Cantargia AB (publ) ($CANTA)

Welcome to Cantargia Press Conference 2026. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers, CEO, Hilde Steineger and CFO, Patrik Renblad. Please go ahead.

Thank you. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today and for your continued interest in Cantargia. Today's website is focused on our recently announced rights issue and importantly, how we intend to deploy the proceeds to drive the next phase of growth for the company. We are raising approximately SEK 125 million to accelerate key priorities across our development portfolio and position the company for a significant step forward. The capital enable us to advance our core clinical programs through clinical critical milestones, strengthen our data package and maintaining the momentum in areas where we see clear opportunity to create value. We are at an important stage where targeted investments can have a meaningful impact on both the pace of development and the strength of our strategic position. In today's presentation, we will walk you through how the proceed will be allocated. The milestones we're targeting and how these activities support our broader ambition to build long-term shareholder value. Next slide, please. Before we begin, I'd like to note that today's presentation includes important information and I urge everyone to read through the details in the presentation at the later stage. Next slide. I'm joined today by Patrik Renblad, our Chief Financial Officer, together will take you through the rights issue. I will begin with a strategic perspective and portfolio progress and later in the presentation, Patrik will return to discuss the transaction and the financials in more detail. Next slide. [indiscernible] remains one of the company's most important assets and a central driver of our value creation strategy. It is the most advanced expression of our platform with the potential to generate meaningful clinical, strategic and commercial value as we continue to progress development. This is why we remain focused on advancing nadnolumab with discipline and urgency. Next slide. [indiscernible] landscape is no longer static with the strong data generated by revolution medicine in second-line disease and the encouraging early signal from mining in first line, we are seeing genuine momentum emerge as a disease that has historically offered patients far to few options. We view that as a very positive development for the patients, but also for the feed overall. While remaining reinforcing investor interest and attracting greater strategic interest from potential pharma partners. Just as importantly, it also opens up opportunity for combination approaches based on mechanisms that are complementary and non-overlapping with the RAS and MET pathways being pursued by revolution medicine and in miner. We are focused on positioning namilumab to align with the evolving treatment paradigm and to capture the areas where we see the strongest clinical and strategic opportunity. Next slide. PDAC is a highly RAS-driven disease with KRAS mutation in the vast majority of tumors and RAS mutational status is an important driver of biology and outcomes alongside stage come mutations and, of course, other clinical factors. What we believe this increase only points to is a role for [indiscernible] in rational combination approaches, particularly alongside new targeted agents such as RAS inhibitors. Importantly, high IL-1 at levels are also strongly associated with poor survival, both in patients with KRAS mutations and those without them, which suggests that the biology remains relevant across a broad PDAC population. In parallel, KRAS mutation, especially G12D are associated with higher in AP expression. That gives us an added biological rationale for nabnolumob as a potential combination partner alongside RAS and MEK targeted therapies. Next slide, please. With this increasingly points to is a role for [indiscernible] in rational combination approaches, particularly alongside newer targeted agents. Importantly, high yes sorry, we're on Slide 11 now, right? Yes. What this -- let me see. Sorry, I lost the page slide, where -- which slide are we on, Patrik? This seems to be a technical glitch. So we're trying to resolve this as soon as possible. We'll get back shortly. [Technical Difficulty]

Okay. This is Patrik. Can you hear me? Good. So we apologize for the technical problems. It appears that Hilde fell out from where she is in Chicago at the ASCO conference. So I will catch up where I think we left the presentation on the slide here. So PDAC is a RAS-driven disease and mutations in the RAS genes will determine how much of the patients will determine much of the patient's prognosis. And this slide highlights 2 important points. First, in [indiscernible] expression is higher in KRAS-mutated PDAC patients than in wild type disease, which strengthens the biological link between in IL1RAP and oncogenic KRAS signal in pancreatic cancer. Second, with the KRAS mutated population, high IL1RAP exploration is associated with clearly worse survival. In other words, in IL1RAP is not only biologically relevant in this group. It also appears to identify patients with a particularly poor prognosis. Taken together, these findings support IL1RAP as both a meaningful target and a potentially important biomarker in KRAS-mutated PDAC. For us, that strengthens the rationale for nadunolimab, particularly in future combination strategies where we may also be able to address biology beyond KRAS alone. Now this slide highlights the development flexibility that nadunolimab may offer in PDAC. It may have a role together with chemotherapy alongside RAS-targeted therapy, or in combination strategies that reflect how the standard of care evolves. From a strategic perspective, that broadens the development path available for nadunolimab in PDAC and supports its potential relevance across multiple future treatment settings. And that is exactly where the next step becomes important. So the purpose of our proposed study, which we are financing through this financing is to establish safety and tolerability for the combination while also generating early signals of efficacy and relevant inflammatory and immune biomarkers. In other words, this is a practical and disciplined way for us to define how nadunolimab could fit into the next generation of PDAC treatment. Timing is currently expected in the fourth quarter of 2026 to [Technical Difficulty] Okay. I will continue. I apologize. So strategically, this study is important because it expands Cantargia's PDAC opportunity beyond current chemotherapy-based combination and helps position adenoma within a more biomarker-driven and targeted treatment landscape. Turning over to myeloid malignancies with my plastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia, MDS and AML. With IL1RAP wrap at the center of the disease. So in hematology, the scientific case for IL1RAP in MDS and AML remains strong, particularly given its role in leukemic stem cell biology and disease persistence. At the same time, both settings still represent areas of high unmet medical need with limited durability in many current treatment approaches. That creates a meaningful opportunity for nadunolimab, and the proceeds from this race will allow us to continue building the clinical evidence base in this area, supporting the ongoing MD Anderson study and creating optionality to expand development if the data continue to support it. In other words, this financing allows us to invest in an area where the biology is compelling. The need is substantial, and we believe nadunolimab has the potential to create clinical value.

And I'm back.

And you're back. And we are now at Slide 15. .

Yes, I see that. I'm so sorry, I don't even know when I dropped out. So okay. Let me then go to the next slide, which then is the investigator led one right. Go ahead. Okay. Good. Afraid I dropped off again. Okay. Sorry about that, guys. This Anderson study, which is investigator-initiated study and supported by the U.S. Department of Defense has now completed Phase Ib and is expanding into Phase III based on very encouraging early results. The safety profile for namnolumab in combination with azacitidine and or plus Venetoclax has been acceptable across cohorts. What has been particularly striking is the efficacy signal in high-risk MDS. 5 out of 5 evaluable patients achieved complete remission which -- with a 6 response pending at the point of this data cut. While these are early data from a small cohort, this is an exceptional result within a notoriously difficult-to-treat patient population. The expansion into Phase IIa will allow us to confirm these findings in a larger group and if the signal holds, it could become an important foundation for the broader hematology development program. And the current rights issue funding will enable us to accelerate the progression into later-stage development in MDS and AML. Then I will leave it to you, Patrik, for the financial discussions.

And now I will turn to the financing section. And in the next few slides, I will outline the structure of the rights issue alongside the related loan agreements and walk you through the expected time line highlight the key terms that the investors should understand. And I would like to emphasize that our objective is to present a financing package that supports our clearly defined value-creating milestones through a disciplined and balanced approach to capital raising. On this slide, we show how the transaction comes together. We're combining a rights issue of up to SEK 124 million with a loan agreement of up to SEK 75 million, together providing a total proceeds of up to SEK 199 million. Cantargia would like investors to view these components as complementary. The rights issue strengthens the equity base, while the loan adds strategic flexibility and support execution. Together, they are designed to secure funding for the company's next phase on a clear and balanced basis. Turning to the rights issue. We are offering 2 new shares for every 9 existing shares held at a subscription price of SEK 2.25 per share. Corresponding to a discount to the theoretical ex-rights price or TERP of 20%. This implies a gross proceeds at full subscription of approximately SEK 124 million. We recognize that dilution is painful, and we would not ask shareholders for additional capital unless we believe the opportunity justified acting now. The transaction is supported by subscription undertakings and a guarantee commitment totaling about SEK 75 million or roughly 60% of the issue. Board and management have entered into subscription agreements exceeding their or our pro rata ownership. We also expect to publish a disclosure document on or around June 5, 2026. And importantly, no prospectus will be prepared for this rights issue. This slide outlines the preliminary time lines for the rights issue, we begin with the announcement on Thursday last week followed by the last day to trade with the right to participate tomorrow on June 2 and a record date on June 4. Trading in subscription rights is expected to run from the 8th of June to the 16th, while the subscription period is expected to commence on June 8 and close on the 22nd. Trading in paid and subscribed shares so-called BTAs is expected to start on the eighth of June and around the end of the month with an estimated outcome announced on the 24th of June. The key focus for investors is a clear subscription and trading window. The second component to the transaction is the loan agreement we have entered into with Fanya Capital that provides additional financing flexibility alongside the rights issue. The loan amount is SEK 75 million, but capped at 10% of Cantargia's market capitalization based on a specified VWAP measure, so podium weighted average price measured 10-day trading days succeeding the announcement of the rights issue. The loan matures on May 28, 2028 with a possible 6-month extension. The arrangement fee is SEK 2.25 million. And the interest rate is 8% plus the Stockholm Interbank offered rates -- the 3 months coming to bank offered rate, which is then at a minimum of 2% corresponding to a minimum interest rate of 10%. In addition, the Board will provide warrants corresponding to a 3% dilution to Fenia Capital. And I think other terms are -- detail terms are outlined in our announcement from the 28th of May 2026. And with that, I hand over to Hilde for the summary.

Yes. And just checking, you can hear me?

Yes.

Perfect. So this summary slide shows why we believe this financing is so important. It provides resources to move several programs forward in parallel and to do so in a way that is directly tied to milestone delivery and potential value inflections in PDAC, we can take nadunolimab into a RAS combination study and open up multiple strategic paths for the program as the treatment landscape evolves. In hematology, we can advance MDS and AML program through Phase IIa and generate the data needed to assess the next step. And beyond that, we can continue to build our future pipeline value through -- can 14 and the next-generation portfolio. With that, I thank everyone for your attention, and let's open up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Richard Ramanius from RedEye.

I have a few questions. Let's start with the financial ones. First, how does this combined rights issue with the loan, assuming it is fully subscribed, affect your runway?

Patrik?

Thank you, Richard. Yes, the runway. We -- I think we had it on the final page there. So we expect that the runway would be to mid-2028.

Okay. And then I had a question about the loan rather 2 questions about the loan how do you intend to repay it? And why did you choose a loan rather than a warrant or equity funding?

Yes. So we, of course, expect to repay it in a way through either equity financing based on good data or other nondilutive funding or as you know, proceeds from the [indiscernible] transaction. At this point, I think it's premature to actually say which one of them it is. What I can say is that we will be very careful about how we allocate the loan, making sure that we have funds available to repay it. Why we believe that this transaction is a combined transaction, Richard, with the -- combining the dilution and the discount to existing shareholders, while balancing that with a cost of capital for the loan and the risk associated with the loan.

Okay. So final question for Hilde. So I assume is correct to assume that you're not pursuing a porting strategy for nadunolimab for late-stage studies rather than conducting them on your own.

Well, that's, I think, a question for a later day. We need to set ourselves up for the possibility for a strategic partnership but also for finding way path forward on our own. So as we always say is that we will continuously explore all opportunities to support and accelerate our development programs. Of course, partnerships will play an important role in our funding strategy is available. However, we always want to maintain the flexibility to go ahead on our own. So for now, we think the best way to create option space for nadunolimab is to do this combination study.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Michael Okunewitch from Maxim Group.

I guess I would like to just ask if you could spend a little bit more on the combination potential with RAS inhibitors. In particular, if the expectation here is that there's going to be true synergistic activity or if it's more of an additive efficacy effect with the benefit of that overlap between the RAS and the IL1RAP expression?

Well, thank you for that excellent question because this is exactly why we are pursuing a combination study. We believe that the biology makes perfect sense to combine non-overlapping pathways. So only clinical results will be able to give us the exact answer whether we see additional effects synergistically or not. For now, we just also want to make sure that we have a safety profile that also fits with RAS inhibitors. We expect to see nonoverlapping tox signals. So that is also a very good combination partner -- have you sort of had a combination with RAS inhibitors in the same pathways, most probably you would accelerate the tox profile. So yes, we think biologically rationale to see an additive effect is absolutely there.

I really appreciate that addition.

Maybe just -- yes, because I think one important factor is that nadunolimab added effect on not only killing cancer cells, but also addressing the tumor microenvironment, which the RAS inhibitors does not and no other RAS components as we see it today, we'll be able to target the tumor microenvironment in the same way as nanolmab does.

That's very helpful. And then just 1 more for me before I hop back into the queue. -- in the Phase Ib/IIa, is there a plan? Or do you expect that you would need to select for high IL1RAP expression? Or will be selecting for the RAS mutations be specific enough?

Well, as you saw maybe in one of my slides, we do believe that KRAS mutated patients will be high on IL1RAP. So we will measure in retrospect in this study so that we get a sense of whether or not we should select for IL1RAP in IB setting but we will not do that in this 1B2A survey. So we will next -- so we'll take all comers, but we'll measure it retrospectively.

There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

There are a couple of questions coming in from the web. And the first one is, could you comment on the issue cost being a bit above 10%? What's the reasoning behind that?

Patrik?

Yes, it's guarantee commitments. It's mainly that.

Thank you. And another question relates to the combo study. There are rumors of a total cost of USD 300 million for that study. What's your take on that? For a combination study in late stage or in early stage --

It seems to be late stage.

Late stage. Yes. Well, we've never actually guided on the cost of a late-stage study. But when we see what our competitors spend in 50 million 600-patient study. I think that number seems accurate.

That is not the number we are planning for a Phase Ib trial.

No, exactly. So that was late stage 2 B3 -- and we -- what we we'll see the 1b study will be in within the realms of this financing route.

And could you comment a bit on the time frame for the late-stage study as well?

Yes. Well, I think what we need to do is see how the landscape evolves. Revolution Medicine has a Phase III ongoing Resolute 30 which is a study where they have 3 arms, 1 on the monotherapy and 1 in combination with Gen or chemotherapy. And depending on which arms of these 2 arms win, we will then know more how to position ourselves in first line or in second line. Resolute 303 is reportedly recruiting very fast, and we expect data there within a 2-year time frame. By the time the readout of the 303, we are then done with our IB and can position ourselves very nicely according to the outcome of both 303, but also the MEK inhibitors Phase III trial. So while we are running our Ib combo study, the landscape will become clearer.

Thank you. And that for all the questions coming from the web.

I apologize for the technical problems. And thank you for listening to me in the science part.

Thank you for joining everyone. So thank you.