Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome to the next presentation of today's healthcare conference. I'm happy to welcome Andreas Grassauer, CEO of Marinomed Biotech. Andreas will walk us through the company's presentation and will answer all of your questions in the following Q&A session. Before we dive in, a quick housekeeping note: the conference is being recorded, and all participants are in a listen-only mode. If you have questions for the Q&A session, please submit them using the chat box down there, and you can do that in German or English. I will translate the German questions. Without further ado, I suggest we get going. Andreas, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Oliver. Thank you very much, everybody, for joining, and thank you to MWB for allowing us to be present in this conference. I'm going to take you to a journey into pharmaceutical drug development challenges there and how Marinomed is tackling that after a very interesting year in the past. We're doing what we are doing with an experienced management team. We have clinical-proven, disruptive, potentially disruptive technology. We have several late-stage assets in partnering, doing that with a very lean and efficient business model. The company is financially restructured, and we have just posted profits from our asset sale. How are we doing that? We're listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange in the standard market segment. Roughly 70% of our shares are free-floating, and management and founders hold around 25%.
There are two long-term investors from the Saudi Arabian Peninsula that are with us since 2006. What are we doing? We are solubilizing compounds, and there is a huge need for that. There are around 15,000 drugs currently under development; 20,000 have failed in the past 30 years. You see there is a high attrition rate on that. We have around 3,000 drugs that are small molecular drugs that have been approved, and 90% of those drugs in development fall into the category of these two low-solubility categories. That means they are hardly soluble or practically insoluble. This is a challenge because if a drug is not soluble, it cannot act. To demonstrate what our technology can do, I will show you here an example just for illustrative purposes.
In water, curcumin, probably you know it, for it's a plant-derived drug, also for purposes of food use, widely known. It's practically insoluble in water, and with our technology, we can solubilize, and we can also stably solubilize. That's what you see on the right side in this orange clear solution on the left part of the right side. You can see alternative solubilization technology, so solubilization enhances the fail to really solubilize curcumin. We've shown that not for this drug, but for a lot of drugs, and you can see that it's a wide range of compounds that we are able to solubilize. Depending on how insoluble they are, we can increase the solubility much higher.
For example, to give you an example, the blood pressure drug that is practically insoluble, we were able to increase the solubility up to a scale of more than 600,000 fold. That is interesting. What is the business model behind? How are we doing that? We call this technology Marinosolve technology, and we are developing it in in-house projects to lead projects through the Solve for Tacrosolve. How do we earn money with that? We are collecting upfront payments, milestones, and royalty payments from these assets. We have client-sponsored Solve for You projects. Solve for You is the brand we offer the technology to customers in a cost-plus model. We work for those customers, and once they reach a more mature state, we collect the milestones and royalties, technology royalties, that are obviously lower than royalties when it is in-house developed projects where we took the development risk.
We have our Solve for You research services, where we do not have practically a patent protection, but we have an internal know-how, and here we offer that as a service for fee, as we learned that some of our services are unique to us, and we can make additional money when we offer that to third parties. You see that we have a series of clients, a growing customer base around the world that has just recently increased in Europe, and it is growing. These projects, once they further develop, are also the future of the company because once these projects enter commercial stage, we will get these milestone payments and royalty payments. This is about the customer projects, and for us and for you as investors, the pipeline of in-house projects is probably most interesting.
Budesolf, our treatment for severe allergic rhinitis that has already successfully completed the phase three clinical trial, is probably most interesting for investors because it is about to take the next milestones in this very interesting market. We believe, and we are very convinced that we can disrupt this market for allergic rhinitis because this market, especially the market for nasal steroids, bears a systemic flaw. All the existing products fall short of patient needs and market opportunities. Why is that the case? You see a lot of these products, probably some of you also use them if you are an allergic patient. Those products, all those products contain preservatives. They are not sterile. They have a slow onset of action. What does it mean, a slow onset of action?
In some of those leaflets, you will find in small letters that it may take up to two weeks until you get full efficacy once you use the product. Just imagine you're an allergic patient. You take a product, and it really takes time until you reach full efficacy, especially currently in Austria. I'm located in Austria. We have grass pollen currently ongoing, so you don't have time to, grass pollen, don't wait. It's really, and because of the, there's really room for improvement. Because of the insolubility, it requires high doses. Of course, all of them have faced generic competition. To our point of view, those products represent the Nokia phone of the 2,000 years. We believe there is a need for an iPhone in this market. How will it look like? It's a fully solubilized Marinosolve-enabled corticosteroid nasal spray.
What can our clear solution do? It is a preservative-free formulation. The bioavailability is high due to the solubility of the active pharmaceutical ingredient. It has a fast onset of action immediately after the first dose, and we've shown that in clinical trial, whereas it takes up for five to eight days with the competitor. Just to give you an example, when we conducted our phase three clinical trial, the health authorities required us to treat the patients for eight days until we could do our head-to-head non-inferiority trial. That was the primary endpoint of the phase three trial. Of course, we had a secondary endpoint, but we showed the fast onset of action. We did that with a lower dose, less than 30% of that of the originators. We can reduce the dose, and we have a patent protection.
This is a clinically proven technology that can disrupt, has the potential to disrupt this market. How would that look like if you would be able to introduce a technology into that market? Of course, we need to understand this market. This market is composed of antihistamines, probably you know them. Then you have corticosteroids, both of which together make around 80% of the market, and you still. And immunotherapy, hypersensitization therapies. If you model a transformation of the market, a model that you would certainly reach something around 30% of that market and a technology share of that market of 30%, you can see that the rapidly bearing potential of that market is around $5 billion in 10 years. Of course, that does not happen from one day after the other. You have to invest and have to transform this market.
What you need there is to understand the next thing, that the allergic rhinitis market is not fully clear whether it's over-the-counter. It's not a pure market when it turns on prescription or over-the-counter. It's different in different geographic locations. For example, in the U.S., it's purely OTC. In Canada, it's an Rx market, a prescription market. In South America, it's different. In Europe, it's mainly Rx with the exception of some northern parts. In China, for example, it's also an OTC market. It depends really in which geographic location you are, and that necessarily also determines the partnership you need. When OTC markets, you need a marketing-oriented partner, whereas in Rx countries, you need a partner for marketing that understands how to market Rx products. It's a segmented situation. In addition, you need three pillars to achieve this market transformation.
It requires a combined strategy based on a superior technology and, of course, a partner with industry footprint. You guessed it already, Marinomed is not planning to transform that market alone. We bring on the table the superior product with a fast onset of action, clinically proved, sterile, preservative-free, low dose, and with the IP protection. The partners or the partner needs to bring the carrier brand, the marketing, and regulatory expertise. You need a marketing concept, a winning marketing concept, a rollout strategy. Also, together with the partner, we take care of cost-effective production. That is an important requirement. The switch to OTC, where needed, is also part of that strategy. In addition, the partner requires or needs regulatory expertise and public relations. We need to transport the message that it is unhealthy to spray preservatives in the nose.
Of course, medical professionals know that for a long time, but people, customers, they need to get educated that you will also communicate that the lower dose is better for the patient and less steroids are better for the environment. That is something one could really use and communicate, and that has to be done together in partnerships. The reason how we are going, the way we are going forward with this asset is to engage in partnership and get it partnered, and the partner should do the marketing. If that is already the case, and if you know our company, you know that we have this phase three data for quite some time, why are we not yet already on the market?
The reason is that we had the clinical phase three formulation of the product that was tested in clinical trials bear an insufficient stability at room temperature. That was shelf life limiting, so we had to improve the packaging and had to change the formulation. That, of course, had regulatory implications. If the product that you tested in the phase three clinical trial, and that's what you want to bring to the market, differs, you have to go back to the health authorities and clarify what program, what development program you are required to do. That happened to what we did. We went to the Swiss Medic in February and got the response that we have a way forward for that. We have a filing strategy for that. What are we doing here?
The difference between those two products, the one that was in the clinical trials and the one that we intend to bring to the market, is very limited. The Swiss Medic more or less agreed that we simply conduct a pharmacokinetic study, bridging study that shows that there is no difference between the clinical product tested in clinical trials and the product intended for the market. That is regarded as proof of bioequivalence, similar to what you would do in a generic development program. It is very fast forward. It is not very, it costs a couple of hundred thousand EUR, so it is not very expensive. Basically, you spray this product in the nose of healthy patients and check how much of the drug enters the bloodstream and that there is no difference between the two products. Pretty fast forward study.
In parallel, we established a large-scale production with an external contract manufacturing organization that we have already identified. Together with that production partner, we prepared a dossier and planned to file for marketing authorization together with our partner in Switzerland that we have recently announced that we have entered into a commercial partnership. We are not allowed to announce the name of the partner, not before the launch of the product, but we are very happy that everything is in place. Switzerland will serve as a partner country, as a reference country for a lot of other countries. Of course, partnering for the rest of the world is currently ongoing. Switzerland is just the start. We plan, Switzerland is a reference country for a lot of other countries outside the European Union.
For example, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and recently added South Korea and Brazil. We are currently engaged in adding this additional partnership. As an investor in our share, you can expect additional news on the development of this asset. Of course, a commercial partnership should also have commercial consequences, meaning that we are planning to collect milestones from partnering of this asset. Later on, once there is the marketing authorization there, we expect to get royalties on sales from this product. How is the company financed? As said in the intro, we have restructured the debt of the company last year with the consequence that we have posted the restructuring product profit of around EUR 19 million in the first quarter of 2025. We have basically reduced our debt by 70%, which was mainly owed to the European Investment Bank.
A venture loan that dated back to 2019 was restructured last year. We are eligible. We need to do our quarter payments within the next two years in five tranches. There is no interest on these unsecured liabilities. This restructuring really helps to have a healthy financial outlook for the company. To give you some look into our financials, we posted revenues of EUR 6.5 million in the first quarter, mainly from the sale of our Carragelose business that we closed in February. It was an OTC business, business of virus targeting medical devices and other products that we sold to a French company, Unither Pharmaceuticals. We are eligible of getting further payments from that so that the financial planning is much more secure than it was in the past. How will that look like?
The payments from the divestment of the Carragelose business, we already received EUR 5 million in the first quarter. We are eligible to receive up to EUR 10 million earnout payments from the financial matrix earnout, which basically is based on EBIT numbers of the business. Up to EUR 10 million earnouts from operational are targets, mainly targets from the development of the OTC eyedrops that are part of this Carragelose business. Together, those two earnouts are limited to EUR 50 million combined. Whatever reaches when the EUR 50 million are reached, it's kind of a ceiling. We are eligible of receiving up to EUR 50 million, but not more. If financial matrix reaches EUR 10 million and the other five or topsy-turvy, it's basically we will not get more than EUR 15 million. This overlapping earnout allows for much more secure financial planning.
In addition, we have a transitional service agreement as Unither Pharmaceuticals. It's a French CDMO organization, knew that they will require additional services from us. We have a monthly installment here that also helps our financing, our running costs. In addition, they agreed and have already entered into new product developments, which are project-based and which we get additional payments simply from servicing that. What is the outlook of the company? For U.S. investors, we have received positive feedback for the registration Switzerland. We've added a commercial partnership for Switzerland. We plan to add additional commercial partnerships outside Switzerland. Switzerland is the reference country for a series of other countries outside the European Union. Of course, we want to complete the work for the dossier for the submission in Switzerland in parallel progress with partners in key markets.
That could really have an interesting upside potential. Of course, I've not talked about Tacrosolv today. We are focusing on progressing that asset as well and in parallel continue progressing the existing and new partnerships in the Solve for You part. Very interesting and financially and also for the stock potential high upside for U.S. investors. With that, the outlook of our financial calendar, I conclude my talk today, and I'm open for your questions.
Thank you very much, Andreas, for the interesting presentation. Looking at the clock, we will have to be a little bit selective on the questions because we got quite a few, but we can't address them all. Maybe just a follow-up on the Carragelose divestment. What are the specific financial metrics and operational targets that will trigger the earnout payments of up to EUR 10 million each?
What is the expected timeline for these payments? Maybe you could shed some more color on that.
Basically, it's EBIT numbers of financial years that will be bigger. For example, for the year 2025, it's going to be calculated in the beginning of quarter two 2026. For 2026, it's going to be calculated in Q2 2027. It's a defined EBIT. It's revenue minus COGS minus calculated operating costs with a defined number. It's very simple to calculate. That's about the timing. The timing for the operational matrix earnout is evaluated every six months after closing the status of certain developments of the ophthalmic business. We will see there. After that, it's a special calculation, which I cannot disclose how these earnings would be, but we'll be very optimistic as the product has been launched in Austria very successfully.
Very good.
Thank you. Next question is on competition. Could you shed some light on competition such as Lonza, Hobion, SoluPlus? What is the advantage? What advantage does Marinomed have?
There is a lot of solubilization technologies, and there's a lot of micronization technologies out there. What we in particular have seen is that we are particularly successful when it comes to delivery to mucosal surfaces, reducing the dose and the bioavailability there. We think that the nose, the eyes, and the lung are prime targets for us. That is why we see here a competitive advantage of our technology. Maybe just an add-on question from my side. Does the nasal spray actually become more expensive when using your solubility solutions, or does it become cheaper because you have to use less steroids? We consider that increasing the price will not work.
We have seen that in the past that combination products with antihistamine have been launched with a very high price and have not achieved market penetration because of that. We do not expect reimbursement in our countries above the prices that are there. That is why a cost-effective, very efficient production is necessary here. As you know, from the Carragelose business, we have sold millions, double-digit millions of nasal sprays. We know the game. We know the production game. We can, or are about to, establish extremely cost-efficient production that should enable sufficient margins for us and our partners. Makes sense.
Thank you very much. Unfortunately, we are running out of time. We have got four or five more questions that we cannot answer, but we will readily hand them over to you later. Maybe we can get back to the investors with answers there.
At this point, I would like to thank you very much, Andreas, for your time and also for the attendance in this presentation. We would be very grateful if those attending could share their feedback in the feedback form, which we sent out. The next presentation will be by Vivirion Therapeutics. We have the login link in the chat box. Feel free to join. With that, I would like to hand over to you, Andreas, for any final remarks if you have any.
Just want to thank the audience. We have just published First Berlin. It has just published equity research on us. It is available on our homepage. Just click at the investor section and you will find it. Brand new, just published yesterday. Take a look there. You will find probably some answers on your questions as well.
Thank you, Andreas.
If you just would stay in for a second and bye-bye to everybody else.
Thank you. Bye-bye.