Syntara Limited (SNT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the 2022 Annual General Meeting of Pharmaxis Limited, which has been called by a notice of meeting dated the 29th of October 2022. We have a quorum, and I now declare the meeting open. My name is Malcolm McComas, the Chair of Pharmaxis and the Chair of this meeting. Today's meeting is being held as a virtual meeting via live webcast with the use of Zoho platform and also the Computershare meeting platform for voting. Shareholders and proxies have the ability to ask questions via Zoho and submit votes via the Computershare meeting platform. You need to be logged by its platforms if you wish to vote. Firstly, let me introduce the other Board members, Mr. Gary Phillips, our CEO; Dr. Neil Graham, Non-Executive Director; and Dr. Kathleen Metters, Non-Executive Director, is joining us from New York; and David McGarvey, our CFO and Company Secretary. Representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers are David Rowland. The company's auditor is also in attendance. Welcome, David. We will take the Notice of Meeting and the proposed resolutions as read, but we will also display them if the meeting progresses. The questions can be submitted online at any time. For shareholders and proxies wishing to submit a written question, select the Question Mark button in the center of the bottom tool bar and type out to your question in the text box provided and submit it. Please note that while you can submit questions from now on, I want to address the questions until the relevant times in the meeting, which will be after the CEO and CFO's presentations and after proposing each item of business. If shareholders and proxies would like to submit your questions verbally, click the Raise Hand icon at the center of the bottom toolbar and then raise the Hand button at the appropriate time when I ask the questions. When the presenter will then prompt you to ask your question, you'll be provided with microphone access, and the system will ask you to confirm your microphone settings. And once confirmed, you'll be able to speak. Please introduce yourself and advise whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. Please note that all facilities -- that to facilitate an orderly meeting, questions will be moderated. And if we receive multiple questions on one topic, they'll be amalgamated together. Finally, due to time constraints, we may run out of time to answer all of your questions. If that happens, we'll try to answer them in due course by email or posting a response on our website. Voting today will be conducted by way of a poll on all items of business using the separate Computershare meeting platform. In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I'll shortly open the voting for all resolutions. At that time, if you're eligible to vote at the meeting, a new polling icon will appear on the Computershare meeting platform desktop. Selecting this icon will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options. There's no need to hit a Submit or Enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You have the ability to change your vote up until the time I declare voting closed, which will be towards the end of the meeting. I now declare voting open on all items of business. The polling icon will soon appear. Please submit your votes at any time. I'll give you a warning before I move to close voting at the end of the meeting. I'll now give a short address, which has been published on the ASX this morning. At Pharmaxis, we're using our science and intellectual property in the quest of new treatments for a range of inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, including cancers, skin scarring and Parkinson's disease. We are set apart as a biotech with multiple drugs in clinical trials in patients as well as collaborations with centers of excellence. Through the 2022 financial year, Pharmaxis set the stage for a series of company transforming clinical trial results, a number of which will read out in the next 12 months. Our lead asset, which is PXS-5505 is targeting the rare blood cancer, myelofibrosis. This cancer disrupts the body's normal production of blood cells causing extensive scarring of the bone marrow and patients have a life expectancy of only 4 to 5 years after diagnosis. Towards the end of 2022, we reported that our drug demonstrated good tolerability and greater than 90% inhibition of target enzymes in a Phase Ic trial in myelofibrosis patients. This has allowed us to progress to a Phase IIa arm of the study. Encouragingly, last month, we reported interim data from the first 6 patients to complete their 6 months treatment. The data showed that PSX-5505 continues to be well-tolerated in the clinic with no serious treatment-related adverse events reported. While this is still early days in the Phase IIa arm of the study, a Harvard Medical School Clinical Director, Dr. Gaby Hobbs, who reviewed the data observed that "5505 appears to be stabilizing and in some cases, improving hemoglobin and platelet counts, which have been associated with symptom improvements in those patients that were treated to 24 weeks. This is encouraging given the poor prognosis seen after another treatment is discontinued with the median overall survival of only 11 to 14 months, typical of this study population. These results support further clinical investigations of 5505 in myelofibrosis." The trial has now recruited 18 of its targeted of 24 patients, and we look forward to reporting on the completed study in mid-'23. We're excited about the broader potential of 5505 in cancer and liver cancer is among other oncology indications we're pursuing. Following in a University of Rochester Medical Center publication on its work with 5505 in liver cancer and its successful IND application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, we agreed to fund the university to conduct a clinical trial in liver cancer known as HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma. The trial is expected to shortly recruit its first patient. Another Pharmaxis drug discovery, 6302, is moving towards the clinic as we work to find a topic of treatment for wounds and burns scars. This is groundbreaking work. And during the year, the drug has successfully completed initial Phase I trials and progressed to a Phase Ic study in patients with existing scars. Interim data from the first 8 patients to complete this trial was released in September and reported high levels of inhibition of the enzymes and changes in the biomarkers that are implicated in scarring. We're pleased that one of Australia's leading burns experts, Professor Fiona Wood, is leading the trial of the University of Western Australia. Already, Professor Woods has reported positive changes in appearance and pliability of scars in those positions on active drugs. This now needs to be confirmed by the results from the placebo-controlled phase of the trial. The trial has recruited 38 out of its 42 patients and is due to complete and report in the first quarter of 2023. There are 2 other achievements I want to highlight that relate to the assets of our development pipeline. The first is the recent payment of USD 5 million to Pharmaxis, following the exercise of an option that we granted on the Orbital inhaler earlier in the financial year. Pharmaxis developed this device some years ago to support our cystic fibrosis through product, Bronchitol. Aptar, a global leader in drug delivery systems, has now acquired this technology. This transaction is a good example of the capability of the team to generate non-dilutive cash from the mannitol respiratory business. Secondly, in September, we announced an agreement with Parkinson’s UK, where this leading U.K. charity will fund approximately 5 million of the clinical trial of our drug, 4728, to treat patients at risk of Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases. This trial will see leading researchers from Oxford and Sydney Universities working with our drug, a dual inhibitor of SSAO and MAO-B in the brain in an innovative study of the sleep disorder iRDB to target Parkinson's disease. This year has also seen several changes in the Board and senior management team. Sadly, as many of you will know, this is the first AGM in 14 years without Will Delaat. Will retired from the Board in August due to ill health. He was to pass away the following month. Will made an immeasurable contribution to the evolution of Pharmaxis, including assisting with the international approval and marketing of our 2 respiratory products. And he also helped us steer the company's drug discovery and clinical programs. Will treated others with great respect. In turn, he was held in high regard and affection by many people that we touched industry over a long career. He has left a lasting legacy across the medicines sector and will be sadly missed by us all. We are well-advanced in a process with Korn Ferry to identify a new nonexecutive director to join the Board. On the first of July, Pharmaxis' founding scientist and Medical Director, Dr. Brett Charlton, have retired after more than 20 years of service with the company. Dr. Charlton made an extensive contribution to the business, our clinical program and to advances in patient care. His experience and knowledge of transitional drugs -- transitioning drugs into early phase developments helped create the broad clinical program that we have today. In July, we announced the appointment of Dr. Jana Baskar to the role of Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Baskar is a highly experienced executive who has worked in both pharmaceutical and contract research companies and bringing significant clinical developments and strategic expertise. He has more than 20 years' experience, including overseeing more than 70 clinical trials of oncology treatments during his 6 years as Medicine Director of Novartis Oncology in Australia. Dr. Baskar's extensive experience will be particularly valuable as the company progresses our lead asset, 5505 in myelofibrosis and other cancer indications. As a result of the recent institutional placement, we are now well-placed to deliver on the goals for next year on a pro forma basis at 30 September. And including the full amount of the placement that you are voting on today, we have received approximately 26 -- we have approximately $26 million of cash available to fund the business. We are pleased to welcome several new international and domestic institutional investors who participated in the placement. Some 46% of our share register is now held by institutions. Finally, I'd like to thank our CEO, Gary Phillips, the talented Pharmaxis management team and all our employees for their efforts to position the company year ahead. The team has worked together for a number of years to build a pipeline of clinical stage assets in a range of indications where information and fibrosis play a key role. This pipeline, the near-term value inflection points and the way the team have supported the development of innovative commercial deals to bring in nondilutive cash, is unique to farm access. We appreciate the support that shareholders have provided through the capital raisings in a difficult market, and we are determined to provide a return on that investment. I'd also like to thank my colleagues, Kathleen Metters and Neil Graham and Will Delaat for their support and enthusiasm and wisdom throughout the year. Gary Phillips will now give a short presentation and then David McGarvey talk about our financial results.

Good morning, and thank you all for joining us this morning. David, can you go to the executive summary for me. So I think Malcolm has already given a pretty good high-level overview of what's happened in Pharmaxis in the last 12 months since we set our last AGM. But I just wanted to highlight the critical point that the company has now reached, and it's achieved that through a lot of hard work, a lot of commitment to a number of programs over a number of years. In particular, the company is very proud of its achievements in drug discovery and a multiyear program that's led us to the point where we are global leaders in a particular kind of chemistry, which has delivered a pipeline of drugs with a very high hit rate. There are very few companies that can boast a clinical stage pipeline with a number of drugs moving forward from preclinical into clinical, with very few failures along the way. And we're very proud of that achievement. But the real test now is to see whether those drugs work in the clinic. And in the last few months, I think we've given very encouraging news about the preliminary data from those studies going on. So today, I'm just going to focus on 2 of the studies that are ongoing, one of them in myelofibrosis, and the other one in skin scarring. And really then at the end, talk about the timeline that we have to get to the trial results, which all shareholders should be watching, obviously, very closely. Now as Malcolm said, at the end in the last couple of months, we've also improved our cash position with a capital raise of GBP 10 million and very pleased to see the level of support we've got in new institutions coming on to the register. And this left us in a position where the $26 million in cash that we have as a pro forma number at the end of September, does take us through to the beginning of '24 and certainly to the point where the studies that I'm going to talk about give definitive results. Now that raise, David, if you can get to the next slide. We did that at $0.06 when we're trading -- we've been trading consistently above that point since then. And the money that we bought in at that point was done after the institutions did a considerable of diligence on the data that we shared with them and that we've now shared with the market. So it's done on the back of confidence that what I'm about to show you is something, which very material and it's certainly a good indicator of good things to come for the company. Next slide, David. So the 2 drugs that we're going to talk briefly about at 5505 and 6302. Both of them come from the amine oxidase chemistry platform that I talked about. 5505, this is a young drug. The patent only priority date here in 2018, so it's got many years ahead of it. But despite its young age, it's already been pushed into clinical studies in myelofibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and we're looking at other potential indications as well. So this is a drug, which is taken orally and inhibits all of the lysyl oxidase enzymes. 6302 is a topical drug that also blocks all of lysyl oxidase enzymes. Again, young drug, priority date there in 2019 for the IP so many years ahead of it. Now the importance of inhibiting lysyl oxidase enzymes is that they are the last stage in the fibrosis process. So it doesn't matter really which tissue we're talking about, which organ we're talking about. All of the fibrotic processes end up with a final stage where the fibroblast in the tissue become activated. They can be stimulated by a number of different routes, including chemicals, chemical injury, metabolism, even genetics. And when they become activated, they secrete collagen, which are strands, which form at the matrix, which eventually form scar tissue and an enzyme, family of enzymes called lysyl oxidase. These enzymes caused the cross-linking in that collagen, which forms the scar tissue, which you'll be very familiar with if you look at the scar on your skin. Now as that scar tissue forms, the tissues stiffens, becomes less pliable. And again, whether that fibrosis is in your liver or on your skin, that has a feedback loop, which goes back to those, activate more fibroblast, which produce more collagen and more lysyl oxidase. So it's circle, which goes round and round and round. Now this is normally a healthy process. We all need scarring to take place to heal wounds that we occasionally have, damage to organs that we have. But in this case, in these diseases, that gets out of control when we end up with too much fibrosis. So this is where inhibiting the lysyl oxidase stops the cross-linking and the collagen, stops the tissue becoming stiffer and stiffer. And that feedback loop means that probably then secrete less collagen and less lysyl oxidase. So in the end, you actually see a decrease in the amount of fibrosis that happens with these tissues. Next slide, please. So the first program to talk about is just myelofibrosis. So this is our lead program. It's the one where we've invested the most money. It's a product of a discussion with the FDA and IND approval and then a Phase Ic and Phase -- now a Phase II study. Myelofibrosis is a rare kind of cancer of the bone marrow, the scarring of the bone marrow has a detrimental effect on the producibility to produce blood cells, red cells, white cells and platelets. And in those circumstances, patients have a lot of different symptoms, including an enlarged spleen, bone pain, night sweats, fevers and a lot of cytopenia. So often their blood count decrease. It's a disease that's rare, but when you're diagnosed, you only have about 5 years of life after diagnosis. The primary treatments at the moment are drugs called JAK inhibitors. JAK inhibitors are really good at suppressing some of the symptoms and in particular, the spleen size. But they don't change the fibrosis in the bone marrow and they don't, therefore, lead to changes in life expectancy. So they're not a disease-modifying drug. But they are the only treatments available at the moment for patients with myelofibrosis, but they're poorly tolerated. So many of the patients that received JAK inhibitors also get cytopenia. So that reproduction in blood counts that we're trying to cure in these patients ends up being one of the issues that you have when you take a JAK inhibitor. For that reason, a lot of patients stop taking them after a period of time. And once you come off a JAK inhibitor, you probably only have about a year of life left so that the consequences of this treatment are eventually failing at quite severe. So there's a huge unmet need here medically for patients to have treatment options that will for their disease to be modified and changed and change the course of their life. Despite the fact these drugs are only symptomatic, the current market is well over $1 billion a year. So this is a -- as well as being a huge unmet medical need as a huge commercial opportunity. Next slide, David. We've already completed extensive preclinical studies, which was what got us excited in the first place. The chart on the left-hand side just shows what happens when you give a mouse that has a genetic mutation that mimics myelofibrosis and you give them a drug. And you see a significant decrease in fibrosis in those animal models when you give it. So from an animal model basis, our drug is disease-modifying. So the challenge now is to show whether that carries over when we use it in patients. The chart on the right-hand side just shows the first stage of our dose escalation study that was approved by the FDA. And this, we gave 3 different doses. We saw a nice dose response go here, in terms of inhibiting the enzyme. And at the highest dose, we saw greater than 90% inhibition of the lysyl oxidase enzymes at both Day 7 and at Day 28 as well. So a sustained treatment, we really -- we clearly hit the target we're going after. So the first tick in the box is does the drug inhibit the enzymes that we're targeting it? The answer is yes. Does it do it in myelofibrosis patients? Yes. And we have the first signs of this study. Also, the drug was very well-tolerated. So over those 28 days, those patients were treated at all 3 doses. But I guess we're particularly interested at the highest dose, we saw a really good safety profile, very well-tolerated drug. Next slide, David. So we've now gone into the Phase II study. This is an open-label study targeting to recruit 24 patients. All the patients that come here have to have failed a JAK inhibitor or be ineligible for JAK inhibitor. So these are patients with -- on average, about a year of life left, and they're going into a 6-month study. So this is a challenging study to try and demonstrate that this drug can help these patients. It's a difficult group of patients. They have to have a bone marrow fibrosis of Grade 2 or higher. The bone marrow fibrosis has graded 0, 1, 2 or 3. And in order to recruit those 24 patients, we've actually got 20 sites open across 4 different countries, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan and US. So this is a full court press by the company to get this study recruited and see results from this because this is aiming to demonstrate both the safety of our drug and whether it works or not. Next slide, David. Now we have -- because this is open label, we can look at the data as we go along, just an advantage in this case. And we do have 6 patients who have completed 6 months of therapy. I should also add at this point that we've now recruited 18 of those 24 patients. So we are closing in rapidly on a fully recruited study. And that's thanks to the efforts of our medical team, really pushing the effort in the last few months to try and find these patients. These patients are not easy to find, they're quite rare. Now those 6 patients that are finished, let's look at those. First of all, the thing to note is this drug has maintained its admirable tolerability record. So we've seen no serious treatment-related adverse events reported in those 6 patients. Some of those patients have stayed on drug, and one of them, I think, has had more than a year's worth of treatment there. So we are very confident that we have a well-tolerated drug, and that is significant in the landscape of myelofibrosis drugs that are on the market and the ones that are being developed as well. One of the features of drugs in development is also -- they also -- many of them call cytopenia, which I mentioned with JAK inhibitors, where the damaging of the blood cell came. So our drug appears at the moment to be doing really well on those counts. So that's very pleasing and really opens up and was something the key opinion leaders we showed the data to immediately remarked on as the first thing they look for. Secondly, then looking at efficacy, we found across the board, some encouraging signs. Now I emphasize this is only the 6 patients. We need to wait and see more patient data. But out of those 6 patients, 2 of them showed improvements in symptoms. Now remember, these are patients that are very sick, 12 months to live, so maintaining these patients is a good outcome. As we said of the 6 are improving their treatment symptom scores. 5 of the 6 are either stable or improved bone marrow fibrosis score of at least 1 grade. 5 of the 6 are either stable or improved, platelet and hemoglobin count. We didn't see any reductions in spleen volume, which we'd expect to see if the treatment was pursued for longer. But overall, and the quote that Malcolm gave earlier from Gaby Hobbs from Harvard Medical School and Mass General. A very pleasing balance of great tolerability and some really encouraging signs of efficacy from these first 6 patients. So we're enthusiastically waiting now for the rest of the patients to be completed, and to be reporting on that by the middle of next year. Next slide, David. The other one I wanted to delve just a little bit more time on was the scarring and the collaboration we have with the University of Western Australia and Professor Diana Wood. Scarring is a problem in hundreds of millions of patients worldwide. The total scar treatment market is well over $19 billion and the one that we are particularly targeting in keloid and hypertrophic scarring is over $3 billion. So there's no doubt that this is an attractive commercial opportunity. The treatment of scarring at the moment is -- standard of care is not that great. There's not much that could be done. Corticosteroids are used either topical or injected into scars. Surgical revisions, so very often, these patients have to go back and have their scars excised and closed again. Laser therapy is a very common treatment that's used. And all these things helped a little bit, but there are no pharmacological treatments available that really deal with the scarring process on the skin and very little in the clinic being developed as well. So the enthusiasm that Professor Fiona Wood expresses for our program, is because there's a fundamental belief that inhibiting the LOX enzymes in the skin will lead to a modification of the scarring process. And secondly, this is a very novel approach and if you can give a drug to patients, which will modify their scarring, then you really have helped a very large number of people and Professor Wood always emphasizes that the impact of scarring is both psychological and functional as well. So there's a cosmetic element to this, which affects a lot of parameters, including mental health, but also a function that some of these scars often inhibit patients' movement and of course, lifelong problems for them. Next slide deck. So we are engaged in a study -- a series of studies, actually, but the first of them which is underway at the moment with UWA is a 3-month study, looking at this screen being used on its own to assess the dosage and the tolerability and efficacy of our drug when used in patients who have an established scar. So these are patients who have had a scar for, at least, 1 year, but the scar is greater than 10 centimeters squared in area and excludes other certain types of scars like keloids at the moment. So that group, we divided them into 2. So the first 8 patients received a daily dose of the cream. And our objective there was to look at the level of drug we got into the skin. So when we're dealing with a tablet being swallowed, obviously, you can measure blood levels and see how much is absorbed. You can do the same thing with the cream, but we need to look at not only how much drug gets through to the central blood system, but also how much cream and the drug is getting into the skin layers. And whether it's penetrating to the right level where the scar is formed. We're then looking at the level of inhibition of those enzymes in the skin. After doing those first 8 patients, the next patients another 42, those first 8 were open label. So they were well on active. The [ 42 ] were randomized either to active or placebo. Again, looking to affirm the PK/PD, the level of drug in the skin, the amount of enzyme inhibition, but then also looking at efficacy compared to placebo as well as these patients with a number of different physical and visual skin scar assessments. Next slide. So really pleased to report that as of this morning, we have 38 of the 42 patients in that second cohort recruited. First cohort was fully recruited, and we reported on a month or 2 ago. So this is a study, which we believe will be fully recruited before the end of the year. We're looking at results around the end of quarter 1 next year. The first cohort told us a lot. First of all, we saw that the skin penetration and inhibition of loss was right up there. So we got no doubt to this drug, again, is getting into the skin and is inhibiting the enzymes very thoroughly. We saw a reduction in the biomarkers that we associate with the scarring process. So in the skin biopsies that were taken at the end of 3 months treatment, we saw a reductions in the amount of collagen that was in the skin of these patients in the scar compared with the start of the therapy. And we also saw reductions in the LOX enzyme as well. So going back to my earlier example, this is a clear demonstration that we are modifying the scar formation process and gives me great hope that this is a disease-modifying treatment we're talking about. Now we did see some tolerability issues in those first 8 patients, and we have 4 patients with because of reddening at the site where the topical cream was being applied. As a result of that, the 42 patients that are gone into the placebo controlled arm, we've reduced the dosage from daily to three times weekly. We're confident that, that will still lead to a very high level of individual of the enzyme. So we don't believe that we're compromising the study. But we are also monitoring, obviously, the tolerability, and we haven't seen numbers of dropouts that suggest that we have an issue now. So we believe that the -- from a tolerability perspective, we're seeing overall at the moment, quite good responses from this study. We need to wait and see what happens at the end of the 3-month period when we are looking at this, the active drug versus a placebo. But already, we've got very positive feedback from Professor Wood and our colleagues, the first 8 patients in terms of what they're seeing in the way of scar modification. Next slide, please. Okay. So that just leads us to a summary of what you should be looking for in the next period. Again, a reminder, the cash, $26 million end of September, takes us through to the beginning of '24. The myelofibrosis study where we've invested heavily and significantly and really focused effort on that. We're expecting to see that fully recruited by the end of the year and getting data from that by the middle of next year. Hepatocellular carcinoma, which we haven't talked about today, it's another opportunity for the drug, where it's been on top of standard of care in newly diagnosed patients with liver cancer. First patient there is due to be recruited this quarter. 6302, the topical one, just talked about the established scar study. That recruiting now. We expect to be fully recruited shortly, results in the first half of next year. And then post that, we're looking at a number of other studies that will explore different potential aspects of that drug and different types of scarring and maybe in scar prevention as opposed to treating established scars at some particular indications. And then finally, but not least, 4728, an anti-inflammatory drug from our pipeline that we were successful at getting $5 million in funding from Parkinson's U.K. to put into a study of a serious sleep disorder that leads to patients developing Parkinson's on the back end of it. So very excited about that study and the fact that it's fully funded, and that's due to start recruiting in the first half of next year. So again, thinking about Pharmaxis, the investment our shareholders have made and we've made, we have reached a critical point. We do have studies now reporting on efficacy and tolerability endpoints in the next 12 months. It's a very exciting period to be with Pharmaxis at the moment. Next Slide, David. And that's backed up by the news flow, where we're expecting still to see significant news flow before the end of the year. So we will be at ASH, which is the American Society of Hematology in December. This is the premier hematology conference worldwide. We're presenting the first of our results from the myelofibrosis study. There are posters there on 5505 on myelofibrosis, and on another blood disorder where we've got a preclinical collaboration with the university in Germany as well, which is very exciting. So really good to see the company there in public, putting its results up, talking to other clinicians about work that we're doing. And we're increasingly becoming a go-to point for people when they want to talk about fibrosis, inhibition of lysyl oxidase that Pharmaxis is the destination for. And then going into next year, we'll start to see those studies reporting as I talked about. So again, a really exciting period for the company. With that, I'll hand over to David for the financial overview.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. What I'd like to present to you now is some high-level commentary on the financials. Shareholders should be aware that usually we provide a [indiscernible] detail in line [indiscernible] basis but [indiscernible] for the quarter. The center column there for 12 months, June '22, we're talking about. I'd like to provide you 2 years of history before that given [indiscernible] to the last 3 months as well as state -- [indiscernible]. If you want to understand the financial space, you need to think about in terms of our business segments, any drug developments [indiscernible] on costs. Starting on the new drug development. [indiscernible] major spend there at June '22 is $5.4 million. That is a focus about this that overall [indiscernible] program is myelofibrosis program. Most of that was the current new release of the trial that Gary talked about. The other trial, the other work we're doing, including the scarring work is actually [indiscernible] and as you can see the stock we up there [indiscernible] emphasis on [indiscernible]. When we look at the Mannitol respiratory business, you'll see there has been a revenue growth there in the current year. That growth is somewhat masked by the fact we sold both our Russian and our Australian distribution rights to [indiscernible] parties just at the beginning of the '22 financial year. And in doing so, we generated [indiscernible] of cash and get sales [indiscernible] so 8% is just [indiscernible]. So the actual growth in terms of the market sales is right around [indiscernible] that forward transactions. The other revenue in the current year of $2.3 million or $2 million of that is actually the sale of distribution loss that I mentioned in the prior year, 15.9%, most of that relates to while it stands as on the approval and launch of Manitol [indiscernible]. So when you look at -- it's basically $15.9 million for '21 and $2.3 million for '22. And then the $7 million in the current quarter, $7.192 million [indiscernible] option exercise that referred to. That's a total of that $25 million in [indiscernible] generated over these distributions. I would also note that the Manitol is [indiscernible] towards [indiscernible]. The corporate line item, if you pull out the foreign exchange gains and losses, that trend's somewhere between [indiscernible]. Looking at the cash, I think the important thing I wanted to draw your attention to is both on the cash amount and make up for [indiscernible] take the cash add to the other items that are as good as cash or cash [indiscernible]. So we finished September at the current number [indiscernible] with $11 million. We added 4.9%. I would expect to receive tax credit from the tax return [indiscernible] that relates to our spend in [indiscernible]. And then the place costs [indiscernible] subject to shareholder approval. [indiscernible] as Gary indicated the [indiscernible]. Two other items to mention on this is to explain on balance sheet, you would find to the liabilities there payments related to the [indiscernible] liability represents lease. So here and the other one relates to future payments related to net sales that would be made to a financial [indiscernible] and that is payable only to the extent that we sell profiles [indiscernible] in a fixed channel. So it's liability of debt [indiscernible] high-level thing you need to understand the financials and I'll hand back to Malcolm.

Thanks, David, and thanks, Gary, for those presentations. Happy to take questions now, general questions in relation to those presentations. We will also have voting in relation to each specific item of business on the agenda. So if you have issued specific questions, maybe leave them to then, if you have any general questions about the presentation, please feel free to ask them now. Do we have any questions online, David?

We have no questions.

Again, we'll just keep in mind going on these questions, and we'll take them as they come up. No questions on that general series presentations. We will move to the formal items of business on the agenda. And the first order of business is to receive and consider the financial report, Directors' Report and the Auditor's Report of the company for the year ended 30 June 2022. These reports are contained in the statutory annual report of the company, which I tabled before the meeting. Are there any questions in relation to financial report, Directors' Report and the Auditor's Report? The auditor is also available to answer questions.

No questions.

No questions. Again, if you're late with your question button, no problems. We'll pick you up during the meeting. As this matter does not require a vote, I declare that the financial report, Directors' Report, directors' declarations and the Auditor's Report for the financial year ended 30 June 2022 have been received and adopted by the meeting. Just a reminder, too, that you can vote. Voting is open or the following resolutions, and we are long your vote at any time, and I will give you plenty of notice at the end of the meeting when we're about to close the poll. Resolution 1 is an ordinary resolution that relates to the adoption of the Remuneration Report. The remuneration report describes the approach taken by the Board in relation to salary reviews, short-term incentives and how they relate to corporate performance and the granting of equity. The vote is an advisory vote and voting exclusions apply. The proxy votes received prior to the meeting and displayed on the screen, 287 million, in favor; 6.2 million, against; 3.7 million, abstaining; and 6.7 million, excluding from the vote. There are 1.015 million votes able to be cast by the Chair or the Board, where the Chair of the Board intends to vote in favor of the resolution that they call vote in favor of all resolutions for proxies that are received in that regard. Are there any questions in relation to Resolution 1?

No questions.

No questions, David. Thank you. As noted earlier, voting for this resolution and all other resolutions will be connected to a poll, which remains open until the end of the formal items of business. Resolution 2 is an ordinary resolution that relates to the reelection of Dr. Kathleen Metters as a Non-Executive Director of the company. Before proceeding with the resolution, I'd like to invite Dr. Metters to say a few words about the background and contribution to the Board, which has been outstanding.

So well, thank you, Mal, and greetings to everybody from New York City, where it's very cold and blustery. So it's my -- really, it's a great privilege to start for stand for reelection as a nonexecutive director to the Pharmaxis Board. I know that my biography has been circulated as part of the materials for this meeting, but I did want to start by sharing briefly some key professional experiences that I bring to the Board as a Nonexecutive Director. So I'm formally trained as a scientist. Graduated with Bachelor and Post-Graduate degrees, both in the United Kingdom, both in Biochemistry from Manchester and then London. Following academia, I joined a large pharma, Merck, first in Canada and then into the U.S. And there, I spent almost 3 decades, leading progressively larger research teams until my final position for the company where I was Head of Worldwide Basic Research. And as part of that position, I was able to manage teams and projects across all therapeutic areas across all of the therapeutic modalities that we use for modern drugs at multiple research sites globally. So I learned not only a tremendous amount about the science of the business, but also the strategic view of the business, management and leadership of teams. Now throughout this time, I had the opportunity to be involved with many important therapies, actually with high medical impact. But the one that is closest and remains closest to my heart, the most rewarding to me personally with Singulair, which is Merck's drug, an oral drug for asthma and allergy. And this is a project where I was involved from initial testing. I think I was actually the first person to test it in a test tube in the lab. But many years later, I went on a journey through the clinical development, commercialization, launch, post-launch clinical trials. And so this project really was the fabric that walked my career together and gave me invaluable experience in all aspects of the business. And again, I feel I bring this to the Board. So I left Merck, went back to a very small company, not dissimilar in size to Pharmaxis, where I was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer. And this was Lycera based again in the U.S. And here, the accomplishment was to successfully build a pipeline that was able to attract $100 million-plus in financing. And I'm now continuing to contribute biopharma primarily through selected Board positions such as this at Pharmaxis. And so I wanted to just go back to June 2017 and tell you why I was excited to be invited to join the Board at that time because this is a decision that I will never regret. I was excited to join them, and I continue to be excited today and why? Because as you've seen, there's an emerging pipeline with multiple innovative research programs with the potential to be life-changing for patients. That's why we're all in this business to have impact on patients. This couldn't -- wouldn't have been possible, without a world-class research team that has strong technical know-how and deep relationships. And again, you've heard about this today, deep relationships with the scientific community and particularly nationally, and motivated leadership and staff. And probably most important of all, a commitment to rigor and scientific excellence. So what do I bring to the Board? Well, again, my entire career has been dedicated to discovering clinical sciences. So as a Board member, I bring depth and breadth and research experience to the team. And to profit maximally from my technical expertise, I also serve as a member of the Pharmaxis Scientific Advisory Board. And this is an important forum where the company interacts with key opinion leaders to ensure that external expertise of the highest order is also brought in to inform the pipeline. And beyond that, not just science. As I said, I've had experience in management, leadership, strategic thinkings. Pharmaxis is a small company, and it's important for all Board members to be maximally active and involved in many aspects and in committee membership. So over the last 5 years, I've served both on the Remuneration and Nomination Committee, where I was previously the Chair. And more recently, the Audit and Risk Committee, which I currently chair. Finally, I wanted to assure you that I have the bandwidth to contribute fully to the company in this role. I continue to be selective regarding appointments. I am on the Board of Directors of 2 other companies, Hemoshear Therapeutics in the U.S., Aslan Pharmaceuticals in Asia. And I also chair the Scientific Advisory Board for Bridge Medicines, which is an academic initiative based in New York City. But I have no conflict of interest in any of these roles. So as you've heard, Pharmaxis is really an incredibly exciting stage, and we're eagerly awaiting the further results from these clinical trials, and I'm truly looking forward to continue to advise and shape the evolution of the company. And so with that, I'm respectfully submitting my candidature in this role. Thank you.

Thanks, Kathleen. Additional details about Kathleen are, of course, included in the Notice of Meeting as well. The proxy votes received prior to the meeting is set out online, 300 million, in favor; 4.4 million, against; 151,000, abstaining; 0 proxy votes excluded; and 304,000, able to be voted by the Chair and I intend to vote in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions?

No questions.

Now on the screen, can I see your hands up. If so, we will move to Resolution 3. And of course, you can vote anytime on all of the resolutions or just each resolution as we go through them. As you would be aware, Pharmaxis raised $10 million in October of this year with $4.9 million being raised in the first Tranche, which closed in October and the second of $5.1 million closures shortly after this meeting if we receive the necessary shareholder approval. Details of the placement are included in the Notice of Meeting. Resolution 3 is an ordinary resolution that relates to the ratification of issue of shares under Tranche 1 placement. If shareholders approve the resolution, the company's 15% capacity will be refreshed. Voting exclusions of claim in respect to Resolution 3. The proxy votes received prior to the meeting set out online. They are 186 million, in favor; 6.4 million, against; 80.1 million votes, abstaining; 0 proxy votes excluded; 304,000 discretionary, which I intend to vote in favor of the resolution. Are there any questions in relation to this Resolution 3 regarding the placement?

None on the screen.

No questions on the screen. Thanks, David. Again, feel free to provide questions throughout the meeting. If no further questions, we'll move on to Resolution 4. Resolution 4 is an ordinary resolution that relates to the approval of the issue of shares under Tranche 2 of the placement. If shareholders approve the resolution, the company will be able to issue the Tranche 2 placement shares, voting exclusions apply in respect to resolution 4. The proxy votes received prior to the meeting set out online and they are 154 million in favor; 6.4 million against; 112 million votes abstaining from the resolution. That's largely from the institutions and shareholders who participated and 0 proxy votes excluded from the meeting. 304,000 discretionary votes, which I tend to vote in favor of the resolution. Any questions, David?

No questions.

No questions online. Thank you. Resolution 5 is an ordinary resolution that relates to the grant of performance rights to Gary Phillips, our CEO. If shareholder approved -- if shareholders approve the resolution, the performance rights will be granted after this meeting pursuant to the existing employee incentive plan of the company. The terms of performance rights are set in the Notice of Meeting. Performance rates have a life of 10 years and will vest in 2 equal tranches at each of 30 June 2024 and 2025, subject to Gary being an eligible person on those dates. The performance rights are being granted with the aim of rewarding incentive votes and retaining Mr. Phillips in the long term, voting exclusions [indiscernible] in respect to Resolution 5 and the proxy votes received in relation to the resolution before the meeting is set out online. 287 million in favor, 10 million against, 5.9 million abstaining, 1 million votes excluded, and 304,000 discretion, which I'll use voting in favor of resolution. Are there any questions, David?

No questions.

No questions on Resolution 5. This is appropriate. As noted in the 2022 Remuneration Report, performance rights grants into all the planned participants, including Mr. Phillips between [indiscernible] -- that is just a commentary, I won't bore you a little details. The next item is Resolution 6A, 6C and they are ordinary resolutions, 3 ordinary resolutions that relate to the approval of the ability to grant zero priced -- zero grant price and zero exercise price options known as ZEPOs to nonexecutive directors. Shareholders' approval would give nonexecutive directors the flexibility to elect to continue to receive the invasive remuneration only in cash or to receive their base remuneration in a combination of cash and ZEPOs or wholly in ZEPOs. Accordingly, the ZEPOs will only be granted if the directors elect to receive them as part of their base remuneration. The ZEPOs would have a term of 5 years and will best in equal quarterly installments commencing at the end of the quarter in which the ZEPOs are granted such that any ZEPOs granted in any financial year would vest in the same financial in which they are granted, subject to the nonexecutive director continuing to be an eligible person at the time of investing. Voting exclusions would apply with respect to each resolution 6a to 6c. Rather than asking for questions the end of each Resolution 6a to 6c. I'll propose to group the questions relating to these resolutions at this time. Does anyone have any questions in relation to Resolution 6a and 6c?

No questions.

Moving now to resolution 6a. This resolution to be built to grant ZEPOs to me. The proxy votes received in relation -- prior to the meeting are set up online. On screen, 287 million, in favor; 10.8 million, against; 6.0 million votes, abstaining; 1.039 million proxy votes excluded from voting; and 536,000 proxy votes are able to be voted on discretionary by me, which I will vote in favor of the resolution. Resolution 6b relates to the ability to grant ZEPOs to Dr. Neil Graham. The proxy votes received prior to the meeting are set out online, 287 million, in favor; 10.9 million, against; 6.0 million votes, abstaining the resolution; 1.0 million primary votes, proxy votes excluded from voting; and 341,000 discretionary, which I'll vote in favor of the resolution. And Resolution 6c relates to the ability to grant ZEPOs to Dr. Kathleen Metters. The proxy votes received prior to the meeting is set out online. And they are 287 million votes, in favor; 11.0 million votes, against; 5.9 proxy votes abstaining from the resolution; 1 million proxy votes excluded from voting; and 327,000 products able to be voted by the Chair of the Board in favor of the resolution. There are no further questions on Resolutions 6a to 6c, we'll move to Resolution 7a. Resolution of 7a and 7b are ordinary resolutions that relate to the grant of each nonexecutive Director of 3 million options over ordinary shares known as NED options and NED options were on a term of 5 years would invest in equal quarterly installments over 3 years, subject to the nonexecutive director continuing to be an eligible person at the investing time. The NED options would be granted to zero grant price and would have an exercise price for the NED option that is 51% premium to the 5-day trading VWAP prior to the date of acceptance. Voting exclusions apply in respect to Resolution 7a, 7b and 7c. Rather than asking for questions at the end of each resolution, I propose to group the questions relating to these resolutions. Does anyone have any questions in relation to Resolution 7a, 7b or 7C?

No questions.

Moving now to Resolution 7A. This resolution relates to the ability to grant NED options to me. The proxy votes received prior to the meeting as set out online. 286 million votes in favor of the resolution, 11.1 million votes against the resolution, 7.2 million votes abstaining, 0 proxy votes excluded from voting, and 307,000 discretionary proxies have to be voted, which I will vote in favor of the resolution. Resolution 7b relates to the ability to grant NED options to Dr. Neil Graham and the proxy votes received prior to the meeting are set out online. 286 million votes in favor of the resolution, 11.1 million votes against the resolution, 7.2 million proxy votes abstaining, 0 proxy votes excluded from voting, 327,000 proxy votes able to be voted by the Chair or Board, which the Chair intends to make in favor of the resolution. And Resolution 7c relates to the ability to grant NED options to Dr. Kathleen Metters. The proxy votes received prior to the meeting are set up online. 286 million votes in favor of the resolution, 11 million proxy votes against the resolution, 7.1 million votes abstaining, 0 proxy votes excluded and 370,000 proxy votes are [indiscernible] by the Chair, which the Chair intends to vote in favor of the resolution. That concludes our discussion on the items of the business. If there are any further questions, please put you hand up now or press your question button. And I will shortly close the voting system. So please ensure that you've cast your votes on all resolutions and I'll pause briefly to allow you time to finalize those votes. [Voting]

Quiet music in the background. I'll close the voting shortly. There any further questions, David, at this stage?

No questions.

Further questions? Perhaps I'll close the voting system in 10 seconds. [Voting]

I now declare the voting is closed for the poll. The results of these votes will be released to the stock exchange later today. As there are no further business to be considered at this meeting, I declare the meeting closed. Thanks for attending, and we look forward to doing a live or hybrid meeting next year. We're seeing you all again. Thank you.