Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the BioLineRx first quarter 2023 financial results conference call. All participants are presently in a listen-only mode. Following management's formal presentation, instructions will be given for the question and answer session. For operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero. I would now like to turn over the call to John Lacey, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications, BioLineRx. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Before turning the call over to management, I would like to make the following remarks concerning forward-looking statements. All statements in this conference call, other than historical facts, are indeed forward-looking statements. The words anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, intend, guidance, confidence, target, project, and other similar expressions are used typically to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and may involve, and are subject to, certain risks and uncertainties and other factors that may affect BioLineRx's business, financial condition, and other operating results. These include, but are not limited to, the risk factors and other qualifications contained in BioLineRx's annual report on Form 20-F, quarterly reports filed in a 6-K, and other reports filed by BioLineRx with the SEC, to which your attention is directed.
Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. BioLineRx expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. At this time, it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Philip Serlin, Chief Executive Officer of BioLineRx.
Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our first quarter 2023 results conference call today. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release, a copy of which is available in the investor relations section of our website. It was also filed as a 6-K. As is our practice, I will begin with an overview. Mali Zeevi, our Chief Financial Officer, will provide a discussion of our financial results. We will then open the call and are looking forward to your questions. Also joining the call for Q&A are Ella Sorani, our Chief Development Officer, Holly May, President of BioLineRx USA, and Tami Rachmilewitz, MD, our Chief Medical Officer.
Beginning with our lead program, motixafortide for stem cell mobilization in patients with multiple myeloma, we announced in November of last year that the FDA accepted our new drug application and assigned a PDUFA target action date of September 9th, 2023. We continue to be on track. In anticipation of potential FDA approval, we have had a very productive quarter across each of our commercial readiness activities, including completing the hiring of an experienced sales force, most of whom have particular expertise in relevant transplant centers across the U.S. We have also substantially advanced supply chain, market access, and medical affairs activities. We previously talked about our U.S. leadership, including Holly May, who heads all of our U.S. activities and has led 14 product launches throughout her career.
Kevin Campbell, our new Head of U.S. Sales and Market Development, whose prior experience includes serving as head of transplant at Sanofi, where he led a 23-person commercial team whose portfolio included Plerixafor, known by its brand name Mozobil, for stem cell mobilization. Kevin helped to grow and expand the use of Mozobil, and we believe he is the ideal person to help make motixafortide the new standard of care mobilization agent. We have said several times in the past, but it is worth repeating, based on proprietary market research that we commissioned, the stem cell mobilization market continues to grow and is worth some $360 million in the U.S. and more than $500 million globally. With the team that we have assembled, I believe we are very well positioned to capture a significant share of this market over time.
Further validating the potential benefits of motixafortide in stem cell mobilization, we were pleased during the quarter to announce the publication of our GENESIS phase III clinical trial data, which supports our pending new drug application in the highly regarded peer-reviewed journal, Nature Medicine. Of particular note, the publication describes how the GENESIS trial included patients representative of the current multiple myeloma population undergoing autologous stem cell mobilization, including older patients and those who received lenalidomide-containing induction therapies, both factors associated with impaired mobilization. Multiple myeloma is the second most common hematologic malignancy, and stem cell transplantation has been shown to improve survival, and as such, plays a central role in the treatment of these patients. A meaningful number of patients, however, are unable to collect the target number of peripheral blood CD34 + hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells with the current standard of care in stem cell mobilization.
The primary objective of the study was to demonstrate that one dose of motixafortide with GCSF compared to placebo with GCSF allowed more patients to mobilize 6 million CD34 + cells or more per kilogram of body weight in up to two apheresis sessions. A secondary objective of the study was to demonstrate that one dose of motixafortide with GCSF was superior to placebo with GCSF in its ability to mobilize 6 million CD34 + cells or more per kilogram of body weight in just one apheresis session. The clinical trial found that all primary and secondary endpoints were achieved with statistical significance, a P value of less than 0.0001. If aproved, m otixafortide would be the first true advancement in stem cell mobilization in over a decade.
In parallel with our development work in stem cell mobilization for multiple myeloma, we believe there are additional therapeutic areas where the demonstrated benefits of motixafortide can be beneficial. One of these is autologous hematopoietic stem cell-based gene therapy for patients suffering from sickle cell disease, one of the most common genetic diseases globally. To that end, in March, we announced a clinical trial collaboration with Washington University School of Medicine to evaluate motixafortide in this indication. Unlike multiple myeloma patients, one of the current standard of care mobilization agents, GCSF, carries significant risks and potential severe side effects for patients suffering from sickle cell disease. Furthermore, in many cases, the other current mobilization treatments fail to reliably yield optimal numbers of stem cells to facilitate gene therapy. As such, this patient population is in urgent need of an effective new mobilization regimen.
Through this collaboration, we plan to conduct a proof-of-concept trial that will study motixafortide as both a single agent and in combination with the immunomodulator natalizumab. This study will assess the safety and tolerability of the two regimens as mobilization agents of CD34 + hematopoietic stem cells in patients with sickle cell disease, and is anticipated to begin enrollment in the second half of 2023. Let's turn now to our clinical programs in metastatic pancreatic cancer. Recall that motixafortide is being evaluated in an investigator-initiated metastatic pancreatic cancer trial in collaboration with Columbia University. This phase II study is evaluating motixafortide in combination with the anti-PD-1 cemiplimab and standard of care chemotherapy in first-line metastatic pancreatic cancer patients. We anticipate data from the first cohort of patients this year.
We also previously announced a collaboration with GenFleet Therapeutics, pursuant to which GenFleet will execute a rigorously designed randomized phase II-B clinical study assessing motixafortide in combination with a PD-1 inhibitor and standard of care chemotherapy in approximately 200 first-line metastatic pancreatic cancer patients in China. This collaboration follows the positive results that we reported from our phase II-A COMBAT/KEYNOTE-202 triple combination study of motixafortide in combination with the anti-PD-1 pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in second-line patients. As a reminder, data from that phase II-A study demonstrated a substantial improvement across all study endpoints as compared to historical data, including median overall survival, median progression-free survival, confirmed overall response rate, overall response rate, and disease control rate. We anticipate that the GenFleet phase II-B trial will initiate by the end of this year.
Turning now to our second clinical candidate, the investigational intratumoral anticancer vaccine, AGI-134. We believe AGI-134 coats tumor cells with alpha-Gal to make them look like foreign tissue in order to evoke an immune response that both destroys existing tumors and also provides a vaccine-like effect. In December, we announced results from a phase -phase II-A study of AGI-134 in metastatic solid tumors. The first in-human single-agent study met its primary endpoint for safety and tolerability and demonstrated immune activity across multiple biomarkers. At this time, we are evaluating potential development program pathways in consultation with the program scientific advisory board. We will provide further updates as appropriate. I would now like to turn the call over to Mali Zeevi, our CFO, who will give a brief overview of our main financial results. Mali, please go ahead.
Thank you, Phil. As is our practice in our financial discussion, we will only go over a few significant items on this call: research and development expenses and cash. Let me invite you to review the 6-K filing we made this morning, which contains our financials and press release. Research and development expenses for the three months ended March 31st, 2023, were $3.7 million, a decrease of $0.7 million or 16.9% compared to $4.4 million for the three months ended March 31st, 2022. The decrease resulted primarily from lower expenses related to NDA supporting activities related to motixafortide, as well as lower expenses associated with the completed AGI-134 clinical trial. Turning to cash, the company held $43.3 million of cash equivalents, and short-term bank deposits as of March 31st, 2023.
This does not include $30 million available to us under the debt agreement with Kreos Capital, which is tied to the attainment of certain milestones. We believe we are well-financed to fund our operations and as currently planned into the first half of 2024. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Phil.
Thank you, Mali. In closing, as is our custom, I would like to take a few moments to summarize our key upcoming milestones. First, potential FDA approval of APHEXDA this coming September. Potential U.S. launch of APHEXDA shortly after approval. Initiation of a clinical trial in collaboration with Washington University School of Medicine to evaluate motixafortide as monotherapy and in combination for CD34 + hematopoietic stem cell mobilization for gene therapies in sickle cell disease, which is expected to begin in the second half of 2023, of this year. Initiation of a phase II-B randomized clinical trial with 200 patients assessing motixafortide in combination with a PD-1 inhibitor and standard of care chemotherapy as a first-line metastatic pancreatic cancer therapy with collaboration partner GenFleet, also by the end of this year.
Finally, initial cohort data from the ongoing Columbia University investigator-initiated study evaluating motixafortide in combination with the PD-1 inhibitor cemiplimab and standard of care chemotherapy in first-line metastatic patients with pancreatic cancer, also in the second half of this year. With that, we have now concluded the full part of our presentation. Operator, we will now open up the call to questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one. To withdraw your question, press star two. If you're using speaker equipment, kindly lift the handset before pressing the numbers. Your questions will be polled in the order they are received. Please stand by while we poll for your question. The first question is from Joe Pantginis of H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.
Hey, everybody. Good morning. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Continued good luck wishes ahead of the PDUFA date. A couple questions, Phil. First, as you're preparing for potential approval, I guess one of the things I wanted to get more color on, how have your, I guess, let's call it pre-discussion, with payers been going on?
Yeah. First of all, good morning, Joe. Thanks for joining the call. Let me turn that question over to Holly. She can provide a little color on that.
Thanks, Phil, and thanks, Joe, for the question. I would say it's going quite well. We have since I think the last time we spoke, solidified more of our market access plan, and that includes the full complement of national account representatives, executives, in the field, being able to really understand the marketplace and understand where the payers are. Obviously, we aren't talking anything at this point in time specifically about the product, but we do have a very experienced national account executive team that is really starting to understand, you know, what we need to do to be successful around market access in the marketplace. We also are engaging with external stakeholders.
As time goes on, we will be having a steering committee to help to continue to advise us in the future.
Got it. No, that's helpful. Thank you. I guess I'll just stick with motixafortide for just a second here. Of course, it's my obligatory question on, you know, sort of status of BD discussions, but I want to approach it this way today in the sense that, you know, it's a bit of a hybrid approach here where, you know, going into September, you might have an approved drug for a particular therapeutic approach. Of course, you have the long-standing oncology approach as well. How do you think that impacts your potential BD discussions going forward? If you just focus on the oncology standpoint, do you think it might fit into the category of or long-standing category of, you know, a partner would be interested once they see the randomized phase II- B data? Thanks a lot.
I mean, we've had that approach for quite a while. I mean, we are fully focused right now on the commercialization of stem, in stem cell mobilization, the self-commercialization in the U.S., and we're moving forward on that, as Holly May mentioned, and, you know, as we've disclosed in our public filings. Of course, we do have the, the PDAC and the oncology, the solid tumor area that we're developing. Our idea is with the randomized data, both from the study that we're doing, in collaboration in China as well as, the data that we have and that is being produced in the Columbia University collaboration. We're hoping the two together would provide us with the type of data that would, we would be able to initiate discussions with a potential partner with.
That's sort of what, you know, what we're doing. I think that we haven't veered from that, from that approach, you know, for several quarters already.
No, I appreciate that. Thanks. If you, if you would just indulge me a little bit of a shift, question on 134. Obviously, things are developing. You're very resource focused on motixafortide, but, any potential broad strokes you can take with regard to the design of next steps?
Yeah. Let me turn that over to Ella. Ella, do you wanna take that question?
Yeah, sure. Hi. Hi, Joe. This is Ella. With regards to API, we are currently assessing the development for program forward. We're discussing with our scientific advisory group. I cannot give too much to, you know, go into too much specifics. However, it's probably fair to say that going forward, we will probably consider to do a combination study.
Okay. thanks for all the answers, and good luck with your background discussions.
Thanks so much, Joe. Have a great day.
The next question is from Mark Breidenbach of Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.
Hey guys, congrats on the progress this quarter and thanks for taking our questions. Just a couple of quick ones from me. First, just with respect to the upcoming expiry date of the Genzyme Sanofi patents on Plerixafor. How quickly after that expiration do you expect generics to enter the U.S. market? Is it kind of gonna be an immediate thing, or is it maybe we'll see a little bit of a lag or a gap before generics are approved here?
Then the second question is just, I think Mali was clear with regard to the financial guidance and cash runway guidance, but operational runway extending into the first half of 2024, that is exclusive of the $30 million in debt tranches from Kreos. Is that correct?
Yeah.
Thanks for taking the question.
Okay. First of all, good morning and thanks for joining the call. I'll take the second question, and then the first part of the question I'll hand over to Holly. Regarding our financial resources, our guidance does not take into account the $30 million of the, of the, you know, of the framework of the Kreos law. Okay, so that's with regard to your, to your the second part of your question. Regarding generics, I will just say overall, you know, the exclusivity runs out at, you know, at the end of July, for Plerixafor. I think we do expect a couple of generics. There are, you know, some ANDAs that have filed, and so we do expect a couple generics, but it's really hard to say.
I think maybe Holly can provide a little more color on that. Go ahead, Holly.
Okay. I was gonna say basically that. I mean, in some ways it's anyone's guess as to what the generic manufacturers are going to do. That said, we have through our research, we've not uncovered anything that would say they are not coming to the market. I know this is a little bit of a different situation just because Genzyme Sanofi did defend their patents. It's been kind of a longer time to market for these manufacturers. We are keeping a key eye on it. This is all part of our ongoing market research, is to have, you know, some sort of intelligence around marketplace and landscape, and we are taking that into consideration.
That said, our detailed research really suggests that the Plerixafor side is well-positioned to take a significant share of the market over time, despite generic competitors to the first generation mobilizer that's currently in the marketplace. We still have great confidence.
Yeah, I mean, I'd like just to add to that. I mean, it's very important for. You know, and I think that we've emphasized that. We believe that we are highly differentiated from Plerixafor and, you know, obviously any generics that are coming in, you know, once the loss of exclusivity happens. Therefore, we believe that, you know, that obviously it may affect us, but we think that we are still, you know, moving forward and are confident that we can, as Holly said, take a significant share of the market.
I think.
Thank you.
Phil and I are tag-teaming on this answer. Just to add on what Phil said, yes, well-positioned. Our research has shown both on the clinical side as well as on the value and economic side of the value proposition.
Thanks, Holly .
Thank you, guys.
Okay. Have a great day, Mark.
The next question is from John Vandermosten of Zacks. Please go ahead.
Thank you, hello everyone. Phil, you've mentioned the $500 million global market for APHEXDA. What are the trends outside the U.S. for growth and the structure of the market? Is it similar to the U.S., where there are a few sites responsible for most of the procedures, or does it have a different structure?
You know, I think the overall, you know, there are certain. There are large transplantation centers that are handling transplantations both, you know, in the U.S. and also around the world. Of course, I think that we've mentioned the, in Europe, the pricing is different. The, you know, the regulation is different. The payer is different. You know, the way a reimbursement happens is different. In certain areas, the standard of care is different than the U.S. There are, you know what, there are a lot of question marks regarding the rest of the world. You know, obviously we're focusing right now on the U.S. because that's the key market and that's where we're, you know, initiating our commercialization steps.
I think that we've said this several times in the past, once we get approval and launch, we will certainly look to maximize the value outside of the U.S.
Okay. As you look at your other motixafortide programs with the two PDAC programs and the cell gene therapy program, how do you look at those in terms of opportunity? I mean, you know, you have some geographical expansion partners there. You know, what do you see when you see those in terms of opportunities, and how do you rank them?
Yeah. I mean, pancreatic cancer is a huge market. It would open up if we have successful data, you know, both in the study that's going to be initiating in China as well as the one that's happening at Columbia University. We believe that, you know, the next steps would be something much more significant and much more global. That's obviously not only in pancreatic cancer. We think that if it works in pancreatic cancer, it's likely to work in several other indications. So we look that as a huge, you know, potential market. Of course, pancreatic cancer is a difficult indication and, you know, it's a high risk indication, but also, you know, very high reward.
I, you know, I think that that would be obviously a. If we do see the results that we're hoping to see, that could be a, you know, obviously a very, very, you know, significant opportunity for us. In gene therapy, I think that's also something that, we look at as, you know, a high potential. You know, there are a lot of, you know, there are new therapies that are being developed that, and we hope that there are gonna be several gene therapies, you know, in the next 18 to 24 months that will receive approval.
We think they all require a substantial number of cells. We believe that we are very well positioned to move into that market, because of, you know, what we believe to be, you know, we believe that we're a highly differentiated and very robust mobilization agent. We think that that will, you know, also be a key area of growth for us in the future.
Okay, great. Yeah, lots of opportunities for that.
Yes.
the manufacturing and CMC side, I guess those efforts are progressing as expected and there'll be sufficient quantities. I believe you have those arrangements with Biokine. I think that that's still still current. Do you look for perhaps another partner as you expand, you know, further perhaps geographically to have, you know, another manufacturer to support global operations?
Biokine is the licensor for motixafortide, but they are not the manufacturer. They were the original licensor to us of the product. Our manufacturers are, you know, larger, well-established manufacturers, for the API in the U.S. and for the drug product in Europe, and we don't see any problems meeting our, you know, current demand over, you know, the next number of years. That really isn't an issue from our perspective at this point.
Okay, great. Thank you, Phil. Appreciate it.
All right. Thanks, John. Have a great day.
There are no further questions at this time. Before I ask Mr. Phil Serlin to go ahead with his closing statement, I would like to remind participants that a replay of this call is scheduled to begin two hours after the conference. In the U.S., please call 1-888-295-2634. In Israel, please call 03-925-5904. Internationally, please call 9723-925-5904. Mr. Serlin, would you like to make your concluding statement?
Yes, thank you. Thank you, operator. In closing, we are progressing through 2023 with significant momentum. We are preparing for the potential U.S. approval of our first therapy in stem cell mobilization, and our commercial organization is readying for a robust launch with a highly experienced team. We have initiated a new program in an additional and important transplant area by entering into a collaboration to execute a clinical trial with motixafortide as a mobilization agent in gene therapies. We are also making notable progress in our pancreatic cancer program and anticipate important data from a first-line investigator-initiated study later this year, as well as the initiation of our GenFleet collaboration study. I am very pleased with our progress during the first quarter, and I'm very excited about what we are in the process of achieving this year.
Thank you all very much for your continued interest in BioLineRx, and we look forward to providing our next comprehensive update in August. Be safe and have a great day. Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes the BioLineRx first quarter 2023 conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.