Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today for another virtual investor lunch break segment featuring AIM ImmunoTech. My name is Jenene Thomas. I am CEO of JTC IR, and I will be the moderator for today's event. I am very pleased to be joined by Thomas Equels. Tom is Chief Executive Officer of AIM ImmunoTech. Welcome, Tom. So happy to have you.
Good to be here, Jenene. Thank you for having me.
Absolutely. So we are excited to showcase AIM today on our platform and share with all of you the story. For today's event, we will start with a corporate overview from Tom, followed by questions from myself and the audience. Before we get started, I just want to remind our audience that AIM ImmunoTech is publicly listed on the NYSE American and trades under the ticker AIM. And during today's discussion, the company will be making forward-looking statements, and I encourage everyone to view the company's latest SEC filings on their website at aimimmuno.com for the latest information. So Tom, we are here to hear the AIM story, so I'm gonna turn it over to you.
Thank you, Jenene, and thank you for your interest in AIM. I really appreciate all of the stockholders and potential investors that are here today to see what we've done and what we're doing. I'm gonna focus on our primary experimental drug that we're developing, Ampligen, also known as rintatolimod. Ampligen is a Toll-like receptor 3 agonist and a very powerful immunomodulator, and as such, it has demonstrated preclinical as well as clinical efficacy in a number of different disease areas: immuno-oncology, immune disorders, and viral diseases.
We have a broad pipeline that we're developing across multiple unmet needs, and by unmet needs, what I mean is, these are areas where there's no other effective therapy out there, which is providing a desperately needed medical therapy for those who have these diseases, but also presents an opportunity in that, we're able to serve a market that is not being addressed, we believe, by other competing drugs. This pipeline has a number of oncology applications, pancreatic cancer, metastatic pancreatic cancer, locally advanced. Both, we have data showing Ampligen's efficacy as a single agent, and we're developing now programs to show its efficacy in combination with checkpoint inhibitors.
In advanced recurrent ovarian cancer, powerful data has been coming out of our phase II trial, showing that Ampligen dramatically enhances the efficacy of pembrolizumab, otherwise known as Keytruda. When you compare the Keytruda efficacy to the combined efficacy, it just blows your socks off. With regard to late-stage pancreatic cancer, our early access program in the Netherlands has been completed with over 50 subjects. Again, it's showing Ampligen as a standalone agent in pancreatic cancer, when looking at well-matched historical controls, is extending both progression-free survival and overall survival in this dread disease. Everybody understands pancreatic cancer is a lethal, unmet oncological need. Our work in long COVID and ME/CFS somewhat goes together.
We established a tremendous safety profile in ME/CFS, and we're seeing in Long COVID a syndrome that is very similar to what ME/CFS is. And we believe that over time, we'll be able to establish Ampligen as a therapeutic for purposes of aiding people with Long COVID, which is expressing it through itself through post-exertional malaise, sleep disorders, profound fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction. Now, Ampligen is unique among Toll-like receptor agonists, especially Toll-like receptor 3 agonists. Many of you are familiar with some of the Toll-like receptor 3 agonists out there. They can be a very powerful immune stimulant, but the problem is they are generally very toxic.
Ampligen is unique because its structure is such that it does not create the inflammation that is seen with these other toll-like receptor 3 agonists, but still has the immunomodulatory impact. Our safety profile is extremely well developed. We have over 100,000 doses, IV, of Ampligen in humans, with it being generally well tolerated. Intranasally, we did a phase I safety study, clinical safety study, establishing that Ampligen in a variety of doses, dose levels, is generally well tolerated. Furthermore, intraperitoneally, this is especially important for cancers such as ovarian cancer, the safety study of Ampligen established Ampligen as generally well tolerated. So there, there's no serious safety issues that are flowing from our use of Ampligen, which allows us access into a number of clinical trials based upon our safety profile.
We have an approval in Argentina, we have positive phase III data in CFS, and with regard to the work that we're doing in PD-1 and PD-L1 enhancement, the data that's coming out has been extremely positive. So, so all things considered, you know, having a drug that is generally well-tolerated without the serious adverse events seen with other competing competitive Toll-like receptor agonists, combined with these demonstrations of efficacy in these different disease areas, it creates value as well as the potential for a well-needed therapy. Now, I'd like to go into our oncology program and explain why we shifted in 2016 into oncology in a serious way. Our oncology program that we have underway today is our top priority.
I mean, we're doing other things in other areas, but clearly we are focused on oncology, and we believe the greatest opportunity to bring a needed therapy for lethal unmet medical needs and serve the people that we're here to serve, combined with the most important space where we can create long-term stockholder value, is in oncology. Now, our work in oncology is based upon a mechanism of action, which the clinical experimental endpoints that we've been developing over the past several years has now provided a tremendous amount of support. So this is not just conjecture. There's clinical data to support what we're talking about, as well as clinical data showing efficacy of Ampligen on a standalone basis, as well as in combination with checkpoint inhibitors. So this is more than just pie in the sky.
You know, the clinical work that we've done since 2016 establishes this is a real potential opportunity, and it's based upon Ampligen's unique impact, where it modifies the microenvironment of most solid tumors. Keep in mind, solid tumors typically have epithelial surfaces that are rich with Toll-like receptor 3 , receptors, which is why Ampligen has an opportunity to work. But with most solid tumors, what we are seeing is Ampligen modifies the tumor microenvironment so as to convert cold tumors, these are tumors that are immunosuppressive or that the immune system is not seeing, into hot tumors. In other words, tumors that the immune system and checkpoint blockade drugs, can identify and then work to destroy.
This happens by a shift in the ratio between intratumoral T effector cells, often called killer T cells, and intratumoral Treg cells, sometimes called suppressor T cells. In those tumors that are immunosuppressed or cold tumors, what we often see in the microenvironment is that the suppressor T cell count is high and the killer T cell count is low. Ampligen works to shift that ratio so that the suppressor T cell count drops and the killer T cell count is boosted. Now, probably the most important aspect of this is the suppressor T cell count. Many of you may not know why these intratumoral Treg cells are called suppressor T cells. It's because they suppress an immune response, and this is what makes these tumors immunosuppressed. This is what makes these tumors unresponsive to checkpoint blockade therapies.
We change that equation with the Ampligen. All of our work that we've done since we initiated our cancer programs in 2016 has not just been devoted to getting data on safety and efficacy, but also every one of these studies is laden with experimental endpoints that help us to not only understand why Ampligen's working and how Ampligen's working, but also to prove through those mechanisms that the responsive effect that is seen from one study to another, the positive responsive effect is due to the operation of Ampligen in the process. Now, the cancers we're working in, I'm gonna go over these cancers and show you what we're doing, but also, I wanna tie this into our bigger picture. Everybody knows that pancreatic cancer is a serious, lethal, unmet oncological need.
And our work here is very important because many people that suffer from pancreatic cancer, late-stage pancreatic cancer, have very few therapeutic options. In the United States alone, approximately 50,000 people die from this disease. Worldwide, it's 500,000 people.... We're also targeting, in the work that we're doing in the clinic, advanced recurrent ovarian cancer, Stage 4 triple-negative breast cancer, late-stage colorectal cancer, late-stage melanoma. The work we're doing there is very important, and we're seeing strong clinical results flowing from these projects. But there's a bigger picture here as well. What we're showing is the impact of Ampligen on the tumor microenvironment to create the hot tumor, you know, that the immune system and some of these immunological drugs can identify is a broad-spectrum effect. Ampligen is a host-based therapy.
It's not addressing a particular tumor type. It's a change, you know, in the host that is changing the tumor's microenvironment generally. We believe it will work on a broad-spectrum basis on a large number of different types of solid tumors. That's why we do this work in these various tumors. Additionally, we believe that same broad-spectrum aspect translates to different types of checkpoint blockade therapies. Now, we started off. Our very first major incursion as an experimental drug in oncology began in late 2016 when we got Dutch government approval to commence an early access program for late-stage pancreatic cancer. Now, late-stage pancreatic cancer is basically a one-way ticket with a very short fuse, and there's a desperate need for therapy there.
Ampligen by itself, over the past several years, has demonstrated significant increases in progression-free survival and overall survival. We've treated over 50 subjects in this early access program, which is now concluding. And the data flowing from it has helped us not only with our structuring of new opportunities for clinical development in pancreatic cancer, but also in these other cancers. So if you go to our website, this slide deck is on our website, you can spend some time looking at some of the data and charts that relate to our late-stage pancreatic cancer program in the Netherlands. It's very compelling, especially under the circumstances of this known and dread lethal malignancy. We are also now moving into our phase II in pancreatic cancer. You know, the stepping from the early access program into phase II studies.
One involves locally advanced pancreatic cancer, where Ampligen is a single agent, and the other involves the use of Ampligen in conjunction with a checkpoint blockade therapy, a PD-L1 inhibitor known as durvalumab. We're doing this in collaboration with AstraZeneca, and that durvalumab is AstraZeneca's drug. Its trade name is Imfinzi. And the subjects. We have several subjects. They're receiving treatment as we speak, and we're enrolling in that study fairly rapidly. Another study that we have involves a collaboration with Merck at the University of Pittsburgh in advanced recurrent ovarian cancer. And that study is equally important because what it's doing is showing the synergistic impact of Ampligen on Merck's pembrolizumab, also known as Keytruda.
In advanced recurrent ovarian cancer, there's a Merck study that was done called Keynote-100, which is showing efficacy levels from pembrolizumab alone, and I think there were two cohorts, one at 7.1%, another at 9.3%. It roughly averaging out at about 8% efficacy. But when you add Ampligen to the mix, what we're seeing is a dramatic boost in clinical efficacy based on both ORR, which is complete responses and partial responses, as well as clinical benefit when you include stable disease. We're seeing very powerful synergy there in the ovarian cancer tumor, where Ampligen is combined with Keytruda. We hope to see that same thing in pancreatic cancer, where Ampligen is combined with durvalumab.
Now, you may ask, "Well, why is this important?" Obviously, it's very important because advanced recurrent ovarian cancer is a lethal malignancy. These are women who have reached the end of the line. The treatments that they've received have not worked. The cancer has recurred. So having an effective therapy there is very important. The same thing with pancreatic cancer. But what we hope to show is also by experimenting with these two different checkpoint blockade drugs, is Ampligen's impact in enhancing the synergistic response when combined with checkpoint inhibitors, PD-L1, PD-1, Imfinzi, Keytruda, and any other checkpoint inhibitor... So we're using this broader net to see the broad spectrum impact of our drug in this space, which is a very, very important space in oncology right now. We have a number of other oncology studies underway.
Not only our website, you know, is available where you can see it, but clinicaltrials.gov. And also, there have been, over the past 2.5 years, a host of publications, peer-reviewed publications in major cancer journals, abstracts and presentations at major cancer organization conventions, so that you can see the what the independent oncology community is saying about Ampligen or rintatolimod. And you can also see what the principal investigators are publishing related to the studies that they're working on. Keep in mind, these studies are studies that are conducted at major, highly respected cancer institutes in Europe and the United States, and are led by some of the finest oncology researchers in the world in their special areas. Like for example, Dr.
Robert Edwards at Pitt is probably a world class oncologist with regard to gynecological oncology. Casper van Eijck at Erasmus at the top of the heap when it comes to research related to advanced pancreatic cancer. So these publications are well worth the time it takes to read, especially if you have on your staff or available to you medical or scientific experts who can read the materials and give you a report on what these things say. 'Cause what they have to say is very important about the future of Ampligen, not just to the people who need therapy, but also to those who have invested or intend to invest in the clinical trials that we're trying to move forward with.
Now, I'd like to talk a little bit about some areas which, as I said, oncology is our top priority, but we haven't abandoned the work we're doing in chronic fatigue and long COVID. In fact, we're moving steadily along. So it's not been neglected in any respect. But these are chronic disorders, so the ability to do clinical work and to obtain analysis requires a long-term commitment. And overall, in many respects, it's much more expensive because most of the work that we've done in oncology has been funded by various grants from industry collaborators, from governmental organizations, like the National Cancer Institute, to some extent, the Department of Defense.
So the oncology work has sources of non-dilutive funding that we've used, I think, very effectively. But much of the work that we have to do in this area here, we have to fund. So it requires a more careful analysis, and it moves slower. But the fact is that we have demonstrated the potential for therapeutic improvement in chronic fatigue, known as ME/CFS. And you'll see these graphs here are very indicative of the therapeutic impact, especially in the early-stage diseases of, you know, at more than two years, but less than eight years. We see a delta between placebo and the Ampligen cohort of 33%, and we're looking at 51% efficacy in that Ampligen cohort.
Similarly, we believe we have opportunities to engage Ampligen as a therapeutic for an unmet medical need, which is post-COVID, exhibiting chronic fatigue-like conditions, of fatigue, brain fog, sleep disorders, joint pain. And we did a phase II study where we got what we consider positive top-line data. Now, the full data report is not completed yet. We're awaiting that. But the point of this relatively small phase II was to guide us on the inclusion criteria that we will use for our next study, so that we can select those areas where we know that we'll have very strong response to Ampligen as a therapeutic. And we'll keep you up to date on our progress with regard to post-COVID chronic fatigue-like conditions, because as I said, it's an unmet medical need.
And it's gonna be a serious problem in the United States alone. We're looking at millions of people that are exhibiting severe post-COVID chronic fatigue-like conditions. So a therapy is needed, and the social consequences in terms of money are very expensive. But even more importantly, in what it's doing to lives of the people who suffer from it and their families, the wasted investment in education and training in the job force that's lost because they can't return to work just like they can't return to full family life. You know, this is something that we believe is important, and we'll continue to work at as rapidly as we can afford to do so.
Now, our viral disease programs, Ampligen, and we believe that this is something that can't be overlooked, but at the same time, we can't prioritize it because we're a small company, and we can only do so much at once. And we believe oncology is the most important thing for us. But Ampligen, in preclinical work, has demonstrated a very positive impact across a wide range of different classes of viruses. For example, this is a graph here of Ampligen creating 100% survival in SARS-CoV-infected mice, where the control group, the non-Ampligen infected mice, had 100% mortality.
We see this again and again with Ebola, with you know, a number of highly lethal viruses on a preclinical basis. The problem with some of these deadly viral disorders is it's impossible to effectively conduct clinical trials the same way you would in oncology, for example. Because, let's take the original SARS, which is the SARS-CoV-1 virus that you see in this graph. You know, people experienced severe symptoms very quickly, and there was a very high rate of mortality, and this all took place in just a few weeks.
So, so your ability to catch that, is, is tough, but, but we have every belief that the Ampligen is a very strong player, against SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and other SARS-related viruses, as well as viruses such as influenza, you know, rhinoviruses, RSV. So the, you know, the Ampligen as an antiviral is something that we're working on, but we cannot move rapidly there, until we've fully developed our oncology program. Now, in terms of corporate overview, we've, been working, especially over the past six or seven years, to, develop a strong, intellectual property portfolio, to surround and protect our composition of matter patent. That composition of matter patent runs through 2029, but these new patents that are issuing...
For example, we just recently had a U.S. patent issued for Ampligen, as a combination therapy with PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors. Now, now what that does is that creates a new runway of intellectual property protection, and also, we've worked very, hard in the orphan drug designation area. For example, if you're not familiar with orphan drug designations, that designation by the FDA and the EMA confers market exclusivity subsequent to drug approval. In the United States, it's seven years. In Europe, it's ten years. We recently received orphan drug designation in pancreatic cancer for Ampligen as a therapy, and we have a number of other, orphan drug designations in various viruses and, and chronic fatigue. Our management team is proven. It's well experienced. We're working hard.
We're committed to the goals that we've set, especially because we feel deep in our heart that we're gonna be able to help people, people that have no hope, people that have no therapy for some of these lethal malignancies, that right now, you just don't have much of a choice. And we wanna provide a choice so that they have a therapeutic opportunity for survival and extension of life. Our milestones, you can see that, in this first quarter, we've hit a number of milestones, and similarly, in the second quarter, we're following up. We expect the final data set in the AMP-518 post-COVID conditions trial. The work that we're doing in pancreatic cancer, we're expecting to have subjects that are in therapy certainly this year.
With regard to the combination pancreatic cancer program for metastatic pancreatic cancer, we are already treating several subjects. In advanced recurrent ovarian cancer, we've been seeing spectacular results published by the University of Pittsburgh, showing that instead of the 8% on average that pembrolizumab achieves alone, we're seeing 50%-60% numbers being posted in these publications from the preliminary data of that program, and we're awaiting the protocol programmed interim results, and as soon as we have those, we're gonna announce those. That could be in the next few weeks, certainly. So we're moving forward in terms of our milestones, and we've been fortunate because we've hit these milestones, sometimes not right on target in terms of time, but we're achieving what we've set out to achieve.
Keep in mind, one of the things that I mentioned that's a positive, which is that the studies that we're doing in oncology, many of those are investigator-sponsored studies funded by grant money. But the downside of that, even though we're collaborators in those programs, is that we can't control the timing as if it were an AIM-sponsored study. So we have to be flexible. If something we're expecting in Q1, if the university that's doing the clinical trial, you know, has issues, whatever, and it's Q2, we just have to accept that and be flexible in that respect. Now, you know, many of you may ask, "Why AIM, why now?" I certainly have been a true believer in Ampligen and its potential. That's why I'm here.
That's why I've, over the years, invested significant sums of money in AIM stock. And our stock price, I believe, is undervalued. But if you look, you'll see that unlike a lot of biotech stocks, which often are operating based upon you know, in vitro experiments or some preclinical mouse data, we not only have all that in vitro data and the animal experiment data to support what we're doing, we have numerous clinical trials, human data, that are demonstrating our potential as that data is published. So that's why AIM, why now? Because you don't have to be Nostradamus to see, when you look at these publications of data, that there is opportunity here. The potential is real. It's not pie in the sky.
And examine that potential for yourself, and I believe that you'll look at AIM the same way I do. So I thank you very much, and really appreciate your interest in our company and our projects. And Jenene, to the extent anybody has any questions, I'm prepared to help out.
Excellent. Tom, great presentation. Congratulations on all of your progress. We are going to turn over to Q&A to answer a few questions, which I believe we have time for. So to our audience, and there are some that already submitted some questions, but to our audience, if you'd like to submit a question, click the Q&A button at the bottom of the screen, type in your question, and we will get to as many as time allows. So as we look, so Tom, while questions are coming in, I have a question for you. So, you know, we are well, now well into 2024. Can you explain your thoughts?
You kind of did so with the why AIM, why now, but just diving in a little bit deeper, explain your thoughts and optimism related to AIM for 2024, for our shareholders, as well as potential shareholders tuning into this event.
Well, certainly. You know, the potential of AIM is something that I understand because I'm hands-on in our research programs, and you know, much of the intellectual property over the past six years is intellectual property that I've been instrumental in developing. And so seeing these ideas, you know, turn into clinical programs that are being proven as the data comes out, you know, is very meaningful to me. Because, you know, it's a vision, and sometimes visions don't always work out the way you think. But in this particular instance, our clinical progress is justifying the change in focus that our management team that we have today made, back in 2016.
Now, you know, my confidence and support of AIM, I think, is demonstrated by the fact that over the period of time that I've been CEO, when I'm allowed to... Remember, there are restrictions on what I can and can't do in terms of stock transactions, but I've invested $hundreds of thousands in AIM stock over that period, and even just recently. And I do that because I believe that it's an opportunity that's an important one from an investment standpoint, as well as in what we're doing. You know, I think what we're doing here in pancreatic cancer, advanced recurrent ovarian cancer, in trying to provide a therapy for people who may have lost all hope, we're doing God's work there. You know, this is critical.
You know, you know, women who've reached the end of the line with advanced recurrent ovarian cancer need to have these therapies in order to live and be with their family. So, so you know, that too is, for me, why AIM, why now, why this is important, and, and why we would appreciate any support that we can get, you know, from our stockholders, and the investment community in helping us to achieve these goals. Clinical research is difficult. This is not like we're making widgets and selling them, all right? Where you have a cash flow and all that. Clinical research costs money. You know, much of the research that I've done has been a little bit like, Tom Sawyer's fence. You know, getting the people to paint the fence, in the old Tom Sawyer story.
We're getting, you know, the work done through these various grants, because they're supplying this grant money and this activity because they, too, believe in Ampligen. You know, they're not putting out millions of dollars in clinical trial expense money in the form of grants just for fun. They're doing it because they understand the scientific proposition and the opportunity, not as an investment, but as an opportunity to make therapeutic progress in that space.
Got it. Okay, Tom, we did have a question that was pre-submitted before the event, so I'm gonna start with that one. The question came in as, "On February 16th, a Form 8-K was released. The 8-K does not appear to be favorable conditions to shareholders. Can you discuss the intended use of these funds, and how will the funds be allocated?
The document describing that loan transaction is fully disclosed in the 8-K, but there are no restrictions on the use of funds, but the principal use of those funds is to support, on a short term, some of the clinical activities that we're moving forward with. I mean, we're expending large sums of money in some of these clinical trials that are AIM-sponsored trials.
Right, and then just to follow on that, how do they intend to make payments when there's no income stream?
The payments for that loan will probably come as a result of different other financing methods that we have available, that we've used historically and will probably use in the future, such as our at-the-market facility. Any kind of raise that we might do in the future based upon good data resulting from some of these studies, it often presents an opportunity to raise money. You know, so, we can't forget that you start a clinical trial, you can't stop it, and then just start right up again without tremendous additional expense, and sometimes lack of credibility with the various sites that are conducting the trial.
When we start clinical trials, we have to finish them, and if we need the cash to finish them, we have to raise the money.
Okay. All right, our next question is: "Across your pipeline, what program do you believe is the greatest opportunity and closest to a value creation event?
I believe that the greatest opportunity that we have right now exists in the work that we're doing in pancreatic cancer and advanced recurrent ovarian cancer, especially in the combination of Ampligen with the different checkpoint inhibitor drugs that we're experimenting with. The two programs that are going on right now are one in collaboration with AstraZeneca, the other in collaboration with Merck, utilizing their checkpoint drugs. These are principally funded using resources other than AIM resources. We supply the drug. We supply some level of support, but the bulk of the financial obligation for those clinical trials is underwritten through grant money.
And to the extent that, that we see the kind of results in pancreatic cancer with durvalumab that we're seeing in advanced recurrent ovarian cancer and Stage IV triple-negative breast cancer when we combine Ampligen with Keytruda, means that, that we are creating a broad-spectrum opportunity for Ampligen as a synergistic agent for immunotherapies, such as checkpoint inhibitor drugs generally. And that's a big space, and it's a place where the data that's coming out so far is extremely positive.
Okay. Next question is: "Are you opening back up open-label access for Long COVID and ME/CFS? Will you allow open label for cancer, and is there enough available drug to allow this?" I can go back. That was a three-part question, so I can go back.
I understood the question. We are not expanding the Compassionate Care Program that's approved by the FDA at this moment. We have a number of subjects that are in that program. We're trying our best to continue those programs because the people appear to be receiving clinical benefit as a result of their use of Ampligen for chronic fatigue related illnesses. But those programs, if opened up generally, would take up a tremendous amount of our drug. Now, Ampligen in mass manufacture at high volume can be manufactured relatively cheaply, we believe. However, we're not in a position to do that. We have to make Ampligen in smaller lots. It's extremely expensive.
We're continuing our manufacturing processes to assure that we have sufficient Ampligen for our clinical trial obligations. We budget these things. But in budgeting them, our first priority needs to be for those clinical trials that are designed to create opportunities for drug approval in areas that are extremely important, such as pancreatic cancer or advanced recurrent ovarian cancer, and with the opportunity to have sufficient drug for next steps. If we complete these phase II studies with powerful results, our next move is into phase III-type studies, which are extremely expensive in their own right and have to be AIM-sponsored, principally, but also would require a significantly large amount of drug for the study. So that's why we can't just open up compassionate care to innumerable persons.
Even though they may need it, we don't have the resources to do both.
Right. Okay, Tom, we do have time for one more question before we close. So, can you discuss your development and commercialization strategy across your pipeline? For instance, if you are successful in pancreatic cancer with AstraZeneca, will that open the door to licensing talks with AZ?
That, that's really up to AstraZeneca. One would think that they're a collaborator, and if it's extremely successful, and especially given their support of the program, you know, that would be a logical next step. But I can't say what AstraZeneca is gonna do or not do as a part of their overall business strategy. Similarly, with Merck. I mean, Merck has been very supportive of a number of different Ampligen plus Keytruda studies that have taken place. And the data coming out of those studies is very strong. But whether that moves Merck to a next step, I don't know. You know, going from collaborator to a partnership agreement, and then to a licensing agreement, these are important steps for these large pharma companies, and a lot of it is dictated by their overall strategy.
But what I do know is we've hired Azenova as a business development effort. They're experts in moving drugs into oncology licensing agreements. And if we can't find people we're working with now that are interested in moving forward, there are other companies out there that may be interested, and it's our intention to be pitching Ampligen as a licensing partner in oncology over the next year and a half. It's a very well-thought-out broad program, and we're gonna try and make sure that we get in front of every potential candidate that might wanna partner up or license with us related to Ampligen in oncology.
Great. Tom, this does conclude the time we have today. Any closing remarks before we give everyone a proper farewell?
Oh, I just wanna say, again, thank you to JTC, Jenene, for the great work you've done, and thank you to our investors and stockholders that have been supporting this effort. I also wanna say that let's remember, our motto here at AIM is immunology for a better future. That better future is a better future for people who have unmet medical needs, people who are facing death, you know, or serious debilitating illness. So we're trying to make a difference there, and that's very important to us. But that better future also is a priority for us when it comes to the investors in AIM, the people who are helping us to get to that place. We can't do it without investors because this is research, you know, and the research costs money.
But if we're successful in this research, the opportunities could also be very beneficial.
Well, Tom, perfect way to close that. Thank you so much. This does conclude the Virtual Investor Lunch Break, featuring of me, AIM ImmunoTech. I'd like to extend a huge thank you to Thomas Equels for joining us today. I'd also like to thank you, our audience, for your participation and great questions, as always. As a reminder, AIM trades on the NYSE American under the ticker AIM. If you like what you saw today, I encourage you to visit aimimmuno.com for more information on the company, and to sign up to follow the company to receive their alerts, as well as follow their social channels to stay current on the latest information. You can also visit virtualinvestorco.com for the replay of today's event, as well as our latest schedules and calendar of events.
With that, I'd like to say, wishing everyone a great afternoon, and thanks again, Tom.
Thank you. Bye-bye.