Decoy Therapeutics Inc. (DCOY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

January 13, 2022

NASDAQ US Health Care Biotechnology special 43 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Good day, and welcome to the Salarius Pharmaceuticals Oncology Pipeline Expansion Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call may be recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Jason Rando of Tiberend Strategic Advisors. You may begin.

Jason Rando

attendee
#2

Good morning, and thank you for joining Salarius Pharmaceuticals on today's conference call. Earlier this morning Salarius Pharmaceuticals issued a press release detailing a cash and stock transaction with DeuteRx, LLC for the acquisition of a protein degradation portfolio, which we encourage listeners to read. The press release can be found in the News section of salariuspharma.com. Salarius also filed in the 8-K this morning, which is available on salariuspharma.com with the sec.gov. Before beginning the call, I would like to make the following statement. Today, we'll be making certain forward-looking statements about operating metrics, future expectations, plans, events and circumstances including statements about our strategy, future operations and development of our investigational drug candidates as well as our expectations regarding capital allocation and cash resources. These statements are based on our current expectations, and you should not place undue reliance on these statements. Actual results may differ materially due to our risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in the Risk Factors section of Salarius Pharmaceutical's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 2020 and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which have been filed with the SEC as well as in other filings we make with the SEC from time to time. Salarius Pharmaceuticals disclaims any obligation to update the information contained in these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. With us on today's call is David Arthur, Director and CEO of Salarius Pharmaceuticals, who will discuss the acquisition as well as Salarius' lead investigational drug candidate, seclidemstat and the vision for the company. David, please go ahead.

David Arthur

executive
#3

Thank you, Jason, and good morning. And thank you to everyone dialing into our conference call this morning. As you know, earlier today, we announced an agreement with DeuteRx, LLC under which we acquired a portfolio of assets and intellectual property that will form the basis of our targeted protein degradation research and development program. The agreement includes the lead candidate SP-3164, additional targeted protein degradation drug development programs and a portfolio of 6 patent families. In addition, Salarius has entered into a research and development agreement with our DeuteRx colleagues to complete 3164 development and also collaborate on the research and development of these future products. With this acquisition, Salarius has gone from a company with a single clinical stage asset, seclidemstat, to a company with a multipronged internal pipeline built around 2 exciting and distinct fields of cancer research: protein inhibition and now, targeted protein degradation. Before getting into the details of this tremendous opportunity, I want to provide a brief update on seclidemstat's ongoing process -- progress. Seclidemstat, our novel LSD1-inhibitor program continues to build momentum with the addition of clinical trial sites, ongoing patient enrollment and, most recently announced, the fact that the Ewing sarcoma arm investigating seclidemstat in combination with common chemotherapy agents has advanced to the second safety lead-in cohort. I'll come back to seclidemstat later, but now I'd like to talk more about this acquisition and our entrance into the attractive and growing field of targeted protein degradation. I want to say upfront that we believe 3164 is a derisked asset with tremendous upside potential. I'll spend the next few minutes explaining why 3164 is a great addition to our pipeline. But first, let me mention why we're excited to enter the protein degradation space. Protein degradation is a fast-growing field of drug development that has attracted considerable attention, not to mention investment, from some of the world's biggest drug makers, including Pfizer and Novartis. And it should come as no surprise that these drug makers are showing interest. In 2020, global sales for a class of protein degraders called molecular glues totaled over $15 billion. Be sure to remember that phrase as I provide more details on 3164. Now let's shift gears and talk about the terms of the deal, the opportunity and the science behind SP-3164. 3164 was developed by DeuteRx using a unique process called deuterium-enabled chiral switching, or DECS, to create a new molecular entity with the potential for increased efficacy and improved safety compared to the first generation compound, avadomide. Avadomide is a well-known molecular glue that has an unstable chiral center and, therefore, consists of 2 enantiomers in equilibrium. You can think of an enantiomer as mirror images of one another. They have the same chemical structure, but they are not the same. Consider as an example, your left hand in your right hand, each has 4 fingers and a thumb, a mirror image of each other, but you can't place one on top of the other. Interestingly, it is only one of these enantiomers, the S enantiomer of avadomide, that is primarily responsible for the anticancer and immune modulating effects of the drug. The other enantiomer, the R enantiomer, has minimal anticancer properties and actually may even help promote tumor growth, which is obviously undesirable. Ideally, one would only want the active anticancer S enantiomer of avadomide, and that is exactly what we have with SP-3164. 3164 was developed to be only the active anticancer S enantiomer and, therefore, we believe it may have improved efficacy and potentially an improved safety profile over avadomide, the first-generation compound. One of the many reasons we are excited about developing 3164 is we can take a lot of the published data from the first generation compound and build upon these learnings with 3164. This helps derisk the development and positions 3164 for success. For instance, the first-generation compound has shown preclinical activity -- already shown preclinical activity in various hematological indications, including multiple myeloma, lymphomas and leukemias and in solid tumors like hepatocellular carcinoma or liver cancer. In addition, avadomide was studied in more than 400 subjects across 10 clinical trials for patients with hematologic cancers and solid tumors with published data showing it has encouraging efficacy in lymphomas as both a single agent and in combination therapy with standard of care agents. This is a large set of positive data for us to build upon with our newly acquired improved second-generation compound. The unique properties and improvements of SP-3164, over the first-generation compound, make it a new molecular entity with its own composition of matter patent. So while we can learn from the first-generation compound, 3164 represents a novel entity that will have a differentiated clinical profile and development path. For these reasons, we believe 3164 is a derisked asset with significant upside potential. One of the reasons we are excited to announce this acquisition and collaboration agreement with DeuteRx is because they are the leaders in the space of deuterated chiral switching. This is not DeuteRx' first transaction. In fact, it is the fourth time DeuteRx or an associated DeuteRx company has sold, licensed or spun out a portfolio of deuterium-stabilized isomers for clinical development. In fact, previous transactions have included Celgene, Poxel SA, and, most recently, Neuromity. Nor is 3164 the first preferred isomer drug candidate in the industry. There is a long list of products where the preferred isomer was developed into a multibillion-dollar brand. In this transaction, DeuteRx receives an upfront payment from Salarius of $1.5 million in cash and 1 million shares of restricted stock. In addition, and based upon the success of 3164, DeuteRx is also entitled to receive up to $53 million in future event-driven clinical and regulatory milestone payments and sales achievement milestone payments of up to $135 million as well as escalating royalties on net sales. Additionally, DeuteRx is eligible to receive event-driven clinical regulatory and sales milestone payments of up to $84 million and escalating royalties on net sales for each of 2 future products. As part of our shared vision to support early development activities, Salarius and DeuteRx structured this deal so that development milestone payments do not occur until much later than is typical in the drug development cycle. In fact, the first potential development milestone payment is not triggered until initiation of a Phase III or registration clinical trial. With this high-level overview, I hope you can now share in our excitement regarding this acquisition announcement. To highlight, SP-3164 allows us to enter the growing attractive space of targeted protein degradation. SP-3164 is an improved next-generation version of avadomide, a widely studied molecular glue with a significant amount of published data that helps derisk 3164's development path. And economically, we structured a deal that allows our resources to be used for early preclinical and clinical development activities, while leveraging expertise from the DeuteRx team so that we can advance the development of future products. We look forward to sharing updates of this exciting new program as we advance it through IND-enabling studies with the intention of entering into the clinic in 2023. Furthermore, and in addition to the news surrounding our acquisition, seclidemstat development continues to build momentum. In December, the Ewing sarcoma arm of our sarcoma trial achieved an important dosing milestone by advancing to the second safety-leading cohort, and we are now treating patients with seclidemstat in 900 milligrams twice daily in combination with topotecan and cyclophosphamide or TC therapy. As we have mentioned previously, seclidemstat, when used in combination with TC therapy, demonstrated synergy in a Ewing sarcoma cell line. Synergy, meaning 1 plus 1 equals more than 2 in end-cancer activity. Also in our sarcoma trial, the myxoid liposarcoma and FET rearranged sarcoma arms continue to enroll patients who are being treated with single-agent seclidemstat therapy. And a second seclidemstat clinical trial is also active in enrolling patients. This trial is an investigator-sponsored trial at MD Anderson Cancer Center here in Houston and is exploring seclidemstat in combination with the cancer drug azacitidine for the treatment of hematologic cancers. This is an exciting time for Salarius, and we are looking forward to providing clinical updates on both of these seclidemstat trials later this year. We believe entering the fast-growing field of targeted protein degradation with the acquisition of 3164, the acquisition of additional future assets in development plus the increasing momentum of seclidemstat is all great news, and we would enjoy answering your questions. You can also find additional information on the Salarius Pharmaceuticals website at salariuspharma.com. Joining me for the Q&A portion of this call is Mark Rosenblum, Chief Financial Officer; Dr. Nadeem Mirza, Senior Vice President of Clinical Development; and Dr. Daniela Santiesteban, Director of Corporate Development and Director of the SP-31 program. With that, I will now open the call to your questions.

Operator

operator
#4

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ahu Demir with Ladenburg Thalmann.

Ahu Demir

analyst
#5

I would like to congratulate the team for the acquisition. I look forward to learning more about the program. So far my first question will come based on avadomide clinical trials. Are there particular indications that the agent shows superior efficacy and you plan to maybe proceed those indications? And also I saw your wording in the press release, undruggable cancer-promoting targets. Is there a strategic decision going towards those targets as well?

David Arthur

executive
#6

Ahu, thank you for calling in. Let me take the first part of the question, and I'll ask Daniela to weigh in on the second. We've had the opportunity to review all of the published data on avadomide and the published data on 3164, and we've had the opportunity to review data that has not been published. And I got to tell you, we really like what we see. And when you look at the published data that is out there, you -- as I mentioned in my script, avadomide has already demonstrated efficacy in lymphomas and some very exciting data in liver cancer. When we couple that with what we have seen during the acquisition process and due diligence process that we went through with DeuteRx, we have a lot of good choices in front of us. And we're going to let the data and strategic considerations of ensuring we get to market quickly, and we get to market with good, strong indications that lead to good, strong market presence, really guide our development strategy. So at this point, I would answer your question by saying we have some really good choices in front of us that include multiple myeloma, a number of lymphomas, possibly even liver cancer. And we'll be sharing more on our development path as we have a chance to build our relationship more strongly with DeuteRx and execute some additional preclinical trials. Daniela, the second part of the question was about undruggable targets. Would you like to take that one?

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#7

Yes, happy to, David. And thanks for the question, Ahu. So yes, as you know, one of the advantages of protein degradation is the ability to not just be limited to proteins that have a catalytic site, and you can really go after a lot more protein, so-called undruggable targets. So we're really excited to be able to try and tackle some of these targets. We'll be working with DeuteRx on developing future drugs in the targeted protein degradation space and hope to have some updates in the future for you.

Ahu Demir

analyst
#8

That sounds great. This is helpful. And my second question will be regarding the IND-enabling studies. Are you responsible to carry those studies? What are we expecting to see throughout the year before you enter the clinical trial for this program?

David Arthur

executive
#9

So Ahu, we purchased the targeted protein degradation portfolio and product line from DeuteRx. So we are now the owners and we are responsible for advancing not only 3164, but advancing the development of future products. We have a lead candidate. 3164 is the lead candidate. So we will be quickly moving into the IND work necessary to file an IND with the FDA. And as you know, that includes optimizing the chemical synthesis. It means developing some analytical methods. It means, obviously, your GLP tox studies and a number of other activities that help characterize 3164 and show that we have both the likelihood of efficacy, which we feel very good about. And we can meet the safety requirements requested by the FDA. And we would -- as we mentioned, we expect to be in the clinic in 2023. Did that answer your question?

Ahu Demir

analyst
#10

Yes. So one additional question, could be like, are you planning to maybe disclose any data at a conference? Are we going to see maybe more preclinical data? Are you planning to maybe present at a conference or not? So that would also help me.

David Arthur

executive
#11

Well, the answer is absolutely yes. We not only have seclidemstat data that we are hoping to present at a number of conferences over 2022 and 2023. And many of those would be preclinical in addition to clinical data. And then with 3164, we are currently looking at the best way to disclose not only some of the existing data that has not been published, but also plan on how to release data that we'll be generating over the next year. So the answer is, yes, we just need to get our heads around exactly what we have and figure out the best way to get the information out there.

Ahu Demir

analyst
#12

That makes sense. If I could ask one more question. Thanks for the highlights regarding the derisked upside. And as you pointed out, the degradation arena is rapidly growing. So I would be curious to hear what are the major differentiating factors you see compared to other degradation companies in terms of strategic decisions or targeting indications or targets?

David Arthur

executive
#13

So let me start by talking a little bit about the differentiation. And then I'm going to ask Daniela to talk a little bit about the opportunity for clinical trials and where we might go there. At a high level, and this is what I think is very important for everyone on the call to realize, is the development of preferred isomers is not new to the pharmaceutical industry. There are numbers of examples where this has been done successfully. In fact, those of us on phone, many of us may remember a company called Sepracor that was very successful in the development of preferred isomers. You can look back recently at, I believe, Prilosec, a widely successful product, was followed by Nexium, which was an isomer of -- one of the isomers in Prilosec, and Nexium ended up with a more efficacious profile and was also a multibillion-dollar drug. Other examples include Celexa, which was followed by Lexapro, which was one of the select isomers, also items that we may be familiar with. Probably a lot of people on this phone call may have used Zyrtec. Well, guess what? Excalis is the -- one of the isomers of Zyrtec and provided more consistent efficacy and less sedation. Focalin followed Ritalin. So there's a -- and the reason I use these examples is -- the answer to your question is we are now taking the preferred and active isomer of avadomide, which we believe will provide a more potent product. And by leaving the R enantiomer behind, that has been shown to not be active and potentially promote undesirable side effects including the promotion of cancer, we believe we will have a more potent, more efficacious and safer product than avadomide, knowing that avadomide has already performed pretty darn well in the clinic. So from a differentiating factor, we think we have a real advantage here. Now let me toss it to Daniela. And Daniela, you can comment on future indications.

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#14

Yes. Thanks, David. So yes, just adding to what David said, 3164 is going to be the first deuterated stabilized S enantiomer to enter the clinic that we're aware of. And because S enantiomer is the active one, not immediately differentiates it from the get-go. It has the same target protein degradation profile as some of the other molecular glues and that its target proteins are Aiolos and Ikaros. But in addition to those, it also degrades other proteins. And because of that unique protein degradation profile, we think that we can develop it in not only hematological indications, but also solid tumor indications, and develop it in combination with approved agents due to its tolerable safety profile. So like David said, it's derisked, but there are several areas and opportunities for us to develop this differentiated molecular glue.

Operator

operator
#15

Our next question comes from Mike King with H.C. Wainwright.

Michael King

analyst
#16

Can you hear me okay?

David Arthur

executive
#17

Can hear you fine, Michael.

Michael King

analyst
#18

So I'm driving in the car. So thanks for doing the call and I applaud your business development efforts. I just want to go a little bit deeper on the previous answer that Daniela gave the prior caller about the targets of S avadomide. Daniela, you said Ikaros and Aiolos.

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#19

Yes. That's right, Mike.

Michael King

analyst
#20

Okay. So you're referring to this as a molecular glue. I'm just trying to understand a little bit better at the level of the chemistry and the biology, are you forming covalent bonds between S avadomide and on these target proteins? Or is there some other methodology? And is this a -- does this utilize cereblon or not? Just trying to see kind of where in the molecular glue space the molecule falls?

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#21

Yes. Yes, happy to provide some additional detail on that. So yes, it is the [ CRBN ] binding molecular glue. So the compound itself will bind [ CRBN ] and induce, as you know, like a stickiness with the protein of interest. And like I mentioned, that includes Aiolos and Ikaros. It also includes several other proteins. And based off those differentiated proteins, that's going to guide certain development opportunities for this molecular glue. But yes, it is a [ CRBN ] binding molecular glue.

Michael King

analyst
#22

Got it. Okay. And then I'm also interested to understand, you mentioned that avadomide has been in clinical studies before, and I presume we could just look those up on PubMed or whatever. But have there been preclinical studies using the S enantiomer in preclinical models, whether in vitro or in vivo, that demonstrate that the S enantiomer has equal or better antitumor characteristics?

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#23

Yes. So our colleagues at DeuteRx conducted those studies. They did it in a multiple myeloma model. And when they compared it to the racemic mixture of avadomide or to the R enantiomer at the relevant concentration, it was the S enantiomer that had the most antitumor effect. And so yes, we've seen that preclinically play out.

Michael King

analyst
#24

Can you say -- is it 1.2x the racemic? Or is it 2x or 5x? Do you have any quantification you can help us?

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#25

Yes. So the data will be on the website, Mike, in our deck. But you can see about -- if you compare it to the racemic mixture, now remember the racemic mixture is 0.5 S, 0.5 R. So it's going to have the anti-cancer properties. But when we remove the R enantiomer, what we see is about -- I can't recall off the top of my head, but maybe 15%, 20% decrease in tumor size over the racemic mixture. So what's important is that when we look at -- when the DeuteRx team looked at just the R enantiomer, they saw the potential that, that enantiomer might be pro-tumorigenic. So they actually saw an increase in consumer size over the vehicle, over the control group. And by eliminating that we're going to get rid of any pro-tumorigenic effects, but also hopefully eliminate any safety issues that may be coming from the R enantiomer. And so that's why we think that the S enantiomer not only will have improved efficacy but has the potential to have improved safety as well.

Michael King

analyst
#26

Okay. And then finally, as long as David is in the room. I'm just wondering what you can say about the spend, and how the spend might change to account for the additional work that you'll have to do?

David Arthur

executive
#27

So great question, Mike. And the answer is this deal was funded out of existing cash. As you know, we've -- and hats off to Mark Rosenblum, who's on the call here. We've maintained some of the financial strength. So we've been in the strongest financial position that we've been in, in a long, long time. And now was the right time to do this deal given the opportunity with DeuteRx to strengthen our financial position. So the funding for this program is coming out of existing cash. We had anticipated a transaction to build our pipeline, and so we were prepared for it. And what I think is really important for investors to know is that we now have 2 assets each in -- 1 each in the area of protein inhibition and now in the hot space of targeted protein degradation. Each of those assets is capable of generating value inflection points that create value and support financing if and when we need to raise money at some point in the future. But the bottom line is we just -- we -- I believe we just doubled shots on goal from a drug development perspective here at Salarius and that doesn't even count the exciting future products that we'll be talking about at a later date.

Operator

operator
#28

Next question comes from Hunter Diamond with Diamond Equity.

Hunter Diamond

analyst
#29

So most of my questions were asked. My only other question, how are you going about finding these assets and sort of what's the due diligence process? I'd just be curious your high-level thoughts.

David Arthur

executive
#30

Happy to answer that, Hunter. So how do we go about finding assets. I'm going to start with a quote for my father-in-law who used to tell me, "The harder he worked, the luckier he got." And I was -- we are incredibly fortunate to have Daniela and the rest of the Salarius team who has been working on business development. We've looked at probably 100 or more assets early on, and Daniela and her team filtered that down to probably 50 that we took a good look at and narrowed it down to just a handful that we took a really hard look at. And it's hard work. It's getting out there. It's attending conferences. It's using your own internal network, and it's turning over a lot of rocks before you find the true diamond in the rough. And here, we found better than diamond in the rough. We found DeuteRx, who is in the business of developing stabilized isomers and then selling them or licensing them or spinning them out for clinical development. The timing was great. And I would never say we're lucky because we have a team that works incredibly hard and generates our own luck.

Hunter Diamond

analyst
#31

Great. Makes perfect sense. I guess just a follow-up to that question. I know there's a lot of companies with capital looking for new assets in biotech and doing IPOs or even SPACs for -- in health care. So there's a lot of money looking for these early-stage assets. I would think that most of your acquisitions, if there are future ones, would be preclinical or very early stage, given a Phase II asset, they might want $50 million, $100 million or larger sums. Is that sort of your take that you'd be mostly looking at preclinical assets that look compelling?

David Arthur

executive
#32

Well, we're in a great position right now. We've got a clinical asset that is in 2 different trials across 4 different patient populations, seclidemstat and single-agent therapy and 2 different drug combinations. We now have a -- what we feel is a derisked clinical candidate with a pretty robust and, we think, exciting set of clinical data from [ the parent ] -- from the avadomide molecule first generation asset. So we have a plethora of opportunities there. And in addition, we now have not only our second-generation new chemical entity LSD1-inhibitor program, but we now have at least 1, and I believe 2 -- well, 2, I do know, 2 future protein degradation programs. And so we're flush with opportunities right now. Would we talk to companies who brought us something to consider? Absolutely. As we -- a big part of my day is just listening to what people want to talk about. But as we sit right here, I think we're in pretty darn good shape.

Operator

operator
#33

Our next question is a follow-up from Mike King with H.C. Wainwright.

Michael King

analyst
#34

Sorry, I forgot to ask about the IP position of S avadomide?

David Arthur

executive
#35

Yes. So we -- it's well protected. We have a composition of matter patent that has been issued in U.S., Europe Japan, Australia, Canada. It extends to 2034. That does not include the potential 5-year extension. And so we really like the patent position. Now one thing I do want to share with you to be fully transparent, we are aware of a patent in Europe, in the major 5 in Europe, that could potentially delay launch a little bit. But we have clear cut strategy to address that. We have activities in place supporting that strategy. And I believe that when it comes time to launch in Europe, we would have resolved that situation. At end of the day, I really like our patent position and we have it locked up in a large number of major markets.

Michael King

analyst
#36

What's the patent on the racemic? Is it off?

David Arthur

executive
#37

The patent on the racemic avadomide, I believe it expires in the late -- later this decade, so 2027, something like that. So it's not going to be in play in the U.S.

Operator

operator
#38

There are no further following questions. I'd like to turn the call over to Daniela Santiesteban.

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#39

Thank you. Yes. So we've had some questions come in via e-mail. And David, the first one is, first off, congratulations on the acquisition. The person is wondering about future plans with SP-3164. It promotes degradation of proteins kind of like what seclidemstat with LSD1. Seclidemstat is also able to turn on and off genes, which it looks like has been a problem or an issue in the space. Is there a possibility to use seclidemstat in combination with this new compound, 3164?

David Arthur

executive
#40

Thank you for the question. And you do point out an interesting characteristic. Now we've learned a lot from seclidemstat and protein inhibition that we can apply to targeted protein degradation. And because it's all about going after the proteins. Now having said that, at this moment in time, we don't have any specific plans to look at combination therapy between seclidemstat and 3164, but that can change. We're at the front end of looking at a -- I used the word plethora previously, a significant number of opportunities with 3164 in combination therapy, a single agent, looking at combining with standard of care agents across a number of tumor types, both solid and liquid. And I'm sure, as we start to move through that process, we will take a look at combination with seclidemstat. But at this moment in time, we're really focusing on getting 3164 through IND-enabling studies and into the clinic.

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#41

All right. Thank you, David. We do have another question. Congratulations on the new acquisition. I'm just wondering why you decided to acquire SP-3164 at this time?

David Arthur

executive
#42

The short answer is we felt this was absolutely the ideal time. Strong financial position. Seclidemstat momentum was building -- has been building, is continuing to build. And there are a number of companies that were approaching us based on our demonstrated ability to get drugs into the clinic and implement clinical trials and our strong financial position. The second reason is opportunities like this don't come along that often. We talked a little bit about -- we've talked a lot about the fact that 3164 is derisked. We've talked about its differentiated profile. Michael asked about the patent position, which I want to reiterate, we really like the patent position. We think it's strong across the world. And DeuteRx in addition to being just a great group of people to work with and experts in the field of deuterium development also had additional products, future products that we put into the deal. So when opportunity strikes -- and remember, you make your own luck, hard work meets opportunity is exactly what fell into our lap. So this is the absolute perfect time. And in fact, it just doesn't get any better than this. I've been in big pharma for 20 -- a little over 22 years now, and these type of opportunities don't come along that often, where we couldn't be happier.

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#43

Thank you, David. So we have a few more questions, and you've touched on this before, but the questions are regarding the financing around the new asset and our cash and existing runway, how that could be impacted by this acquisition. So maybe, David, if you can just reiterate and expand upon some things you've said before.

David Arthur

executive
#44

Yes, happy to. So I want to be clear upfront. This program does -- the acquisition and our entrance into protein degradation does not, in any way, impact the development of seclidemstat. We are bullish on seclidemstat. We like the data we're seeing. We are adding clinical trial sites. We are enrolling patients and things are moving forward, and we're looking forward to releasing the data later this year. As I mentioned, this deal was just an amazing opportunity to work with a brilliant group of individuals at DeuteRx and bring in not only a lead candidate but future products. And one of the things I mentioned in the script that shouldn't be overlooked is that this was a -- this deal did not have a large upfront payment. It was only $1.5 million and 1 million shares of stock. And DeuteRx was as interested as we were in being able to use our resources for preclinical and clinical development. So they were willing to push milestone payments out to initiation of a Phase III or registration trial, which allows us to focus everything we have on getting 3164 into the clinic. So as I mentioned, this deal in the near term is funded out of existing cash as is the development work. It does not impact seclidemstat. And we now have 2 assets that can reach value inflection points, create value and potentially be used for driving financing at some point in the future if and when we decide that's necessary. But for the time being, we continue to be in the strongest financial position we've experienced to date.

Daniela Santiesteban

executive
#45

Thank you, David. Those are all the questions that came in via e-mail. So I'll hand it back over to you, David, for closing remarks.

David Arthur

executive
#46

Okay. Thank you, Daniela. I hope today's discussion has given you a fuller picture of the evolution underway at Salarius. We believe it is very exciting. Supporting all this activity and growth is a strong financial foundation that we've touched upon. It's coupled with the hard work and dedication of our employees that we've touched upon and the support of our shareholders. And I always want to thank our shareholders because without all of them and without all of you, Salarius would not be where it is today. Thank you for -- everyone for your time and attention today, and I extend my sincerest wishes for good health to all and a safe and successful 2022. Thank you.

Operator

operator
#47

This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

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