Thalia Therapeutics Plc (THAT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, David. Very nice to see you today.

Yes. Thanks for having me.

So a very exciting time for Thalia and for you yourself. Please tell us a little bit more about the name change and the strategy shift that you've brought in.

We're very excited to develop Thalia Therapeutics, which was a new name of the company that was formerly N4 Pharma that was developing Nuvec, a delivery system. So, Thalia in modern Greek means to grow or to blossom, and we thought this together with the Board was an appropriate name to begin the journey as a pure therapeutics play utilizing the delivery system that came from N4 Pharma.

It's a beautiful name, and I can see why you've chosen it. So you're looking to blossom the company. What about Nuvec? How does that fit in with the therapeutic focus?

Well, Nuvec, as you know, is a silicon nanoparticle that is able to deliver RNA therapeutics, and we're excited to bring on new therapeutics. We've already begun the journey. And as we bring on therapeutics, we can use in some embodiments, Nuvec as the delivery platform to bring more specificity and hopefully better results for patients.

Very good. And you say you've started the journey, tell us more.

Well, we've already laid down a patent for a new medicine that we call THAL-2, which is a medicine a gene silencing medicine that targets risk in cardiovascular -- in the cardiovascular sphere. THAL-2 actually targets 2 key targets that put people at risk of both heart attack and stroke. One of them is called Lp(a) and the other is called PCSK9. Lp(a) levels are actually set at birth. And so whether you diet or exercise or are thin, your levels, if they're very high of Lp(a), put you at significant risk of either a heart attack or stroke. And it's already acknowledged that lowering Lp(a) can, in fact, lower your individual risk of any of those events, heart attack or stroke. The other target, PCSK9, where there are medicines already in the marketplace, but more as antibodies, lowering PCSK9 is already recognized to lower the risk of heart attack and stroke in significant populations globally. So we felt that by putting these 2 together in a single medicine, we could lower both the genetic risk and also the behavioral risk in global populations by actually delivering a once every 6 months or even a once yearly medicine. And we think that will be novel and something that will be appreciated both in the markets and by physicians and ultimately by patients that are at risk of cardiovascular disease.

That sounds very exciting. And how many people have this genetic risk?

Well, over 20% of adult populations have high Lp(a) levels and are at significant risk of a heart attack or stroke. So we believe that by lowering Lp(a), we can make a significant impact for those patients. PCSK9 levels are high in about 10% of the adult population in developed nations. And therefore, we think that the numbers are significant globally at reducing risk.

Interesting. And so you'll be developing this with Nuvec as well or.

Yes. There are several embodiments. The one that I mentioned that 2 is actually the medicine itself, the dual-acting or bispecific medicine. But THAL-3 is actually putting the medicine into Nuvec so that Nuvec, a silicon nanoparticle, can deliver the medicine perhaps at higher concentrations or more effectively or more specifically to get better results for patients, for their families and for caregivers.

Very good. So you've had a very interesting career in biotech. And we'd love to know a little bit more about some of the lessons that you've learned and how you can apply that experience with Thalia at this stage.

I've been very fortunate to lead some really good companies over time. And I was extremely attracted to join the former N4 Pharma and now Thalia because of the strength of the Board, the strength of Nuvec and the possibility of developing an RNA therapeutics champion. In fact, I was earlier the CEO of a similar company that began its journey here in London on the London Stock Exchange and in the AIM segment called Silence Therapeutics. And that company had a very good gene silencing platform, but the platform needed reshaping. And so we did that. And by bringing on new medicines, we were able to effect partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies that brought in a significant amount of nondilutive capital and also validation, and that caused the share price to grow significantly. In fact, when I began the journey at Silence, the market cap of the company was around GBP 40 million. And over my tenure, it grew to over GBP 700 million, and the company was able to list on NASDAQ in the United States. And so I'm a firm believer that we can do the same journey here for not only shareholder value, but also for patients, their families and their caregivers.

Fantastic. And the Board, the rest of the Board and the management team, what are your thoughts there?

We already have a very able management team with deep experience in the areas we're targeting, cardiovascular medicine, as I've mentioned, but also oncology, where we hope to have new medicines and also in the formation of actual drug products and the chemistry involved to do that. So I'm delighted to work with them. They add significant value. And the Board has a significant amount of experience in corporate finance, in biotechnology and most importantly, in corporate governance. And so together, I think with the Board, with the management team and our new ideas in Thalia, we can truly grow into an RNA therapeutics champion and ultimately, with our fiscal discipline, bring real value for shareholders and obviously, and hopefully for patients, their families and caregivers.

It sounds a very exciting time. We wish you every luck and we're watching with great interest. I hope you'll be reporting back.

Yes. Thank you. I look forward in the coming weeks and months to tell the markets in this forum more about the exciting advances at Thalia. And we believe there's lots coming up in the future that will be of interest to many of the stakeholders.