations. Clinical supply agreements are in place with Roche and Lilly, who provide atezolizumab and ramucirumab. As in FIDES-02, higher daily doses are also explored in FIDES-03, with initial results expected in the first half of 2022. Moving to our tumor checkpoint controller, lisavanbulin.
We are focusing our clinical development activities with lisavanbulin, a novel microtubule-targeting small molecule on glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of primary malignant brain tumors in an area of high unmet medical need with poor survival, high morbidity, and very few treatment options available. Two patients from the phase I part of the ongoing clinical study, whose tumors tested positive on the potential response rate to biomarker EB1, are showing a long-lasting clinical benefit and have been successfully treated for more than two years. One of these patients even experienced a reduction in tumor size of more than 80%. In July, the FDA granted lisavanbulin Orphan Drug Designation for the treatment of malignant glioma, which includes glioblastoma. This is positive news as the designation qualifies for various incentives, including longer regulatory market exclusivity.
In the phase II part of this study, only EB1-positive glioblastoma patients are being enrolled, and Basilea expects interim results at the end of 2021 and top-line results in the first half of 2022. If these results provide a clinical proof of concept in glioblastoma, this would support exploring the selection of patients based on EB1 positivity in other tumor types as well. EB1 prevalence data reported at the ASCO conference in June indicate that approximately 5% of glioblastoma tissue samples were found to be EB1 positive. The strongest expression of EB1 in non-glioblastoma tumors was detected in tissue samples from medulloblastomas and neuroblastomas, which are cancers that occur predominantly in the pediatric population. EB1- positive staining was also found in tissue samples from metastatic melanoma and other tumors expressing slightly lower levels of EB1 staining includes non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer.
I will now turn over to David.
Thank you, Marc. In summary, we continue on track with the execution of our strategy and our two business pillars of oncology and infectious diseases. We are significantly growing our cash-relevant revenues from our marketed brands CRESEMBA and ZEVTERA. We are also on track to have CRESEMBA launched in 60 countries by the end of this year and expect to increase that to 70 by the end of 2022. We are also continuing to advance our R&D portfolio towards the next milestones through 2021 and 2022. The second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022 hold a number of important milestones, especially related to our clinical programs. We anticipate the filing of an NDA by our partner, Asahi Kasei Pharma, later this year with the goal to gain marketing approval of CRESEMBA in Japan.
In addition, we expect the patient enrollment into ZEVTERA phase III ERADICATE study will be completed around year-end. On track for reporting top-line results first half 2022. For derazantinib, we're expecting interim results in the second half of the year in the FIDES-02 study for patients with urothelial cancer refractory to prior FGFR inhibitors, with derazantinib as both monotherapy and combination therapy with atezolizumab. For lisavanbulin, we're expecting interim results from the EB1 biomarker-driven phase II study in recurrent glioblastoma by the end of the year, followed by top-line results in the first half of 2022. Finally, if the preclinical studies with our new oncology drug candidate are successfully completed, we are planning to file an Investigational New Drug application later this year. If granted, this will allow us to start a phase I clinical study in early 2022, adding a third compound to our clinical oncology pipeline.
Thank you for your attention. We'll now open the line up for your questions.
We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star one on the touch-tone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star two. Questions on the phone are requested to use only handsets. Only three questions may be asked in the row. The line will be open to others. You can get back in the line again for follow-up questions. Anyone with a question may press star one at this time. The first question comes from Louise Chen from Cantor. Please go ahead.
Hi. Congratulations on a great quarter, and thanks for taking my questions here. My three questions for you are, number one, can you provide any more color on your new oncology drug candidate, the potential first-in-class small molecule kinase inhibitor, and where it fits into your pipeline of products? Secondly, what do you think about expanding your oncology pipeline? I know it's been a focus for you, and if you've thought about that, what areas do you think you might want to bolster? Last question I have for you is, how do we think about the market opportunity for lisavanbulin in GBM and the patients that have that EB1 biomarker? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Louise. Yeah, I'll take maybe your first couple of questions, and then I'll hand over to Marc to talk about the GBM market opportunity with EB1 patients. It's in the very late stages of the IND-enabling studies. All is going well at the moment. We hope later this half- year to be able to file for the IND. It's a small molecule kinase inhibitor. We've previously stated it was the result of an in-licensing back in 2018. This is an example of our sort of dual strategy of bringing things through from our own discovery and development, in addition to in-licensing selectively compounds.
It fits in this sweet spot of ours in terms of a targeted small molecule, and this is very much what we look for in terms of in-licensing as well as our own development programs. As I said, if all goes according to the plan and the IND is approved later this year, we can start, and we're already preparing that now, the clinical studies very early in 2022. In terms of behind that, what I would just comment is, obviously, there's even less information we can provide on those now. We do have a number of other preclinical assets, actually, yet again, in oncology behind that we're hoping to find clinical candidates and progress towards IND-enabling such studies. It's more in the oncology area that we've got the more preclinical assets closer to the clinic than in the anti-infective space.
We have anti-infective compounds as well, but they're a bit farther out in terms of away from the clinic than the oncology ones. That's all I can really say at this point in time about the earlier oncology assets. Suffice to say, we are continually also looking externally for other compounds that we believe can fit into this portfolio that fulfill the same criteria that we've looked at so far in terms of small molecule-targeted compounds and the particular areas that we look at in terms of targets, et cetera. Why don't I just pass over to Marc to take the GBM opportunity question.
Yeah. Thanks very much, Louise, for the question. In GBM, as we all know, there's a really high medical need for new treatments, especially in the recurrent setting. There's really not any satisfactory standard. I mean, lomustine is a very old drug that's used and with very low response rates. In some countries, triple combinations are used, all of these treatments are quite unsatisfactory. If we saw that EB1 is enriching for response for lisavanbulin, we'd certainly have a standing to become a standard treatment in the recurrent setting for EB1-positive patients, the testing approach for these would probably be relatively straightforward. We have an immunohistochemistry test which could be implemented broadly in pathology labs. We believe it would be quite easy to have a broad coverage of EB1 testing in pathology labs.
If this shows to be response predictive, the natural step would be in glioblastoma to go into a first-line setting. As you know, we have already a study ongoing in combination with radiotherapy, so we will have information on the dose that can be given when lisavanbulin is combined with radiotherapy. Then the question, I think, for the further opportunity beyond glioblastoma depends a little bit on whether EB1 is more an agnostic predictor if the GBM would have a proof of concept, and this could be extended beyond GBM. As said, from our perspective, if there is response prediction, it would be quite straightforward to implement it.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Brian White from Calvine Partners. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my questions. I've got one on lisavanbulin and then on derazantinib. Just following on from what you answered there, Marc, just looking at the development pipeline of lisavanbulin. Is it your intention, as I understand it then, post these phase II data to look at an additional setting for lisavanbulin in the first line, or are you going to speak to the regulators post the phase II data and end-of-phase II meeting with the potential for a regulatory filing? Also, just in terms of the various cancers you spoke about or mentioned in the release, would you envisage a basket study to look and see which would be the most appropriate indications? The second question on the derazantinib. It looks as though resistance is going to be inevitable to this class. Do you think that is a class effect?
Do you think that there is a possibility that the derazantinib may be applicable to other resistant FGFR inhibitors? Do you think dose intensification may be a way of dealing with that, or do you think it will take a combination approach? Thank you.
Okay. Thanks, Brian, for the question. Marc, I'm going to look at you, and you're probably best placed to comment on the lisavanbulin and the derazantinib, and then we can chip in.
Yeah. Thank you very much for the question. I think the lisavanbulin is a continuation of the previous answer. We've always said that the proof of concept needs to come from glioblastoma, where we have seen in the phase I study an efficacy signal that we need to validate prospectively. We've done epidemiology work as indicated in the presentation, but also as published at ASCO, and there's certainly EB1 positivity in other cancer types. These are sometimes small cancer types, but also we've seen a signal in metastatic melanoma and also in the really large cancer types. We would certainly try to find a way to extend this beyond glioblastoma in the sense of a basket.
I think we first need to see what type of response, how fast are these responses, how deep are they, if we see them, and then we can make a decision whether we want to expand to different lines in glioblastoma or bring this to a more agnostic basket. That would be my short response for the lisavanbulin question.
Just to jump in, because I think you touched on it, Brian, just to add one thing to what Marc said, is that the thinking we have at the moment, though, is that if it was a positive proof of concept in GBM, we would then likely contact the health authorities to discuss the development strategy in both GBM and other tumor types. We would do that because you did address that point.
Yeah, you indicated, I think, in end-of-phase II meeting that that would be probably the plan to do that.
The derazantinib.
Well-
That resistance and dose intensification.
Yeah. I believe the dose intensification has several reasons, one of which is the competitive landscape in urothelial cancer, but it's certainly a higher dose also from resistance development is always, if anything, it's something positive to give. To question whether you could use different FGFR inhibitors in sequence because the resistance of one FGFR inhibitor doesn't mean that another FGFR inhibitor may not work, may actually work. That's what we're currently testing in urothelial cancer, that's where we plan to provide interim data in the second half of 2021, where we exactly treating patients with urothelial cancers that had had a treatment on another FGFR inhibitor, this will certainly contribute to the answer. I think you also indicated whether there's a difference in using an FGFR inhibitor or trying combinations, I think it depends really on the resistance mechanism.
There's work ongoing, not only by us, but also by other companies.
Yeah
elucidate that.
Okay. That's great. Thanks, Marc.
The next question comes from Bob Pooler from valuationLAB. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. Two questions from me. Do you see more initiatives to combat bacterial resistance on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic? Which pipeline expansion do you have a preference for, oncology or anti-infectives? Thirdly, on lisavanbulin, the exceptional responder that you had, you had three EB1- positive, and you had one exceptional responder. Did that person have a strong EB1 staining? Really into that sort of slices of the pie chart that you have 6% in glioblastoma.
We'll start with that one, Marc, actually.
Yeah. The exceptional responder, the tissue of that patient had a strong EB1 staining, and I think that kind of was the starting point to explore this. We had EB1 as a biomarker before this. We published in 2015, 2016 animal data where animals with high EB1-expressing glioblastoma versus suppressed EB1 glioblastoma were treated with lisavanbulin, and there was a quite clear effect that the EB1 was response predictive. When we saw the strong EB1 staining in this exceptional participating tissues, as you mentioned in the ASCO presentation, in this phase I study, we had three patients with strong EB1 staining. Out of these three patients, one was an exceptional responder. The other is the patient with a long ongoing stable disease for more than two years. There was 1 patient that had a progression.
Three EB1- positives, two with really long-standing clinical benefit. Amongst the EB1- negative patients in this phase I study, we didn't see any long-term clinical benefit in these patients. That was our starting point. Now we're trying to show prospectively that this is actually a response predictive marker moving forward.
In the trial, you will enroll then strong EB1 stain patients, so not moderate.
Correct. We have criteria to select the strong EB1 staining, and this is done by an immunohistochemistry test. I think if this turns out to be response predictive, and this may be part of your question, then I think we probably would need to think about what is the best threshold.
We used the threshold that was guided by what we had observed in the phase I study. The question whether you could go lower with the threshold, that's a question we would subsequently address.
Okay, clear.
Bob, your question around on the back of COVID-19, has there been more focus or more momentum in terms of antimicrobial resistance initiatives? I think probably the short answer is, my subjective feeling is yes. I think in terms of objectively what evidence is there, I think probably the best example actually is the submission of the PASTEUR Act, which has started the legislative process in the U.S. in, I think it was June this year. That's probably the best example of a real pull incentive, which if it became law in the U.S., which the proposed act is centering on this concept of it's a subscription model for antibiotics.
De-linking volume from quantity sold. Obviously that's, I guess you could say, an objective sign that antimicrobial resistance is definitely not going away as a global issue. In Europe, in certain countries of Europe and at the European level, there have also been more initiatives and talk of initiatives to try and also address the same problem around creating real pull incentives. On top of that, the effective push incentives like, for example, the BARDA funding that we talked about earlier that are available and we make use of, which really help with regard to getting drugs to market. In terms of then allowing them to be more commercially viable, I think there's building momentum, I think I would say, and there's more evidence of that as time progresses. Bob, what was your second question?
Just on your pipeline expansion, do you have any preference for oncology or anti-infective assets?
Okay. Maybe I take this one. Just to remind you, we have announced actually just this half year that we have two early-stage assets in both areas. We have the CARB-X funding for our novel antibiotics, which underscores our continuous commitment to the space, and the early oncology compound, which was already discussed on this call.
Both areas still remain in our focus. Forward going, we will continue to look at opportunities in both areas. Just from a perspective of now in-licensing or partnering, there are simply more opportunities available in the oncology space. Just by the nature of the game and by looking at the numbers, there are just more opportunities on the oncology side. That will probably also be reflected a little bit in how we are moving forward, in that on the oncology side, we'll probably see more activities, more projects that we'll be pursuing.
Okay, clear. Thank you for answering the questions.
Thank you.
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Okay Thank you very much for your interest, and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you very much.
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