Welcome back, everyone. Our next company is InMed Pharmaceuticals. It trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol INM, and it's a global leader in the pharmaceutical research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of rare cannabinoids and cannabinoid analogs, including clinical and preclinical programs targeting the treatment of diseases with high unmet medical needs, including Alzheimer's. Please welcome its CEO, Eric Adams. Welcome to the conference today, Eric.
Great to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'll just kick things off and go straight into the presentation if that's okay. You know, we are a NASDAQ-listed company, and as such, we need to highlight that there will be forward-looking statements in this presentation. So give everyone a second to look that over. But these slides will also be available, I believe, after the presentation. Just as an overview, you know, we have a very robust research and development pipeline with 3 drug candidates right now in dermatology, ocular disease, and Alzheimer's. We successfully completed a Phase II human study in dermatology, and I'll talk a little bit about that. But we're primarily focused on the development of a library of proprietary small molecules that are cannabinoid analogs, and we're looking at these diverse pharmaceutical applications.
We also have a wholly owned subsidiary called BayMedica that is primarily manufacturing large-scale cannabinoids and providing those to the health and wellness industry. I'll just touch on that briefly. But, you know, overall, the company has a very solid patent position and other IP across the molecules that we're using, the manufacturing formulations, et cetera. As I mentioned, we kind of have two different divisions here. The parent company, InMed Pharmaceuticals, is based in Vancouver, Canada. This is primarily the pharmaceutical side of the business, looking at drug discovery, pharmaceutical R&D, and developing these drugs towards human clinical trials. We also have significant know-how in the manufacturing. And it's that manufacturing know-how that really helped us launch this BayMedica commercial business, where we are manufacturing bulk cannabinoids, and those are being used in the health and wellness industry.
In terms of our pharmaceutical pipeline, we have 3 candidates right now that we're focusing on. The first 2 are still preclinical. These are proprietary patented small molecule compounds that target a number of different pathways in the body, including the endocannabinoid system. The other one is where we completed a Phase II clinical trial in a very rare, very devastating skin disease called epidermolysis bullosa. We finished Phase II there, currently seeking strategic partnerships for that program. I want to start off talking about our lead programs now in Alzheimer's disease and in macular degeneration. We're really excited about what we're seeing in Alzheimer's disease. As most people know, it's a pretty high societal burden. I think everyone probably knows someone who has had dementia or Alzheimer's. It's a very devastating condition, and it leads to increased morbidity and mortality.
There's a couple of things that are hallmarks of this disease. It includes the buildup of these amyloid beta plaques, as well as neurofibrillary tangles that can lead to the diminishment of cognition. And really, we're starting to look at, you know, roles that cannabinoids can play in helping to alleviate these conditions, maybe even reverse the disease. But it's a very big condition that has a very huge financial impact. And, you know, right now, there's not a lot of good treatment options. What's out there has been shown to potentially slow the disease in some aspects, but not halt it nor reverse it. And so there's a big opportunity there for new molecules to come along and play an important role. Our compound is called INM-901. It's a small molecule that has a couple of different pathways to treat the disease. And let me see here.
Let me just pull up the whole slide. Yeah, there we go. So what's interesting about this compound is, you know, we started looking at the use of cannabinoids in this disease primarily from a neural protection standpoint. And what we've learned is that in the presence of these compounds, the neurons or the nerve cells that are responsible for giving us thought are protected from cell death. So they're protected from cell death under normal circumstances, as well as diseased circumstances. So they live longer than otherwise diseased neurons. So that's the primary angle that we took. But as we started to explore more, we started doing more in vitro testing, as well as in vivo testing, we started to see other effects that we didn't fully anticipate or fully understand. But now we're learning more and more about these compounds.
If you look at this kind of flow chart, this graphic presentation of the disease itself, there are a number of different things that we are starting to see. If you start in the lower right, it says A beta load. So that's the amyloid beta plaques that can build up and, you know, lead to progression of the disease. We see that our compound can reduce that, but we don't think that's the most interesting or most important effect that we're seeing. There's other drugs on the market that can, you know, effectively reduce the amyloid beta load. That's not really our focal point. But if you go above that in the upper right, you can see that neural inflammation is a very important hallmark of this disease and can lead to a lot of problems.
We've started to see that we reduce neural inflammation, both in the biological markers of inflammation, as well as in the neurons themselves. If you go to the upper left, in neural protection, and again, that's what we talked about, that's the impact that we anticipated seeing. And indeed, our data is starting to show that. In the lower left, there's neurogenesis and neuritogenesis. This is the growth phase of these neurons. And what happens in the disease as these neurons that are responsible for giving us thought, as they communicate with each other, you know, that starts to get blocked by the amyloid betas and the tau proteins. These things also start to shrink and pull away from each other. So you can imagine that it's harder for them to communicate with each other when they're farther apart and when they're blocked.
So, you know, the first idea in most of the compounds was to get rid of the blockage, which they've done, but it hasn't really shown that big of an effect. But what we're seeing with our compound is that these neurons start to regrow. And there's an important biological reason for that. It appears as though the cannabinoids that our own body makes, every human makes two cannabinoids in their body, those play a role in neurogenesis, in the regrowth or the initial growth of these. So we're starting to see a wide range of effects using our compound INM-901. You know, this is still preclinical. We're not in humans yet. But I think we've got a very interesting pathway now to start to explore, you know, fully what these effects may be. Now, we're seeing all of these biological marker changes. We're seeing these cellular changes.
But in diseased animal models, we're also seeing that diseased animals who are treated with INM-901 are starting to behave more like undiseased animals, like normal animals, in terms of their locomotion, their memory, and their cognition. So these behavioral changes that we're seeing in the early animal models are, you know, very good to see. You'd rather see them than not see them. And we're trying to fully understand what the whole range of effects are. Now, people understand that cannabinoids impact the endocannabinoid pathway, the CB1 and the CB2. What we've also found out is that 901 impacts another pathway called the PPAR signaling pathway. This is interesting because there have been a number of drugs in the past that were PPAR signaling pathway drugs that were used in diabetes. And there's always been this scientific interest in understanding the link between diabetes and Alzheimer's.
You know, here we may have a drug that kind of addresses this disease from many different perspectives. So we're very excited about this program and, you know, looking forward to continuing its development. This is just a summary of the things that we've seen. We've seen it in the neuroprotection studies, in the neurogenesis studies, as well as the behavioral studies. We've seen a number of outcomes that we think are very interesting and that we're, you know, anxious to be pushing forward. Sorry, let me pull all of these up. So, you know, in summary on the 901, it's a small molecule, systemically delivered compound that easily crosses the blood-brain barrier. That's very important because you need to get to the site of disease in order to treat it. Crossing the blood-brain barrier is not an obvious or easy thing to do.
We think it could probably be delivered orally. You know, we've seen a number of different important features of this compound: neural protection, neurogenesis, behavioral improvements, reduced neural inflammation, and increased neuronal function. In terms of the next steps for this program, we have data coming out mid-summer on a long-term study looking at this mouse model of amyloidosis or surrogate for Alzheimer's. We're planning additional studies to better understand the neural inflammation aspect. We've got a number of programs ongoing for the manufacturing of this compound and scaling that up.
Now, we also are looking to outreach to a number of experts in the field, not only from academia, but also from big pharma, to try and, you know, get them engaged in the program and leverage from their know-how in Alzheimer's and possibly, if there's a link to diabetes, to try and sort that out as well, understand more about that. So, you know, we're very excited to be engaging with some companies and trying to learn as much as we can and really map out the best possible pathway to get this into human clinical trials. I'll switch and talk a little bit about our program in macular degeneration. You know, this is a very important disease. I think a lot of people are familiar with it now. There's a number of drugs that have been approved for wet macular degeneration.
We think because of the mechanism of action for our drug, INM-089, we think that it's probably more relevant for dry AMD, where there's very few products and success has been limited in their use. Macular degeneration occurs. This is a picture of the back of the eye on the left-hand side and the optic nerve there. When the retina is damaged, then you start to lose your vision primarily in your central field. This just shows the pathway of what a normal retina would look like and what a damaged one would look like. So, you know, we think that because of its mechanism of action, it's going to be a good candidate for dry AMD. You know, it's a preferential signaling ligand for CB1 and CB2.
We've seen from a number of studies some interesting data where it preserves the retinal function and, you know, proactively protects these retinal ganglion cells. And again, this goes back to the neuroprotective effect of cannabinoids. And so we're leveraging again on that aspect of these compounds to try to find meaningful clinical outcomes. Let me try and bring this all up here at once. There we go. So again, this is a proprietary small molecule drug candidate. It's deliverable via injection into the eye, which is a standard course of care for retinal diseases. We've demonstrated neuroprotection, which is an aspect of these classic compounds that you tend to see. And in animal models, we have seen improved photoreceptor function, reduced deposits of damaging material, as well as preserving the epithelial cells and their integrity, which we think will lead to a very positive outcome in these patients.
The next steps, again, it's early stage. It's preclinical. We have a lot to do in terms of, you know, getting this into human studies. We need to conduct the toxicology studies required to get there. And again, this is a program where we think, you know, it should be attractive at this stage to larger companies who are active in the field of ocular disease. And maybe we can leverage off of their know-how. So I'm going to jump now and talk a little bit about the BayMedica commercial business. I really just have one slide. And so, you know, this really stems from the know-how that we have in manufacturing these classic compounds.
You know, whereas our drug development, our pharmaceutical drug development activities center around proprietary novel compounds that we've created, the commercial business focuses on the cannabinoids that can be readily found in nature in the plant. And they are bioidentical to those found in the plant. So the company has nothing to do with marijuana. We don't touch the plant. Everything that we do is using chemical synthesis or biosynthesis to make bioidentical compounds to those that can be found in nature. It's a very interesting business. We've seen it, you know, we've seen some spikes in terms of revenues, but we've seen a steady revenue growth. Right now, the trailing 12-month revenue is about $5.6 million. So it's a nice-sized business. It's currently profitable. So it's not taking up resources from the parent company in that regard. It's actually returning some money on our investment.
And, you know, we currently commercialize four cannabinoids. We're going to expand that a little bit. There seems to be interest from the market in other ones. And again, we just provide this as a raw material. We don't have end products that we commercialize to consumers. We sell through to the manufacturers of those compounds that eventually make it into the market. So our role is pretty limited in that regard. But we do have the know-how to do this at high scale and very low cost. And I think we're one of the lowest-cost manufacturers out there. In terms of just a corporate overview, you can see here on the left-hand side, the pharmaceutical R&D is pretty deep. Most of the people involved in the company have, you know, 10-20 years or more experience in pharmaceutical research and development.
On the right-hand side, you see the BayMedica team. Shane and Jerry have done a great job in building the business. On the research side and understanding and developing new manufacturing processes, we have Jim and Chuck, who really help advance the company. So, you know, we have a very broad understanding. We're applying our knowledge of these classic compounds across a number of different activities. But, you know, our DNA as a company is really on the pharmaceutical side. In terms of the financial snapshot, we last reported for end of March with $7.6 million in the bank, you know, 9.6 million float. You know, the shares have been all over the place. I think it's not unique to our company. We are, unfortunately, have a very small market cap. But, you know, we have a host of assets that I think are very valuable.
We just need to go out and execute on, you know, finding collaborations and finding third-party validation really for what we're doing. I think we're well on the path to doing that. The key value drivers for the company in fiscal 2024, so through this year and then into next year, the INM-901 program in Alzheimer's, we will be finishing up the long-term preclinical studies, as mentioned, and advancing the manufacturing there, and really trying to get all of our ducks in a row, you know, using external consultants and experts in the field to understand how best to advance this compound. For INM-089 and dry AMD, we're going to be advancing that towards an IND filing and human clinical trials. We still have some toxicology work to do there, as well as scaling up the manufacturing.
The skin cream, the 755, where we conducted a Phase II clinical trial, we're looking for commercial partnerships there. It's not going to be a focus for the company in terms of advancing that into later-stage clinical trials. But we are actively seeking partnerships where someone who's closer to the dermatology space or wound healing space will find that its primary purpose is going to be as an anti-itch compound. And severe itch, severe chronic itch is still a big problem. We're going to continue to develop proprietary analogs and looking at ways to augment or advance other R&D programs. We're, of course, going to support our BayMedica revenue and margin growth. And across the board, you know, we're a small company with a lot of exciting technology. The best way to advance this is probably going to be through strategic partnerships and collaborations.
So we're very actively pursuing that now. You know, time will tell. We'll update people as those efforts advance. So that's it. Appreciate people taking time to listen in. Anna, with that, I'll turn it over to you and any questions that may have come through.
Perfect. Thank you, Eric. Yes, we do have some questions. First of all, Alzheimer's. I mean, it's truly one of those large indications that see very little advancement over the last few decades. Almost everyone is touched by the disease. So why is this the case when it comes to advancing?
Well, I think, you know, it's a very complex disease. It's not easy, you know, to understand what's actually happening or why it's happening. You know, much bigger companies than ours have been active in the space trying to sort that out.
You know, the hypothesis that the amyloid beta played a central role in the disease, that's what's been pursued. And that's what all of the monoclonal antibody treatments that have been approved are targeting. And it turns out that it does play a role, but it doesn't play as central of a role as everyone originally predicted. And so now people are starting to look at other avenues. You know, we think that our compound is interesting because it has multiple mechanisms of action. And we're trying to fully understand the potential impact of those in patients. But it's going to take a multi-pronged approach, you know, just like any other complex disease. If you think of cancer, you know, no one receives just one type of cancer treatment. They receive radiation. They receive surgery. They receive chemo, immunotherapy.
So it's come out from a lot of different angles in order to address it. And I think ultimately Alzheimer's is going to fall into that bucket as well.
And would you classify your 901 program as disease-modifying or just treating symptoms?
That's a great question. I think based on the feedback that we've gotten from external parties, it's probably going to be disease-modifying. You know, when you start to talk about protecting the neurons, regenerating the neurites, reducing inflammation, you would anticipate that this could have an impact in, you know, possibly turning back the clock on the disease in some regards. Now, we're a long way from demonstrating that. And it's just speculation at this point.
But I think based on the mechanisms of action, that's what people are looking at this drug as, you know, possibly starting out looking at symptom improvement in late-stage disease, but ultimately working its way back to being a compound that could be used very early in the disease to slow its progress or halt it in its path. But like I said, that's a long way off. We're very early on. And it's baby steps right now.
Well, and I assume that clinical trials take a long time. So is this something you would look to partner early? How would that work?
Yeah, I mean, we've already garnered some attention from all the right players. You know, some of those discussions are ongoing. We don't have any idea how that's going to pan out. It's still early.
But I think we've hit a nerve here with this compound that, you know, it has, you know, just based on the early data that we have, it's kind of, you know, hit a nerve to say that, you know, taking a multi-pronged approach and addressing this disease from multiple mechanisms of action is probably a good thing to look at. And, you know, time will tell. But we're very excited. We're very excited with the data that we're generating. And apparently that excitement is being shared.
Wonderful. You also mentioned you have $7.6 million in cash as of March 31st. So what is your cash runway today?
Well, right now, we have a runway into 2025, you know, again, depending on how aggressively we spend.
Certainly, an increase on the revenue side from the BayMedica business could help extend that as well if the revenues increase significantly. You know, we're talking with a number of different funding agencies, foundations, you know, people, you know, other ways of raising capital. But, you know, we're well positioned right now. You know, we're by no means in panic mode. We like what we have. We like what we're hearing. And we think that there's a very clear path to getting our company funded and advancing these programs.
Fantastic. And I mean, might it be unique to see a small biotech supported by a revenue-generating subsidiary? I mean, does it have potential to support your pharma development programs in the future?
I don't know if it will be able to support us fully.
Certainly, when we acquired BayMedica, which we acquired primarily to get access to patents related to these innovative analog compounds, you know, the commercial business, you know, that just made sense to us. We decided to invest against it. We've ramped that up. We've got a really good team in place to continue to advance it. So, you know, it would be great if the revenues were such that we didn't have to worry about other funding mechanisms. But we're not there yet. And but it's certainly nice to have a little bit of revenue incoming.
And so for investors looking at your company, what might they see as the main catalyst over the next six months?
Yeah, I mean, we're going to have longer-term animal data in the Alzheimer's model. We, you know, the initial studies were, I believe, six-week studies.
Now we're looking at 6-7-month studies to see if there's a continued effect and how long this effect happens in this animal model. We expect to glean a lot of information from that. We're continuing to look at the mechanisms of action and trying to fully understand, you know, we know what effects we're seeing, you know, both in behavior as well as on a microbiological level. We're trying to understand what's happening to give us those effects. That's pretty standard in drug development. You know, as we learn more, we will certainly understand more about the drug. We'll understand how best to deploy it against this disease. That goes for both Alzheimer's and macular degeneration. You know, right now, very positive indications. We'll keep people updated as we learn more.
Wonderful.
We thank you so much for joining us on this conference and doing very important work out there. We hope that you come back in the near future with some more updates, Eric.
Great. Thanks for having me.
All right, everyone, stay with us. We'll be right back with our next presenter.