Transgene SA (TNG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Transgene conference call. My name is Ben, and I will be the coordinator for today's call. Please note, this call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand you over to your host, Lucie Larguier, Head of Investor Relations, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Thank you, and hello, everyone. So I have the pleasure today to introduce you to Dr. Alessandro Riva, who has just been appointed Chairman and CEO, Transgene, along with Hedi Ben Brahim, we will review today's news and answer your questions. Before I turn the call over to Alessandro Riva, I'd like to remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. If you're listening to this webcast on the Internet, you will not be able to ask questions. If you wish to ask questions, please make sure that you join us via one of the conference call numbers that are available in today's press release. With this, I now turn the call over to Alessandro Riva.

Thank you, Lucie, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. I'm sure that you have seen the news today, and I would like to provide some additional background and more importantly, I will be available to answer your question. As you have seen, I will be joining Transgene as the Chairman and CEO effective June 1. I've been the company Chairman for over a year now, and I believe that the company is today ideally positioned to go to the next level. I would like to start by giving you some personal background as this is the first time I have participated in one of these course for Transgene. I spent all my career in the oncology space after graduating from medical school and practicing Oncology in University Hospital of Milan. I joined the pharmaceutical industry. In Novartis was Global Head of Oncology Development and Medical Affairs, a position where we successfully brought several compounds to patients. At Gilead, I was the Head of Oncology Therapeutics where I was in charge of [indiscernible] CAR-T 19, resulting in his approval in both the United States and Europe. In both cases, this consisted in putting in place the right clinical trials in the right patient population with the right clinicians and of course, with the right treatment. More recently, I was a CEO of 2 biotechnology company based in the United States of America, where we're developing a bispecific and transpacific and cell therapy in Oncology. As a team at Transgene are confident today that we are in a particular juncture of our organization already to move to the next level. This confidence is based on the very promising data that is delivered from its immunotherapy portfolio over the last 12 months. And I would like to thank Hedi Ben Brahim for his contribution to this achievement by ensuring that Transgene was able to execute in a timely manner and deliver the strategy. We have a stronger therapeutic vaccine franchise based on our core viral vector expertise and 2 exciting and complementary approaches, namely Neoantigen and shared tumor antigens. For these 2 assets, respectively, TG4050 and TG4001, we are at critical point in the development of these 2 exciting new therapies for solid tumor that could translate into potential registrational trials. We also believe that we have a very strong and differentiated oncolytic virus pipeline based on our Invir.IO platform. These novel drug candidates are generating using our patent viral vector backbone that has a key competitive advantage in that it can be administered intravenously. When given IV, the oncolytic virus is safe and goes to the tumor where it's selectively replicates while expressing its therapeutic payload. Intravenous administration, as you know, with significantly increased the utility of oncolytic viruses and the number of patients that could benefit from this new approach. TG6050, our intravenous oncolytic virus expressing Interleukin 12 and anti-CTLA4 antibody, is already in clinical developing in advanced non-small cell lung cancer. As our leading intravenous candidate, it represents a unique opportunity to demonstrate the potential of our oncolytic virus platform. Our confidence in the potential of our oncolytic viruses has not been diminished by AstraZeneca unexpected decision to terminate our research collaboration. As part of our -- as part of AstraZeneca portfolio review, AstraZeneca decided to return all rights to the products they license and other highly innovative pipeline assets to Transgene. AstraZeneca has obtained a U.S. IND for one of this candidate. AstraZeneca has also confirmed that we will be able to share the results of our collaboration via scientific publication or poster presentation. Given that we were only informed by AstraZeneca of their decision very recently, we are still assessing the best way forward with the return of products and the other assets that we have regained. We will come back to you on our plans for this asset at a later date. This decision has limited impact on Transgene financial guidance, and we continue to have financial visibility until early 2024. To wrap up, I would like to confirm that the Transgene strategy is unchanged with a clear focus on TG4050, our Neoantigen cancer vaccine; TG4001, our HPV-positive cancer therapeutic vaccine; and TG6050, our oncolytic Virus stressing interleukin 12 and anti-CTLA4 antibody with the aim of implementing potential registrational trials for our therapeutic vaccine. We are fully committed as a team to successfully delivering on this goal and I'm looking forward to working with the highly talented and the committed in Transgene. We have 2 posters accepted at ASCO on TG4050, and TG4001, and we intend to communicate after the abstract available on the evening of May 25. In the next 12 to 18 months, we expect to announce a number of important milestones that demonstrate that we are delivering on our plans that are intended to create significant value for patients and also for our stakeholders. With this, I would like to take any questions you may have. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Just to remind you -- we can have no questions coming through. [Operator Instructions]

What -- I have received questions by e-mail. This is Lucie. So I will share them with you, and we'll answer them also. So these are questions received from Jamila El Bougrini at Invest Securities. So 2 questions, first on the transition and second, on the end of the collaboration with AstraZeneca. So on the first aspect, the question is, why this choice -- the choice of the transition now when it could have maybe better understood by the market, if it had occurred a few months within the launch of the first pivotal study. So we do the rationale of giving a more U.S.-oriented orientation with the leadership, having regulatory and marketing experience is completely understandable. But -- the transition have been more obvious with at least one clinical pivotal study underway. Is there also a desire to get Transgene work more international visibility, in particular, regarding investors who are shareholders in competing companies in the factionalize vaccine shield and who have a good reputation or a messenger RNA, for instance. And also, how do you -- from an HR point of view, how do you anticipate the possible challenges in terms of corporate culture and multiculturalism with a U.S. versus France approach.

No [indiscernible] I just like to, first of all, to say that I'm a European based in the United States of America. And that -- I worked for many years in Europe and namely in France at [indiscernible] and Avantis before Avantis became an office. So I think I'm very familiar with the European French culture and the way we operate in Europe and in France. And of course, because of my experience in the United States of America, I also have this side on my background that I think it's important also to create a culture that is international, very diversified, which ultimately will serve the proposal of developing new agents for cancer patients. So that's number one. Number two, Transgene or Transgene in English [ derives ] has been I'd say, since the beginning, an international company, right? So -- and as we speak, we perform international trials and centers are not only in France but also in Europe, and we are approaching also United States of America. So I don't see any problem from a cash flow perspective. And in terms of the time lines, I guess, this was the first question of the decision on the change of the leadership team of the leadership. What I will say that the Board of Transgene first that it is important to have a change in the leadership now because Transgene is in a particular juncture of the journey where the company has really to take the challenge of the competition and has to accelerate significantly the development of the compound. Therefore, the Board felt that the company needed a leader with, I would say, a more comprehensive experience in drug development in bringing compounds to patients in assessing the strategic rationale also of our portfolio and therefore, to prepare the organization to the next level. So that's essentially the rationale that the Board discussed, and based on that, they made the decision. I guess, perhaps, this was [indiscernible] question. There was another one?

No. There was another one in international [indiscernible], I think you covered it already. Second aspect was on the end of collaboration with AstraZeneca. So AZ launched projects with several players on the IL-12 target, several of which were avoided. To your knowledge, are there still ongoing projects around this IL-12 target in AZ's preclinical clinical pipeline? And if so, what type of approach. Another point is licensing is overly from which you regain the rise to another industrial company, one of the options considered.

So I mean the first question, of course is cannot be answered for the simple reason we cannot speculate on what AstraZeneca is doing as we speak. We don't have access to this information. And the second answer -- and second question, I would say that this is an opportunity, right? So we will reassess internally the assets that have been returned by AstraZeneca, and we put those assets in the context of our oncolytic virus pipeline, and we will determine whether, a: we want to keep in-house, b: whether we have -- we would like to offer the possibility to out-license those compounds or others because our pipeline in the oncolytic viruses is very comprehensive to other companies. So this is something that will keep you updated about, right? But certainly, it is a possibility that we will consider.

I received another question by e-mail, but is there a question in the room? That's so far. So a question from [indiscernible Why don't you split the CEO and Chairman position as it was a good governance practice?

So I mean, the Board, as I said, decided to make a change in the in the leadership and in the CEO position for the reason I just mentioned. And in that context, they assessed my candidacy as current Chairman of the Board, and therefore, they felt that the synergy between the tours, the Chairman of the Board and the CEO was a good thing to have this juncture of transit. So that's the reason why essentially the Board decided to recombine the 2 roles together and to give these tools to me. So of course, the Board will continue to monitor the governance on a regular basis. And we'll make sure that we have everything that guarantee the independency of our Board, including, of course, the assessment of the performance of the CEO. So -- and of course, we will keep you updated on this matter.

I have no question on my end. I think there's one from Brandon Folkes.

Indeed, we have one question here coming from Brandon Folkes calling from Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

Maybe just one for me, and I apologize if this has been addressed as I have been hopping between a few calls. So do you get the work back from AstraZeneca that they've done oncolytic viruses? And if so, will that trigger perhaps a review of sort of your priorities within oncolytic viruses? And would you ever take the worst AstraZeneca has done and maybe develop it in-house if you so value yourself?

Yes. Thank you for the question. The answer is yes and yes, right? So yes, we are going to have all rights and data back from AstraZeneca, including the defeat they already submitted an IND to the food and drug administration, they have the approval from the FDA and also everything that we've done in the context of the collaboration. So we are going to regain everything, right? So -- and we are going to reassess internally the next step on this portfolio coming back from AstraZeneca, including, of course, our own portfolio, and we set up priorities very soon and will communicate to you in a timely manner. Speaker 3.

Great.

There are no further questions, so I will hand you back to your host to conclude today's conference.

Okay. So I would like to thank everyone for the questions. I do see the team and I remain available to answer further questions down the road. I look forward to meeting with you in person in my new role, where I am focused on taking Transgene to the next level. We wish you a very good weekend, and talk to you soon. Thanks. Bye.

Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect.