Nanobiotix S.A. (NANO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Nanobiotix Update Call. [Operator Instructions] Also, as a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. Craig West, you may begin.

Thank you, Jenny. Good afternoon and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Nanobiotix update call to discuss our strengthened financial position through an amendment to our license agreement with Johnson & Johnson. Joining me on the call today are Laurent Levy, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Bart Van Rhijn, Chief Financial and Business Officer. As a reminder, today's call is being webcast and will be available on our website for replay. And I would like to remind you that this call will include forward-looking statements, which may include statements regarding the progress, success, and timing of our ongoing and planned clinical trials, collaborations, regulatory filings, dates of presentation, and future research and development efforts, among other things. These forward-looking statements are based on current information, assumptions, and expectations that are subject to change. They are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Accordingly, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Please review the full description of risk factors that can be found in the documents we filed with the AMF in France and the SEC in the United States and which are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. In addition, any forward-looking statements made by the company represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Nanobiotix undertakes no obligation to update them to reflect subsequent events or future circumstances. With all that said, I'd like to turn the call over to Laurent Levy. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Craig, and welcome, everyone, for this call, and happy to have you all here. And I'd like to take this occasion to talk about 2 important things. Maybe starting by going back to some of the fundamental value driver of our approach and discuss that with you. And of course, talking about the PR we've released yesterday evening about this amendment we've done about our license agreement with J&J. So talking about this amendment, I think we'd have to put this into the context of this collaboration we've been signing with our partner in July '23. And what happened today, along with some of the development that have happened for the last 18 months really showed the growing investment and the commitment of our partner to make that happen. I think we can name a few things that have been important in the recent past, like the start of the lung stage III randomized trial by Johnson & Johnson, also the fact that they have duplicated our manufacturing capabilities. And as you've noticed last year, we've taken the decision with them to transfer Phase 3 right in the middle of Phase 3 in order for them to be ready to prepare all the regulatory submission and all the premarket necessary activities before we get to the result that are expected in H1 '26. I think another very important part that has been done is also, as you noticed, just end of '23, they have taken and buying back the right from Leanbio, which was our former partner for Greater China. All those are key elements that really show with this amendment on top of it that we are moving forward with this collaboration, and we are getting closer and closer to be able to reach a lot of patient and help them on the day-to-day in the hospital. So what it is about when we talk about this amendment? I think there are 2 key things in it and some others that Bart will describe more precisely later is first, Johnson & Johnson is going to cover the cost of the 312 for the coming years and also the execution of the 312. So overall, the deal value adjustment we've done was from $2.7 billion to $2.6 billion in exchange of the former things. The royalties remain unchanged. So really, this as a first step for Nano allows a meaningful extension of cash runway to mid-'26. And equivalently, it does bring something will say as important, which is the reduction of cash burn for the coming year, and all this at an attractive cost of capital. So while making progress in the pathway to market and towards financial sustainability, we'll continue to explore additional financing. And this amendment is really an important step stone as the company looks to extend the runway into 2027, preferably via non-dilutive financing. So in addition, we would like to give you a bit more details about what is in that deal. So you can understand when we say going toward a sustainable company. So we want to talk about the milestones, some of the timing associated to it, and the quantum of those milestones. So that will give you more clarity on all this. So at the end, we think really that Janssen is the right partner for us to move forward with this product and help to address unmet need that is shared by millions of patient today. So maybe just as a recap for the newcomer. Nanobiotix has been developing 3 platform, all based on nanophysics. And the idea here is to really to bring something new to patient, but not something only new, something that we think could help millions of patient. And this is because while developing things with nanophysics and object and product, we are much less influenced by biological viability. And therefore, the 3 platform we've been developing, we think could have a tremendous application and potential benefit for patient. But for today, we're going to focus on NBTXR3, which is the first product we have from the first platform that has been licensed to Johnson & Johnson. What do we mean by going to sustainability and growth? I think, obviously, getting this collaboration right, and getting to the submission of the potential good results of Phase 3 next year will be an important step forward in order to not only show that our overall approach is working, but also that we can start getting revenues coming from this license agreement. So as you may remember, we're talking here about a $2.6 billion agreement plus royalty, and there's a potential for near-term and mid-term development and regulatory milestone. We'll come into some of the details later. If you just think about the first indication like lung and head and neck cancer, where we have currently a Phase 3 ongoing and a Phase 2, we could target an addressable population of over 100,000 just in the U.S. and EU5. And applying the usual cost for drugs or pricing, we could expect something like a $10 billion market potential. So really getting this collaboration in the right track moving forward and executing is a priority for the company and our partner to make sure that we can reach this. But beyond that, we're also continuing our effort to build new product for patient, but we'll not talk about that today. Maybe let's go back to some of the fundamentals and try to say and explain why and what do we say when we say addressing one of the largest untapped market in oncology. And for that, think we should -- and we should go back to the patient and make the following statement and observation. At the time of diagnosis, cancer patient, most of them have a local disease. if there is so many patient that have metastatic disease is because there is a good number of local treatment that will fail. And you can see that most of our industry really target patient less last line when they have met or when they are really advanced in their disease and have received several line of treatment. We think if we can help patient earlier in the disease at the time they have a local problem, that's where we'll have the biggest impact for them. That's where it's the biggest market. So when it comes to local treatment, radiation therapy is probably the largest oncology treatment that we can find for local. It's more than 60% of all cancer patients that will get radiation during their treatment and most of the time, for the vast majority at the beginning of their disease. If we think about breast cancer, it's 87% of patient getting radiation, 77% for lung, 64% for head and neck, 58% for prostate. So that's the vast majority of those big solid tumor. So clearly, the idea with our product is getting in and helping patient at this stage, and that's why we think we could have such a big opportunity to bring medical value, but also to bring dollar value for the company and for our shareholders. Here, you see our pipeline. As you can see, we have a broad pipeline due to the physical mode of action, we can apply our product broadly. And we have 2 key program ongoing that now J&J has taken the lead on. The first one is the ongoing Phase 3 in head and neck cancer patients, the Cis-Ineligible population. And the second one is the Phase 2 randomized trial in lung stage III. So those 2 program are very important because they have a predefined path to market, but it's not the only opportunity we have. As you can see, we have many other indications that have been either completed in Phase 1/2 or are ongoing that really start opening the potential of this product. Now talking about the market, just to give you an idea and some broad applicability of our product. Here, we've been listing indication where we have ongoing program -- clinical program. So the 2 top indication are the one with the Phase 3 in head and neck and the one with the Phase 2 in non-small cell lung cancer stage III. If we just take the 2 first indication and focusing on North America and EU5, we are talking here about a potential population of 100,000 patients. That's already a big population, not taking into account the rest of the world that will bring more than 400,000 additional patient. And just in North America and EU5, 2 first indication, if we apply the usual pricing in oncology for innovative drug and drug that can show some PFS and overall survival benefit, we are talking here about a potential from $5 billion to $10 billion. And just for those 2 first indications. And you will see that when Bart is going to describe the nature of our agreement that we've been capturing a large potential of this overall value. So now I'm going to give the mic to Bart to talk about the next steps in this amendment.

Thank you, Laurent. Good morning and good afternoon. This amendment aligns the financial impact of the sponsorship transfer of NANORAY-312 with the changing operational 312 development responsibilities and helps leverage the strengths of both companies. The amendment enables us to remove an existing and future liability, less a small portion of cost that will remain covered by Nanobiotix while meaningfully extending our cash runway into mid-2026. Not only that, but it also has a positive impact on future runway that is post mid-2026 as NANORAY-312 study represents a significant percentage of our cash outlay as it will eliminate our cash burn for the remainder of the study duration. We have structured this by exchanging select future milestones totaling EUR 105 million for the vast majority of the cost of this Phase 3 study that will now be directly paid for by J&J. The EUR 105 million in milestones represents a small part of the overall deal value and consists of EUR 40 million in former Leanbio milestones. And just for your recollection, Janssen novated that agreement. So that is now Janssen territory for Greater China and 65 million milestones related to our 2 lead programs. The cost of capital is favorable and in line with our financing strategy, and we truly appreciate the partnership and collaboration of our partner, J&J, further to this investment into this potential first commercial indication of a first-in-class radio enhancer. We strongly believe that J&J is the right partner to advance this asset, JNJ-1900, and help address unmet need in millions of patients. The resulting milestone structure post these changes remains one that avoids future cash flow challenges when key derisking events such as a positive readout of the interim analysis of the NANORAY-312 study materializes. We will continue to explore options to fully remove our financing overhang as we want to be financed beyond the key derisking event, in this case, the interim analysis of the 312 and we'll do so with our long-term shareholders in mind and arrive at a sustainably financed company should the data and regulatory approvals come in positive. Meanwhile, you can expect us to continue our disciplined approach to capital allocation. As we turn to the next slide, I wanted to share a recap of the overall structure post the amendment. As Laurent already indicated, we note that royalties have not changed and the EUR 105 million has been removed from the first bucket that now reach up to EUR 1.77 billion as well as the Leanbio, now Janssen bucket, the third line on the slide, which now reads up to EUR 165 million versus EUR 205 million prior. As we advance to the next slide, we can share with you what has transpired so far as well as our outlook should data readouts and regulatory approvals come in positive. In the middle, you can see that there is EUR 200 million plus of medium-term milestones that we expect in the next 2 to 3 years, and we will detail that out on the next slide. This should lead to a sustainably financed company on the back of the increased commitment from J&J as evidenced by the agreement that we just signed. In other words, the amendment. When we look at the right-hand side of the slide, we can see that we maintain the royalties. We maintained the EUR 220 million per new indication developed by Nanobiotix, which would require funding by Nanobiotix as well as more than EUR 2.3 billion relating to long-term milestones of the ongoing programs, development and regulatory milestones of potential additional indications, that is the EUR 650 million that was aforementioned, sales milestones that are indication agnostic as well as the Leanbio milestones. The settlement of these items allows Nano to focus on supporting J&J regarding the operational success of NANORAY-312 as reflected in the amendment. And as we advance to the next slide, here, we show you with more granularity what those upcoming milestones are, and we specifically have highlighted which ones we believe will be near-term milestones or medium-term milestones, which are the positive NANORAY-312 interim readout, U.S. approval and then the CONVERGE final data, which is the Phase 2 randomized non-small cell lung cancer stage III trial that J&J commenced earlier this year as well as a potential first patient in a pivotal trial in that indication. So as a conclusion, we have a disciplined capital allocation approach and arrived at a structure that puts the company towards a sustainably financed one subject to milestones and regulatory approvals coming in positive. We're very excited about this amendment as it allows us to focus on building out this first-in-class radio enhancer. And with that, I'd like to turn it back to Laurent. Laurent?

Thank you, Bart. So before concluding remark, I just want to reassess and re-explain some of the key milestone we have in the front of us. Obviously, as you have noticed, the 2 lead program in non-small cell lung cancer and head and neck cancer are important because they will lead to substantial milestones that will help the company moving forward. But it's not the only thing that's going to happen, especially in the near future because we expect to have 6 different readouts for 2025. Two, that will be an update coming from the 1100 trial, where we combine radiation, our products and PD-1, both in naive and refractory patients to PD-1. There will be also the non-small cell lung cancer Phase 1 that MDA is running and where we expect H1, some update and data from the completion of escalation part of the trial. There will be also PDAC pancreatic cancer update from the Phase 1 coming from MDA till H1. And there's a third cohort that we have in the 1100 trial, mainly with melanoma patient that will be presented with new data coming before the end of this year. And finally, we should expect also the first data coming from the esophageal Phase 1 cancer trial coming from MDA. So we'll have a rich year in terms of data while waiting for those 2 key milestone for medium term. So altogether, if we think about our key takeaway for today, we think we're really on our way to address this largest untapped market in oncology. There's still a few things to be achieved for sure. But day after day, we are building up a strength a very strong position to get there. The announcement we've made today really help us moving forward and by extending our cash visibility, but also reducing drastically our cash need over the next year and this has been done with what we think is a very good deal, really showing that our partner really helps us and is really have the intention to make us successful and make this collaboration successful. So of course, we'll continue to explore some additional financing option to make sure we can develop everything we have in our pipeline at Nanobiotix. But of course, we're preferably, given the current market, looking at non-dilutive option and ideally to extend the runway into 2027. So with that, I'm going to turn back the mic to the operator and open the floor for questions.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, we are allowing analysts one question and one related follow-up today. We will wait one moment for the queue to form. Our first question comes from Michael Schmidt with Guggenheim. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Yes, good morning and thanks for taking my questions. Yes, nice job in renegotiating this partnership with J&J. The -- maybe just a couple of technical questions. So there's the updated cash runway into mid-2026. Does that account for the data milestone for NANORAY-312 or does that -- is that without that $50 million potential milestone next year? So that's my first question. And then yes, I'm just curious about the stage III non-small cell lung cancer study. And I know it's starting to ramp up here this year. But I'm just curious if you have any projections in terms of when we could see some early data from that lung cancer study that J&J is running now.

Thanks, Michael. So maybe I'll take the first -- the last question, and Bart, I'll let you answer the second part. So the question about the CONVERGE trial, the one in lung stage III, as you have noticed, it started at the beginning of the year with the first patient injected and we can't say for now exactly when the data are going to come out, but that's something we're going to work with our partner to give a bit more visibility. Now what we can say is that we have other trial running in lung cancer, where we expect to see some data this year that we could start looking at to see what could be the impact in patient that are more favorable, more -- yes, compared to the CONVERGE trial and could help us to start not anticipating, but try to read through and get some insight of what could happen in the CONVERGE trial. But Michael, as soon as we can give more clarity on the deadline to get some of those data coming from CONVERGE, we will. So Bart, do you want to answer the first question?

Yes, happy to. And thank you for the question, Michael. The mid-2026 excludes any interim analysis milestone that was laid out. If that were to materialize, then our runway would extend meaningfully into 2027. So that is not the case at this time.

Our next question comes from Jonathan Chang with Leerink. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Hi, guys, thanks for taking my questions and congrats on the amended agreement. Can you confirm that you're still on track for the NANORAY-312 study interim analysis taking place by the first half of '26? And can you also remind us what the details are around the interim analysis? Thank you.

Thanks, Jonathan. So we maintain the deadline that we have announced to the market for the interim. Now about what we should expect at the interim, if you remember, it is a trial that will recruit 500 patient, randomized 1:1 with the control arm and the tested arm and that's a trial that is an event-driven readout. So after 283 events and the completion of recruitment of the patient, that's where we should be able to make the interim readout. And the final readout will be done after a bit more than 400 event, both on PFS and OS. But the interim readout itself, which is planned for now for the H1 '26, we expect to get a readout of the primary endpoint, which is the PFS and also look at the OS as not being detrimental. So that's what we should expect by that time.

Our next question comes from Sean Hammer with Jefferies. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. So as you've mentioned, it's more than likely you'll probably need to raise cash ahead of the readout to extend the runway. Could you outline what the options are here? And what has been the latest feedback from J&J on the programs, both CONVERGE and NANORAY in terms of data and the cadence of recruitment? Thank you.

So maybe I take the second part and Bart, I will let you give some perspective about how do we see the future in terms of financing. So thank you, Sean, for the question, and welcome in the Nanobiotix story. So I think the program is progressing well. As we mentioned before the end of last year, we've taken the decision with J&J to transfer the sponsorship of the 312 to them. And today, so they're going to take the full execution of the 312, including the cost going with. So this trial is progressing. We are reopening a number of countries, and J&J is starting to putting everything in motion also. So as you can guess or as we've mentioned in the past, this transfer does take a lot of effort on both side to make it happen. But things are progressing well and in the right direction. So we're happy with the current development. And for the CONVERGE trial, things are also moving in the right direction. And as I mentioned to Michael, as soon as we can, we'll give a bit more details on when we could expect some of the data coming from it.

Thank you, Sean, for the question. This is Bart. Following up on your question with regards to the outlook from a financing perspective. We will do so with our long-term shareholders in mind. We believe that current market conditions are not reflective of the enterprise value of the company. Therefore, equity financing would be prohibitively expensive. At the same time, we have a very versatile asset backed by a great partnership that starts to become increasingly derisked and provides many opportunities for non-dilutive financing providers such as royalty providers to back this asset and help support the company well beyond any pivotal data readouts and fully derisk the company and remove the financing overhang permanently. Obviously, there's other avenues as well like debt grants, other partnership deals, but our outlook is non-dilutive financing preferably with a focus on the NBTXR3 asset, JNJ-1900, which is a highly versatile asset that is well advanced.

Our next question comes from RK from H.C. Wainwright & Co.

So based on what you are telling us this morning, it looks like for additional indications, there is a potential for $220 million for each indication. And within that, you were also stating, at least what I read, is it looks like there needs to be some work done before J&J could pick it up as an additional indication. With a couple of readouts, actually multiple readouts coming from MD Anderson in 2025, do you still need to do additional work on those indications, especially like pancreatic or non-small cell local relapse, these indications? Do you -- what sort of work would you have to do before J&J can take a look at that data and see if they can assume as one additional indication?

Thank you, RK, for the question. And that's a good question. I think first, today, we have a lot of data showing that we could expand the product beyond lung and head and neck. We've seen a good number of Phase 1 or Phase 1/2 demonstrating capabilities of the product and being good to move forward in the next step. So for now, it's more a discussion about capital allocation and reward versus investment that we are discussing and also discussing with our partner, a more global strategy on how to move forward this product intelligently and maximizing the value. So there are opportunities, not only for us to expand, but also for J&J. But until those opportunities are settled in marble, I would say, we can't talk about it. But as soon as we will be in a position to do so, then we will. But let's be assured that we're really working on how to expand the value of this product and how we can bring it to a maximum number of patient to help them.

If I'm allowed for a follow-up, on the CONVERGE trial that just got started, you were saying that there are additional non-small cell lung cancer studies ongoing, and some data is supposed to come up soon could be relative. What would -- what sort of data are you thinking of when you said that?

Well, first, of course, every population in oncology is different. That's something that's fact. Now we have 2 other trial. In 1100, we've been treating patients having primary non-small cell lung cancer, having receiving a different type of treatment before, having failed the treatment. And we go back with those patient trained to help them last line of treatment with less dose of radiation and our product. It's not a direct readout of what could happen in the CONVERGE, but depending on how much we can make those patient response and about the safety and the feasibility of injection could sort of derisk the CONVERGE trial. And I think same from the MD Anderson trial. Here, we're talking about patients that have received many treatments and most of them getting through radiation plus chemo followed by PD-L1, which is the basics of the control arm of the CONVERGE trial. And in the radiation trial we do at MDA, we get those patient post failure of this frontline treatment. So again, everything we observe here could be interesting to look at both in term of safety, feasibility, and we could start reading some sign of efficacy as a positive insight for what could happen in CONVERGE. But those data should come out soon, and stay tuned. We'll go back and talk about that.

Our next question comes from Clemence Thiers with Stifel.

Congratulations. Just 2 on my side. So on the slide with potential term milestone payments for the 2 programs, are those exhaustive? Because, for instance, you don't mention any milestone for European approval in head and neck, so just wondering. And if I may follow up on the previous question. So you mentioned that the interim analysis milestone was not included in your cash runway, but is there any milestone at all that you include?

Bart, do you want to take that?

Yes, happy to. Yes. Thank you, Clemence, for the question. Much appreciated. There is no milestone whatsoever included in the runway up to mid-2026. And with regards to the completeness, 1 of the milestones that was removed relates to an EU approval. So these are the near-term ones on the slide where we showed the potential medium-term milestone payments for the first 2 programs that we see in our outlook. But that EUR 50 million European approval milestone was removed as a result of this amendment.

If I may, just follow up. Does it mean anything on the path into European market? Or is it just a milestone that's been...

It is -- yes, it is a financial arrangement whereby the milestone was selected based on the timing where the resulting milestone structure does not impede us to be a sustainably financed company. So first -- again, assuming that data and regulatory approvals come out positive would be NANORAY-312 or positive CONVERGE final data, followed by a first patient dosed or U.S. approval in head and neck. So it is the sequence of those milestones that helps us to achieve that sustainable outlook. And the European one would not jeopardize that outlook and was one of the reasons it was selected.

Our next question comes from Suzanne van Voorthuizen from Kempen.

This is Suzanne from Kempen. On your cash burn, can you give a sense how we should think about this going forward for this year? And what kind of a run rate we should expect from '26 onwards? Maybe not specific guidance, but some sort of direction will be helpful. And allow me to squeeze in another 1. What can we keep in mind in terms of upcoming updates on Curadigm and Occuity? When should we expect from those next-generation programs?

Thank you, Suzanne. So for Occuity and Curadigm, what we should expect for this year is, of course, internally we're moving forward with the Curadigm platform on 2 fronts. First of all, business development. As we mentioned in the past, this technology will lead to different type of product and could have a huge versatility. And therefore, Nanobiotix alone cannot do everything. That's why we will have and have a very active business development activity around that. And as I mentioned in the past, we already have a number of NTAs in place to try this approach with different type of product with some biotech and pharma partners. So what we should expect for this year, we are working on establishing a number of proof of concept, combining the Curadigm platform with some of the most innovative medical approach to show that this product could work in many situations, and we should expect some of the preclinical data coming from this year. For Occuity for now, our CNS platform, it's not the one we are pushing fast because we have limited bandwidth in the team to do everything. So we will wait a bit longer before seeing or being able to show some progress externally. And as far as the cash runway is concerned and how we should think about '26, '27 and onward, I will let Bart take that one.

Thank you for the question, Suzanne, and good to hear from you. So with regards to the impact on 2025, it would be double-digit millions in this year, and you should expect to continue that next year. As the exchange of these future milestones for cash funding by J&J takes place, you should expect that cash runway to be improved also post mid-2026 simply because a Phase 3 trial that is very costly is removed from our runway. And given the duration of it until the end of the trial, that's meaningful in both '25 and '26 in particular. I hope this helps.

Our next question comes from David Dai with UBS.

I also want to my congratulation for this amendment, definitely great to bring new here. So a couple of questions from my side. Maybe I missed it earlier, Laurent. Just in terms of the progress for NANORAY-312 trial, could you maybe just talk more about the trial enrollment so far? And since now that Johnson & Johnson will be taking over full development cost as well, are you also involved in the day-to-day decisions of the trial? That's the first question. Second question is just around your cash runway as well. We just recently see that you did a private or ATM of $200 million. Is that part of the cash runway estimates for first half of '26 that you put into the press release?

David, thank you for the question. So as far as the 312 is concerned, things are progressing in the right direction. I think not only J&J is going to take the execution of this trial. But as you can guess, they are a much bigger organization than Nanobiotix so they will be able to put much more resources than we had so far on this trial, which will -- and should help in accelerating this clinical trial. So that's on one side. On the other hand, part of our team will stay involved in this trial up to the end and to registration because we've been developing knowledge on this product for the past decade or more. And so we need to stay involved and our partner want us to stay involved to make sure that we can extract all this needed knowledge and especially for registration purpose, that will be very, very useful. So we'll stay involved, but obviously, much less involved as they're going really to run the operation, and they're already starting to run operation in some of the countries already like U.S. And Bart, do you want to comment on the second question?

I'll be glad to, Laurent. Thank you for the question, David. And for the audience, David makes reference to an F3 filing or a shelf that became effective the other day. That is a refiling of a prior existing shelf. That is corporate housekeeping for us. We do not signal any intent to use it. As we shared earlier in the call, our focus remains non-dilutive financing to derisk the company, especially at current capital market conditions. So it is a placeholder if and when needed to facilitate. But again, the company has no intent in using it.

Our next question comes from Shan Hama with Jefferies.

Just a follow-up for me. It's just a clarification on the deal revision. I think it might have been addressed briefly before. But am I correct in saying that J&J's full sponsorship of the study was basically in exchange for those milestones?

I think it's a fair summary.

We have no further questions at this time. I will hand it back to Nanobiotix team for closing remarks.

Well, thank you all for all those questions and very interesting exchange. We'll be happy to talk to you very soon. So stay tuned with more coming. And as we mentioned, there's a good number of clinical trial that will read out this year, including first half of this year. So we'll be in contact soon to continue to build the future with you. Thank you very much, and I wish you a very good day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's presentation. Thank you once again for your participation, and you may now disconnect.