Good day and welcome to the I-Mab Business Update Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. After the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question-and- answer session. To ask a question, we will ask you to press star one. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and will be available for a replay on the company's website. I would now like to turn the call over to PJ Kelleher from LifeSci Advisors. Please go ahead, Mr. Kelleher.
Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining the I-Mab Business Update Call, which follows the press release issued today at 4:05 P.M. Eastern. Please note that this presentation and discussion is being recorded and will be available in the investor section of the company's website for the next 30 days. Some of the statements made on this call will include forward-looking statements within the meanings of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied by these forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with the company's business, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of I-Mab's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2024, and any other filings that may be made with the SEC. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our views as of today, October 16, 2025.
I-Mab undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this conference call. Now, I would like to hand over the call to I-Mab's Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Sean Fu. Sean.
Thank you, PJ. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to I-Mab's Business Update Call. I'm Sean Fu, Company CEO. I'm excited to have the opportunity to share with you I-Mab's business transformation strategy and our plan for the next phase, accelerated growth. Joining me today are members of the senior management team of I-Mab. We're happy to have Executive Chairman Mr. Fu Wei and Chief Financial Officer Kyler Lei . I-Mab's subsidiary company Visar a, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Emmett Cunningham , and I-Mab Chief Business Development Officer Sean Cao . Now, to tell you more about I-Mab's business transformation, I would like to turn the call over to our Executive Chairman, Mr. Fu Wei. Fu Wei.
Thank you, Sean. Good afternoon and good morning, everyone. Hopefully, I'm the only one dialing from Asia, which is only 5:00 A.M. now. That shows you how diligent the firm is. My name is Fu Wei, Founder and CEO of CBC Group, and I have co-founded two of the biotech companies across the U.S. and Asia. Most importantly, I recently became the Executive Chairman of I-Mab. I'm very excited to be here. It will mark the next chapter of I-Mab because what we are trying to achieve will bring significant impact to our biotech industry and the patients globally. Please allow me to start the company presentation. Please turn to page three, company overview. Looking at the keywords in the subtitle, number one, global. We are building I-Mab into a global operating business with operations in Asia, with operations in China and the U.S.
The second keyword, we are building I-Mab into a platform company. This is not a single molecule business, nor a single TA-focused business, but will be a platform. Lastly, this is going to be a paradigm-shifting business. This will bring significant impact and will be a business model innovation we dare to lead. Next slide. What is the background of the I-Mab transformation and what we are trying to do? China is rising as a global powerhouse in biotech innovation, as we know. China, since the past five years, the number of clinical trials has grown significantly, especially in the most recent year. It is already number one in the world, surpassing the U.S. More importantly, if you see the clinical trial out-licensing BD value this year, it's a remarkable year. The total number of transaction value is $94 billion in 2024, and year-to-date is $51.9 billion.
It contributes more than 60% of the global licensing deal value in Q1 2025. In my view, this is irreversible. The China efficiency, speed, and productivity, and more importantly, the quality being recognized by the global big pharma. Next slide. I-Mab, today, the Nova Bridge, marks the evolution into the next stage. If you recall, when I-Mab was just IPO'ed, it is a clinical-stage China biotech. Moving into the past two years, 2023- 2024, we are focused. We become a U.S. clinical-stage biotech company. We are having three assets in the clinical stage. Today, we are moving into chapter 3.0. We are becoming a China/U.S. and a global biotech platform. This will help us to take advantage of the productivity, the efficiency of the discovery capability in China, and also take advantage of the clinical resources in China, while leveraging on our capabilities in the U.S.
clinical development and also the market. Next slide. What is the core differentiation we are having? Nova Bridge will be the first hub-and-spoke gateway connecting global markets. As we described, we are a biotech company started from China and Asia. We built our clinical capability in the U.S. in the past two years, and we are a global firm, deep-rooted in both markets. We are building the core hub, which is on the BD capability in and out. We have a deep access screening capability into all the leading discovery engines on China's side. We have existing partners such as ABio-X, Oxygen, AFAMED, Everest Medicines, and also companies in Korea like ABL Bio. At the same time, we have the clinical development capability out of the U.S. We understand how to run translational medicine, differentiated clinical trial to maximize the value of each molecule.
At the same time, we have bespoke solution providers. We can choose to work in complete collaboration, licensing in and out. We can build new co. We can even consider acquisitions when the molecule is really outstanding. At the same time, our business development capability in the U.S., our past track record, our network supported by CBC Group will help us to find the best home for each of the molecules down the road as well. This hub-and-spoke platform is specializing in bridging Asian innovation to the global markets. The type of capability we warehouse from BD in to BD out and to clinical development capability really differentiates Nova Bridge. Next slide. We are not a single molecule platform. We started from immuno-oncology, and we have a very differentiated Claudin 18 and 4-1BB. We have a very good pipeline in the IO company.
However, today, our colleague will give you an announcement to introduce our next TA focus, which is ophthalmology. This is where we begin. Based on our BD in capability and the continued building of the clinical development capability, we will move into new TAs as our capability grows. Next slide. How to make this business model successful? In my view, it is always capabilities first. With the capabilities, we will look for the right molecules and create value over each of the molecules over the below three triangular angles. Number one is our clinical development and translational development capabilities. We are building capabilities over clinical first.
We know how to screen each of the TA, how to screen each of the modality, where the opportunities are, and how to make sure we understand to run a differentiated clinical trial and maximize each of the molecules with the best set of data. Our clinical development capability is the brain. It will guide our BD in team, which is empowered by the CBC Group. CBC is the largest asset management firm in biotech healthcare in Asia. We have the best access to all the leading biotech companies. We invested over 30 early-stage biotech companies in the past 18 months. We screened more than a few hundred biotech companies.
This wide deal access under the guidance of the clinical development capability will help us not miss a single great molecule in the market and also make us a very appealing partner in front of the discovery companies that consider out-licensing to us. The third is the BD out capability. As you probably know, we have controlled incubated more than two biotech companies. Each of them are in active discussions with the big pharma. We have a regular dialogue with each of them. We understand what's your needs timely. Therefore, our BD out-licensing capability is far beyond a single molecule company. Don't even talk about our past track record and being a reliable partner with a big pharma that makes us a more appealing, long-standing partner in front of each of them. Next slide.
You will ask, there are many different kinds of players in this space trying to take advantage of this opportunity by bringing innovations from Asia, from China to the U.S., to the rest of the world. What's the differentiation for I-Mab or Nova Bridge? This slide probably best demonstrates our capabilities. Talking about the core capabilities from asset sourcing to asset development to exit in front of MNC's U.S. biotech or other new calls. We all stand in a very strong position. Local innovation access. We are deeply rooted in Asia. As I shared, as an investment house, we have screened more than a few hundred biotech companies every year. We have a deep VC investment team/BD team working on the ground day to day.
Talking about capital strengths, we are not only having sufficient cash runway, we are also able to develop bespoke capital solutions, not only paying them upfront fee, milestone fee. We are able to build new core with them. We are able to do share swap with them. We are able to develop a hybrid solution for those discovery biotech engines who deeply believe the future. They can take equity, they can take cash, and we have a very nimble decision-making process as well. At the same time, our scientific translation capability is equivalently as good as those multinational companies. Talking about exit and spin-off, as an investment house, that's naturally built into our DNA. We believe we can do the value maximization through our deal execution capability. Next page. You may ask, what is the stage of the molecule that you will pull trigger?
What is the stage that you will decide to make an exit? What's your value creation process? From this diagram, you can tell in our view, discovery and preclinical development, which is a more or less commoditized activity in the emerging market. China has thousands of early-stage biotech companies with discovery capability. Even in Korea, we understand there are more than 500 biotech companies in the discovery business. We don't want to compete in that stage. Therefore, our in-licensing strategy will start from clinical stage of assets. Our focus is to make a clinical stage of assets into proof of concept clinical trials, which is 5 x-10x value creation process. We will acquire early-stage assets with a well-defined proof of concept pathway.
Our goal is within two years, maximum three years, that we can put an early-stage molecule into a proof to finish a proof of concept clinical trials. After we see the POC clinical data, we can then selectively decide whether we move those POC molecules into the late-phase developments, which is going to give you 2x-3x of value creation, but in large scale. If we have high conviction, we deeply believe this is a uniquely positioned molecule, and we will work on the late-stage developments as well to maximize the value for the shareholders. The examples of [Givastomig], later on my colleague Sean Fu will share with you, and also the newly taken on molecule VIS -101, the ophthalmology molecule, is all a similar case. Next slide. Every successful strategy needs to be executed with the team.
Apart from myself, who is purely from an investment background, however, participates in the founding process of two biotech companies, I'm supported alongside by Sean Fu, who has tons of experience in the biotech space. More importantly, we together participate in several founding histories of biotech companies such as RVAC, Abiox. He is the CEO of Nova Bridge. Together with Sean, we have Dr. Phillip Dennis, who is our Chief Medical Officer, who successfully leads the development of [Givastomig] . Tyler, who recently joined us, is our CFO, who has tons of experience in running public market investor relationships. In his past two companies, each of them are over $15 billion market cap. They did a great job in communicating the strategy to the public investors. We are very thrilled to bring him on board for the next chapter of Nova Bridge.
Claire is our Senior Vice President and Clinical Development Lead, who stays with the company since the very beginning. Her execution in the [Givastomig] clinical operation, her knowledge about both China and the U.S., will be very instrumental in our clinical development for the future molecules for Nova Bridge. This is not the end. The big task requires a much wider group of talents to support. We are in the process to bring more impactful talents to join our journey to make Nova Bridge into the next chapter. Thank you. Sean Fu, please continue with the pipeline overview.
Thank you, Fu Wei. That's a wonderful introduction. Thank you very much. Now we pivot into pipeline overview. I'll walk you through the IO assets, beginning with [Givastomig] . Next slide, please. Before we jump into the detailed data of [Givastomig] , I will say this exciting strategy is built on the existing portfolio of highly differentiated, innovative clinical-stage assets, [Givastomig] being one of them. You can think about the new strategy as providing investors with, in addition to return opportunities from the new strategy, the BD in and outs, and clinical POSs that Mr. Fu Wei just introduced to you. If we take a look at the assets now, let me bring back the [Givastomig] story in front of you. Next slide, please. [Givastomig] , as many of you know, is a potential best-in-class Claudin 18.2/4-1BB bispecific antibody.
This molecule has a unique design with a highly potent Claudin 18.2 site, which gave us the potential to have a wide range of Claudin 18.2 expression selection. It has a silenced FC component, so there's no ADCC or CDC, which gives us the potential to minimize unintended systematic immune reactions. It also has a conditional 4-1BB agonist component, which was designed to induce localized T cell activation in the tumor microenvironment. These attributes give us a unique position to have a molecule that potentially has one favorable safety profile in combination with the standard of care, such as first-line oncology settings, superior efficacy and robust response data potential, and a wide range of Claudin 18.2 expression level coverage. These are highly differentiated properties. Let me walk you through our clinical observations. Next slide, please.
When you look at the safety data of [Givastomig] in combination with [Nivolumab] and the chemo, which is the current standard of care for front-line metastatic gastric cancer, and you compare that against phase III studies that led to the approval of [Nivolumab] chemo and zolbetuximab, you will see that the [Givastomig] in combination showed no discernible additional toxic signal on top of standard of care [Nivolumab] chemo across the board when you look at the AST, ALT increase, neutropenia, or nausea/vomiting. If you compare [Givastomig] in combination against zolbetuximab, you clearly see a more benign safety profile for the GI-related safety, for example, nausea and vomiting, especially for grade 3 and above observations. Next slide. We also observed a robust efficacy signal.
When you look at the ORR across three doses, we showed 71% of the response rate in comparison to the phase three study of [Nivolumab] chemo, which was 47%, and zolbetuximab, which was 40%. It's a small number of patients, but we realized that's 17 patients. If you try to understand the response as a function of either PDL1 level or Claudin 18.2 level, you see response signals really across those subsets of the populations. If you take a look at the middle column, the bottom, we showed a two by two. Whether you look at the PDL1 level high versus low or Claudin level high versus low, especially on the lower right, you see we have four patients that's considered low, low in both PDL1 and Claudin. Three out of the four responded when you look at the ORR.
On the right-hand side of the slide, this is the waterfall. Immediately, you see every single patient had their target lesion reduced in size in our clinical studies. In particular, I want to point out that the three patients that had low Claudin level, which is defined by Claudin level less than 75%, and all three of them showed responses. This is what I meant: a robust efficacy signal. Small number of patients, but robust nonetheless. Next. Next slide, please. Now we're conducting a portfolio of clinical studies to investigate [Givastomig] in gastric cancer and also other Claudin 18.2 positive malignancies. If we focus on gastric cancer, we're obviously continuing the expansion study in combination with [Nivolumab] chemo. Importantly, we are launching a randomized phase two, comparing two doses of [Givastomig] in combination with [Nivolumab] chemo against [Nivolumab] chemo. This is in a randomized fashion.
It is a robust study design with 180 patients into those three groups. We're looking at PDL1 positive patients, greater than one in CPS score, and a very broad range of Claudin 18.2 expression levels. That's 1% above 1+ in a staining intensity. This is the largest Claudin 18.2 expression range that I know of of any Claudin 18.2 assets in clinical development. We're going after a broad range of the population in a robust phase two randomized clinical study. The study is expected to achieve first patient in the first quarter of 2026. We're also conducting a number of other studies. For example, we're looking at patients with low Claudin and low PDL1. These patients are not eligible for zolbetuximab, and they're not eligible for ICI.
Therefore, these patients are unmet medical needs, a group with significant unmet medical needs, and we're taking a look at whether [Givastomig] can help. We're also conducting an IIT study with an investigator in Japan, Dr. Shitara, who is a PI of zolbetuximab's phase III study. In that study, we're looking at the neoadjuvant setting, locally advanced GI tumors. The beauty of this study is that it's going to provide us with tumor samples before and after treatment, which allows us to test the [Givastomig] assumption that we actually can achieve, or whether we can actually achieve, localized T cell activation in the tumor microenvironment. As I said, we're moving beyond gastric cancer. We're initiating studies in other Claudin 18.2 positive malignancies, including biliary tract cancer or glandular carcinoma and pancreatic cancer. Next slide. I also want to touch upon the commercial opportunity of [Givastomig].
If you think about the number of patients, it's a significant number we're talking about for HER2 negative, Claudin positive, and just in the U.S., EU, and Japan, we're talking about over 100,000 patients per year. [Givastomig], as I said, is the first asset that's been studied in a clinical setting against the IO chemo in the United States. When you compare [Givastomig] in terms of patient population against, say, zolbetuximab, zolbetuximab's label is in combination with chemo for patients with Claudin 18.2 expression in 75% of the tumor cells or higher with 2+ staining intensity. Our clinical study starts with 1% and 1+ in staining intensity. We are also combining [Givastomig] with IO chemo. In those two dimensions, Claudin and PDL1, we are expanding on the scope, the population coverage of zolbetuximab.
As a result, we forecast the top sales of Jewa in the territories that we have rights to be about $2 billion. The opportunity doesn't stop there. If you look at the market potential of gastric cancer, pancreatic, or biliary tract cancers, these opportunities are significant. We are conducting studies to evaluate potential application of [Givastomig] in those spaces, and the opportunity there could be $3 billion or higher. This is a very significant and exciting marketplace for [Givastomig] to play. Next slide. Now we're going to pivot a little bit. Consistent with I-Mab's, or now Nova Bridge's, strategy to bring China and Asia innovations to the world, I'm happy to announce or tell you more about the acquisition of VIS -101. This is a bifunctional biologic targeting VEGFA and Ang2 for wet AMD and DME. This acquisition was accomplished through a newly established subsidiary. We call it Visara .
I-Mab paid $37 million for a controlling share of this asset's global rights. To tell you more about VIS-1 01 and Visara , I would like to invite Visara 's Co-founder and Executive Chairman, Emmett, to the mic. Emmett.
Thank you, Sean. Very nice job on your presentation. I'd like to cover in turn VIS -101, the medical need, the commercial landscape, the clinical results, which, as you'll see, are quite exciting, and then the key upcoming milestones. Next slide, please. As you can see here on the left, the prevalence of the diseases that VIS -101 is intended to treat is quite high. Neovascular macular degeneration on the left and diabetic macular edema on the right together are well over 40 million patients worldwide today and growing. If you add to that the additional indications of retinal vein occlusion and some smaller indications, it approaches 50 million worldwide. Those indications today are treated by the branded medications shown on the left: LUCENTIS, EYLEA, high-dose EYLEA, and VABYSMO. Over the time of commercialization, they have grown from several billion dollars to well over $10 billion.
I should note here that this is the branded market. It's a very unique market in that off-label use of bevacizumab accounts for more than 50% of this market. In aggregate, it would be somewhere between $20 billion- $30 billion worldwide if that were given at the same cost as the unbranded medication. Next slide. Here, what we've done is tried to break down this commercial landscape over time and by the major therapeutics on the left. What you can see is this 20-year evolution from LUCENTIS to EYLEA and now high-dose EYLEA and VABYSMO. There are several important points here. First, if you look at each of these molecules, LUCENTIS, EYLEA, VABYSMO, they all essentially have the same label for the three indications I mentioned, DME, AMD, and RVO. Why have they performed differently in the market?
They performed differently in the market largely based on a pharmacokinetic and biologic reason to believe that they would do better, and then clinical experience that they, in fact, perform better drying and are more durable. You see EYLEA superseded LUCENTIS, and now in turn, VABYSMO is superseding EYLEA, both EYLEA and EYLEA HD. The next important point is that the market has now evolved from mono inhibitors, a single VEGFA inhibitor, LUCENTIS, EYLEA, EYLEA HD, to the bispecific dually acting VABYSMO, which adds to it inhibition of Ang2. In my personal opinion, the market will always be based first and foremost on VEGF inhibition, but we've now transitioned to a multifunctional market, which allows for better drying of the retina and more durable action.
That's shown on the right, where you can see the revenues for LUCENTIS to EYLEA, and now VABYSMO are growing at the rates shown here from about $2 billion to now approaching $5 billion. Some estimates have VABYSMO going between $10 billion- $15 billion at peak sales over the next decade. Next slide. This is a complex and perhaps the most important and exciting slide in at least my portion of the deck. Let me take a second to orient you. There are two graphs here, obviously. The one on the right is previously published. It's the stairway trial, VABYSMO by Genentech Roche. The one on the left is our molecule. It's near complete phase two, but still emerging data. The first point is this is cross-trial comparison and needs to be taken in that context.
The second is that our trial, while nearly complete, and we expect it to be complete by the end of the year, is not totally complete. If we turn first to the graph on the right, what we have plotted here is time on the horizontal axis, that's in weeks, and then vision, best-corrected vision on the vertical axis. You see three lines: two with Furosemide at 6 mg, that's the approval dose, and one with ranibizumab, the first-in-class agent that I mentioned earlier, at its approval 0.5 mg. You can see that these lines are very similar and track over time to about 8- 10 letters of gain in treatment-naive patients. A very important point. That's the standard, the gold standard for a phase two trial. At the bottom, you'll notice, the yellow arrows, they indicate injections.
In all of these patients, they were given four monthly injections to induce them to therapy, to stabilize them before they were given no injections, as you can see here, for 12 weeks to see how durable the treatment was in a sense. You could see for the 12 weeks, the lines stayed pretty stable and did pretty well. That's the comparator. That's VABYSMO. Let's turn now to VIS- 101. You can see we have two curves. The top curve, the blue curve, would be the direct comparator. These are treatment-naive patients that have received three loading injections. That's an important point. Three as opposed to four. You can see we are at the upper end of the three curves on the left. We are at 10 letters or better in each instance, with albeit fewer induction injections.
The next important point is that we, because we had fewer induction injections over the same time period, can follow our patients for the additional month out to 24 months. You can see we remain durable out that time. The next point I'd like to make is related to the orange curve, which were the pretreated patients. The stairway trial did not have pretreated patients. We had the benefit of being able to stratify them and look at the pretreated patients. You can see even they had a vision gain of between 6-8 letters, suggesting that when you extend to dually acting agents, you can get considerable vision improvement in patients who are on otherwise monotherapy with the anti-VEGFA agents. That, of course, is an enormous switch market from the patients currently receiving VEGFA therapy and moving forward. Next slide. Where do we go from here?
Shown on the left are the key milestones. As I mentioned, the phase two trial is ongoing, very nearly complete, should read out top level at the end of this year, latest first quarter next year. We will be preparing for our phase III studies globally, which we anticipate initiating in 2026. Once initiated, it's typically a year to enroll, a year to complete. Within two years of that, we will have top-line phase III data. That, sitting in this pole position of being second in class, and as I've tried to share with you, perhaps best in class, makes this a tremendously exciting opportunity. Next slide. What we've shown here are two pieces. The corporate structure, which has been alluded to earlier but not spelled out in detail on the left and in my own background on the right, which I'll end with.
As you can see on the left, this is, as you've heard now, the Nova Bridge strategy. It is financing and strategic input from Nova Bridge on the left, a core and valued asset out of China here from AFAMED, and then a highly incentivized management team, which will bring this forward and execute through phase III data and approval, each of which has its own equity position. As for myself, I've been in this space for 35 years. I've been a very active innovator, entrepreneur, and investor for 25 of those years. I recently retired from my position at Blackstone and have been focusing on company creation. I couldn't be more excited than to help the team here create Vis ara, which I think will be one of the best ophthalmology companies in the world. Thank you very much. I'll hand it back to you, Sean.
Thank you, Emmett. That's super exciting. Now, for a minute, let me also close the pipeline overview with two more products that we currently have in the pipeline. Very quickly, next slide. We have another 4-1BB bispecific. It's coupled with a PDL1, and this molecule binds to PDL1 for activation of 4-1BB in the tumor microenvironment. That becomes a design theme. This molecule in a monotherapy study in a heavily pretreated population, on average three lines of prior therapies, showed a 27% ORR. Compare that to Adalimumab developed by GenMab against the same two targets, PDL1 and 4-1BB. They showed ORR of a 6%- 13%, 14%. Importantly, out of the people who responded, we saw 70% of the responders actually had prior PDL1 exposure.
That really highlights the potential of this molecule to be positioned as a follow-on to patients whose tumors are resistant or relapsed from prior lines of PDL1 treatment. That's a very exciting space. What we are doing now is to conduct a clinical study to optimize dosing regimen in order to maximize therapeutic window. That study is ongoing with readout expected in the second half of 2026. Next slide, please. Yes. Elotuzumab this is a potential best-in-class CD73. In preclinical studies, it showed it has no hook effect in comparison to the lead asset currently in phase three development, Oleclumab. More interestingly, to me at least, when added to PDL1 therapies for CD73 high patients, you see a markedly higher ORR compared to those as a CD73 low.
What's happening right now is that a phase II randomized study is being conducted in China patients comparing CD73 Elotuzumab plus a China PDL1 versus in a randomized fashion versus China PDL1 and Pembrolizumab. This study is conducted in selected CD73 high patients. This is along the logic that we believe by selecting the right patients using the right biomarker, we can potentially increase the probability of success in IO agents. This is an exciting compound along those lines of logic that we're testing in a randomized fashion in clinical studies. I think this is an exciting time really for I-Mab and Nova Bridge. Moving on to the next slide, I think it's important. We also look at the strategic advantage of Nova Bridge in going forward, partnering with CBC Group. For that purpose, I invite back our Executive Chairman Fu Wei to comment on strategic advantage. Fu Wei.
Thank you, Sean. Please turn to page 28. As I shared, CBC is Asia's largest and most impactful healthcare asset manager. We manage over $10 billion. What's more important, in the past five years, we have executed more than 40 BD transactions. We have 20+ global MNC partnerships in place. It is very important to all of the investors as well that I want to emphasize CBC and CBC-affiliated public listed company will make sure that we have the best interest alignment with each of the investors. We are making sure the best practice of governance is also in place. This well set of governance and also our global reach network and deal closing experience will help I-Mab, Nova Bridge move into the next stage with a good track record to start with. Next slide.
This is a high-level introduction about the team and talents across Asia and also the global execution team as well. Next slide. I want to also share with you our systematic approach to scoring assets. Year to date, the team has identified more than 550 opportunities. We engaged with 116. We are in active discussion for non-binding term sheet for 39. As of today, we closed one transaction. We are always taking this systematic screening approach, institutionalized approach, to make sure that we don't miss any great opportunities. All the underwriting are in the best practice as well. To conclude, we deeply believe bringing Asia innovation, bringing the productivity, efficiency in the clinical trial resources, discovery capability from Asia to service the global patients is going to be an impactful journey. We welcome all of you to be part of this journey together with Nova Bridge. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Now I turn the call to PJ for Q&A.
Operator.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one. Our first question is from Daina Graybosch with Leerink Partners.
Hi, guys. Thank you for the question. This is a big change. I wonder what you would say to an investor who's recently come into I-Mab because they have appreciation for your lead Claudin 18.2/4-1BB asset, Givastomig, and now all of a sudden finds themselves invested in a radically different company. Is that a poor assertion on my side that this is radically different? Why should that investor that was investing in a single asset with near-term data readouts stay for this broader opportunity?
Okay. Thank you for the question, Daina. I think I can share my perspective, and others can feel free to jump in here. Daina, as I alluded to earlier, I think this is a transformation for I-Mab and NovaB ridge. We are really building on the existing pipeline that we have. We agree with you that the Givastomig, the RAGI, and the CD73 have tremendous value. We're committed to continue to advance the existing clinical programs around the Givastomig. I showed you the comprehensive portfolio of clinical development. We're committed to all of those, right? Also the RAGI clinical studies and CD73 clinical studies. For investors who came in for asset data readouts in the future, I will say the following, that this investment opportunity is an add-on. This is an in addition to a theme for their investment thesis. We are not taking anything away.
Instead, we're adding to it the significant growth and upside opportunity associated with the innovation translation associated with business development and the capability build in the long run. You already see our licensing program from Vis ara VIS- 101. Emmett talked about the exciting data. This is the type of asset we're going to continue to bring in and to create a value based on that.
Okay. Maybe one follow-up. Since the CBC Group is very new to me, and you threw up some of your previous investments and your capabilities, I wonder if you could point us to what you think are the most important deals that you've done that we should do our diligence on to better understand your team's capability.
This is a question about the CBC Group, yeah. Fu Wei, please.
Hi. I think the most relevant case study I want to share here is Everest Medicines. You know, CBC started 11 years ago. At the time, you know, China innovation or Asia innovation is far behind the U.S. Since 2016 and 2017, we believe how to bring innovation from the U.S. to Asia is a big opportunity. In as short as three years, we scored 700 biotech companies in the U.S. We managed to bring eight innovative drugs to service the patients in Asia, including the top two from Immunomatics, including Atrosimab from Arena, etc. Today, more than three drugs already are in the market. This company is called Everest Medicines. Today, the capability of the West and the East is definitely shifting. Especially in Asia and China, the biotech discovery and clinical capability is rising with higher efficiency and productivity. We are transforming I-Mab into a platform.
The reverse business model of Everest is bringing innovation from Asia to the U.S. This is actually a very relevant track record that we are very familiar with, and we did a very good job. Thank you.
Our next question is from Christopher Liu with Lucid Capital Markets.
Hey, guys. Congrats on the strategic transformation. In terms of bringing on additional spokes to the platform here, how should we think about the timing of those potential new additions, and whether or not you'll be looking to go after a broader range of therapeutic areas or want to focus in on more specific therapeutic areas?
Fu, do you want to comment on this question about the timing and the scope for future BD?
Sure. We are piloting. We made a series of pilots into this strategy since a few months ago. Ophthalmology is the first one. To add on, we do screen deep pipeline into ophthalmology already. Since we've already built the, you know, best class execution capability from BD to clinical development, and especially with Emmett joining us as the Executive Chairman of that platform. Ophthalmology will be one. We definitely will bring on more molecules in the near future onto that platform. At the same time, since this is a platform company, and we do believe in China for global or even Korea presents 500 biotech discovery platforms as well, we are systematically screening all the biotech companies in that region with a global competitiveness molecule. We also compare with market demand in the U.S. We are always taking a top-down approach.
I think we are in the progress of deciding what's the next therapeutic areas or modality that we are going to bring on to Nova Bridge. It won't take more than, I think, by the end of the year to give you a more clear picture about what's the next TA. Our pace, I think, given our execution capability, we are very confident that we are able to bring at least two, potentially up to four molecules each of the year to this platform.
Got it. Maybe one more question, if I may. How are you guys thinking about sort of capital efficiency with this structure? Are there any specific synergies that can be taken advantage of?
In my beginning slides, I think we are having a very, as a public listed company, okay, and as we announced, we're going to get Hong Kong listing at the same time. Dual listed in both, you know, NASDAQ and Hong Kong, as you know, we are gaining a much stronger balance sheet. At the same time, you know, we are running a private equity asset management firm as well, raising certified capital on the project level or on the sub-call level, all options to us. Therefore, we are able to provide the best, you know, solution, capital solution to the discovery companies who are licensing the drugs to us. Also, this will work in the best interest for the Nova Bridge shareholders to maximize our capital gain, and both for the BD in process and the BD out process as well.
In our operation model, we envision a hub-and-spoke structure. The new cos, the new asset bring in, they will have their own organization and structure to make the right scientific development decisions. For the corporate support, broader foundation, including some of the BD in and MNC strategic partner engagement capability, is going to come from the hub. In this case, we're going to have the best of both worlds when you have the best of science mind, scientific mind, and execution on the ground pushing the assets. At the same time, be supported by the efficient hub functions that provide the efficient support and access that's unrivaled by any of the biotech out there doing asset-by-asset model. Tyler, you want to add something?
Yeah. In terms of the capital efficiency, I would like to highlight that during our model of doing this, we focus on licensing or BD in those early-stage assets, while the most typical would be phase one or phase two asset. We do the transformational clinical development, bring them to the POC stage. After POC, probably we will add to it, do a spin-off or license on or any way of BD out. Basically, this turnaround is much faster than a traditional R&D-focused biotechnology platform that they will see around seven to eight years for a molecule to starting from discovery stage onto phase one until phase three registration and get onto market. With that, I would say our hub-and-spoke business model is more de-risked, and the turnaround of the capital payback is much quicker.
I would expect the capital efficiency to be much higher than the traditional R&D platform as well.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one. Our next question is from Clara Dong with Jefferies.
Good afternoon. This is Jenna Li on the line for Clara from Jefferies. Could you elaborate on your BD strategy a little bit? You mentioned that you will be planning to exit from some of these more successful assets after you establish proof of concept, right? Can you walk us through what are the scenarios and financial implications? What are the options after you've established proof of concept for something? How do you envision the long-term revenue creation if all the promising assets post-proof of concept are all being licensed out? Would you try to somehow retain the longer-term upside for Nova Bridge shareholders? How does that work if you can help us understand? Thank you so much.
Fu, do you want to start? I didn't mean to add.
Yeah. Maybe I can give you some illustrations. Our typical underwriting could be, I'll put this number into a bracket as well. For a phase one asset, normally we hope that within two years we can complete the proof of concept as well. That's an investment horizon. Our upfront payment hopefully is around $50 million. This value is either in cash or in equity, like Vis ara. We hope that our capability of leveraging the global most efficient clinical trial resources can limit our investment in the POC trial to maybe $50 million. That's a ballpark number. Our upfront investment is $100 million. After the POC trial, we hope that we have more than 50% chance to make a $1 billion value molecule. Of course, it's going to be in the form of at least a three-digit upfront fee, our licensing with milestone fee and royalty.
Of course, we are always creative, depends on our conviction in the commercial value, probability of success, etc. We can also negotiate to be an equity ownership profit share, or we can choose to continue with the phase three trial given our fundraising capability and the strong balance sheet. I hope this answers your question.
Thank you so much.
Our next question is from Justin.
I think given the time, we will have opportunities to continue our conversation down the road. We're already past the slot of time. I think I would like to invite Fu Wei back to the mic to close out this call with a key message for analysts and investors on the call. Fu Wei, please.
Thank you, Sean. I have been heavily involved in this biotech industry developments in Asia and in the U.S. for the past 11 years. As I shared, I started by setting up companies bringing innovation from the U.S. to Asia. We license more than 30 molecules, which are very successful in that strategy. As we all notice, the most recent trend, the efficiencies, the productivities, the qualities of developing new drugs, the discovery capability, and also the efficient clinical trial resources in China and in Asia are presenting, in my view, the largest opportunity ever in my whole career. Therefore, we decided together to build and pivot I-Mab, Nova Bridge into that direction, making ourselves the best platform candidate to capture this opportunity to bring innovations from Asia to the world. We welcome all of you to be part of this journey. It's an exciting opportunity. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Back to you, PJ.
Thank you all. Operator, can you now close the call?
This concludes our call for today. Thank you, everyone. You may now disconnect.