Arecor Therapeutics (LSE:AREC) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the Arecor Therapeutics plc investor presentation. Throughout this quarter presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time via the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I'd like to make the following poll. And I'd to hand you over to the executive management team from Arecor Therapeutics plc. Sarah, good morning. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. So name is Doctor Sarah Howell. I'm the CEO of Arecor Therapeutics, and I'm joined today by David Ellen, our CFO, who will be talking you through the full year results until 12/31/2025. So our customary legal notice.

0:47 So at Arecor, we're very much focused just as a quick recap. We're a clinical stage biotech company, as you know. We're focused on developing superior therapeutics that can reduce treatment burden and improve outcomes, specifically for people living with diabetes, obesity, and other cardiometabolic diseases. Our focus is very much on two core product areas being in the diabetes space and the oral delivery of peptides. And these are areas where there's significant unmet patient need that we're aiming to address with our superior products in high end and billion dollar growth markets. So our lead program is our best in class insulin, a t two seven eight. So this is the only ultra concentrated, ultra rapid acting insulin in development, and it's been specifically designed with this profile for use in next generation automated insulin delivery systems. And I'll I'll talk a little bit more just as a a reminder around what we need by automated insulin delivery system, and I'll refer to them as AIM systems.

1:58 We're also exploring a next generation drug delivery platform for the oral delivery of peptides where very poor bioavailability, less than 1%, is the drug delivery challenge that we're looking to overcome. So the eighty two seven eight in terms of high level status, we are very busy preparing for phase two clinical study, which is all on track, and that's with our partner, Sequel MedTech. And, again, I'll I'll talk about our partnership with Sequel MedTech in much more detail. And then for the oral delivery of peptides, and our focus now is on generating that key nonclinical pharmacokinetic data, which is essentially assessing the bioavailability, which is the challenge that we're looking to overcome.

2:45 And those studies are ongoing and through the course of the second half of this year. And both of these products areas, of course, are underpinned and leveraged. We're leveraging our innovative and proprietary our staff formulation technology platform here. We also continue to partner with leading pharma and med tech companies. So we have partnerships, and as you know, that we previously announced with companies such as Eli Lilly, MiniMed, who are actually now the diabetes division that spun out of Medtronic, they IPO ed earlier this year, and also Ligand Pharmaceuticals amongst others. They're the companies where we've been able to publicly announce their names.

3:32 So now I'm going to move on to talk a little bit more around our operational highlights here. So around eighty two seven eight, obviously, our our lead program there, we signed a codevelopment partnership with SQL MedTech about last year, around September time last year, where both companies are cofounding all of the phase two enabling development activities required for us to file for an IND, so to file for clinical trial approval with the FDA in The US. We also had very positive, what's called a type c advice meeting with the FDA. This is where we presented our phase two clinical plans, our protocols for that study, and also the data package that we intend to submit under our R and D. We have very positive feedback from the FDA there, so we're very confident there around that clinical study design and its improved ability to be able to perform that study, which would be a US based studies.

4:37 Importantly, as part of that co development deal, both companies have both Arecor and Seagull Medtech have confirmed their strategic intent to enter into a broader agreement that would be for phase two clinical development through to commercialization. And the terms of that deal are very advanced stage now of negotiations and confidence around moving forward and entering into that next phase of that deal, which is very important for us in terms of taking eighty two seven eight forward. Then on the order delivery of pet types programs, we're initially focused in the GLP one space, and I'll talk a little bit more around why we focused on GLP one there. And we've generated initial positive results stabilizing the GLP one, that peptide over very harsh conditions that it needs to survive and develop new IP in those areas. So that's very positive first step. We've overcome our first challenge and obviously follow IP so we can start to protect that space.

5:44 And as I mentioned earlier, we're now focused on improving bioavailability in those animal PK studies. On the financing side, we entered into a royalty financing agreement with Lyman Pharmaceuticals. It's raising $11,000,000 of non diluted funding, of which we received $7,000,000 upfront, and we've subsequently this year received further $500,000, which is part of the $4,000,000 in CVRs. So we have an additional $3,500,000 in CVRs related to that royalty financing agreement, and this are obviously in a certain commercial milestones, and they all remain on track. So this has really strengthened the balance sheet for Arecor and allowed us the time essentially to negotiate the best deal that we can enter into that next phase of development for eighty two seven eight. So we're doing that from a a position of strength, which is very much our focus now. So we have a very strong corporate and financial position, and now I'll hand over to David to talk about that in a little bit more detail.

6:55 Good morning. So the key message that we have today is that we have secured a cash runway to q two twenty seven that allows us to focus on two core areas, the eighty two seven eight insulin and the platform for the oral delivery peptides, and specifically to be able to close a co development and commercialization deal for the insulin AT278. Starting with the income statement, revenues have increased by $100,000 with that increase being down to formulation revenues. Obviously, the most sort of standout item on the P and L is the other income, 5,500,000. 5,000,000 of that was the gain on sale of royalty rights to Ligand. There was also 300,000 being AREC, r and d tax credit income and 200,000 recharging to Sequel MedTech under our existing codevelopment agreement.

7:55 Operating expenses decreased by approximately £500,000. We had a small small decrease, you can see, in the g and a expenses on the corporate side, and then r and d expenses down 400,000. Some of that is because within 2024, we had, at the beginning of that year, costs remaining on the phase one 2004 sorry, 01/2004, phase one for eighty two seven eight. None of that in 2025, but we have started the phase two pre enabling costs for 8278 already. Profit or loss for the year, naught point nine million. And then below that, the loss for the year discontinued operations. So that is for the Tetris business where we ceased operations in September 2025.

8:49 Within that, we had a gain of naught 400,000 when we sold the rights to the non Agluo products to the Spire Pharma, and the numbers for last year were impacted by the 3,300,000 impairment overall on the Tetris business. Next page, please. So we finished with the year end cash of just over 6,000,000. Obviously, the largest element towards that was the sale of the royalty rights where we received 5,200,000 of upfront proceeds from Ligand. And we have received another 500,000 already this year in dollars, and we expect to receive another $500,000 before the end of the year. Net cash used in operating activities for continued operations was £3,100,000 which was greatly decreased from £5,700,000 in the previous year. As mentioned, this is all works towards extending the cash runway to the second quarter of twenty twenty seven.

9:49 And then just lastly, on the discontinued operations, then we generated cash of 700,000, whereas the prior year, we used cash of 3,600,000. And that all comes from no more purchases of inventory and collecting all the receivables on the Tetris side of the business. Great. Thank you, David. So I'm going to move now to talk in a little bit more detail around our lead product asset, a t two seven eight. So I'll run through this relatively quickly. So I would imagine a lot of people on the line today will be very familiar with a t two seven eight. Essentially, a t two seven eight was taking existing insulin insulin as far, which is used in Novo Nordisk insulin, and we've developed the first and only ultra concentrated. So it's a five times concentrated insulin, five times a standard concentration for best in class insulin is available today.

10:47 And importantly, ultra rapid acting insulin. We've developed we've demonstrated superiority in its pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile. So this is essentially getting insulin on board post injection very fast, and that translating into a very fast and greater glucose lowering profile compared to those best in class insulins available today. We've gone head to head in those studies, And and we've demonstrated that in both type one diabetic patients and also high BMI type two patients. So the whole of the addressable patient population, which, of course, significantly, clinically derisks eighty two seven eight. And as I mentioned earlier, it's been specifically designed for using these automated insulin delivery systems, which is essentially where the patient will wear continuous glucose monitor, which measures the glucose levels and continuously in real time. Those measurements affect to an algorithm which calculates how much insulin is needed to keep that individual inside their target glucose range, and then that's automatically delivered via the insulin pump. And all this technology and systems, as you know, exists today and is on the market, including via our partner, c corp, Medtech.

12:10 So I think it's important now to talk around what are the needs, why are we developing this highly concentrated rapid acting insulin. But it's very clear from a patient perspective. Patients are looking for when we look at AID systems, there's a whole wealth of data out there, real world clinical and outcomes data showing that people with diabetes that require insulin have better outcomes. They have better blood glucose control and outcomes if they're using an AID system. And but despite this, there's still relatively low penetration. I'll talk about those penetration rates shortly. So the question here is what how can we reduce that burden and lower the barrier to use these AID systems, which will then ultimately lead to improve outcomes for the patient population? What patients are looking for is they want to reduce burden.

13:04 It's still relatively high burden to use these AID systems. They want to be able to wear their insulin pumps for longer. Current standard of care is three day wear, after which time they need to switch out their insulin. They might need to throw away a pump if it's a disposable patch pump, refill that, apply a new pump, which means lots of different infusion sites as well every three days. So they want to be able to wear them for longer. They want to fit and forget essentially. And they'd like them to be smaller. They're still a very visible indicator. They wear these pumps, visible indicator that they're living with a chronic disease. Of course, if you want to have smaller pumps or you want to wear these pumps for longer, it means that you need to be able to get more insulin on board in a much smaller volume or a much smaller space, and eighty two seventy eight is the only highly concentrated rapid acting insulin that can achieve this.

14:03 There's also a subset of the patient population, and I'll I'll talk today around some of the numbers here that have high require high total daily doses of insulin. So we characterize this patient population as needing more than a hundred units of insulin a day to control their blood glucose. And this means with the standard insulins that are available to them today and the current pumps that are available to them today, they can't achieve three day wear time. They can't get to three day wear, which is a standard of care, without running out of insulin, which means it's not practical for them to use AID systems. So they're simply not using them and they're using multiple daily injections. In terms of improved outcomes, and I've about this a lot in the past, is that to improve outcomes, we need much faster acting insulins that you enable us to be more aggressive with those algorithms, which essentially means that we can drive and control and higher time range here. We can more tightly control blood glucose and improve that time in a healthy blood glucose target range, which ultimately leads to better outcomes. And all of this needs to be delivered clearly in an ecosystem that's cost effective for both payers and patients, which is where a t two seven eight has an advantage because we're using existing insulins and existing infrastructure that this is not a a novel therapeutic

15:33 in development. So these are very much the needs that all can be addressed with a t two seven eight with its profile. So just moving in and looking a little bit more around this longer wear. So very much the device industry and insulin pump companies are moving towards longer wear. There are two insulin pumps that are approved for use for seven days, and the other insulin pump companies are performing studies and looking to achieve this seven day label. But the challenge that they have is with their existing pumps and their their capacity for insulin and only 100 unit per mils in low concentration insulin being available for use in these AID systems is that a large proportion of the patient population can't get to seven day wear. So if you look at the type two patient population, IIT is essentially insulin, intensive insulin therapy, so these are candidates for AT two seventy eight.

16:32 Nearly fifty percent of that patient population can't achieve that current standard of care of three day wear, so they're simply not using AID systems. But as we see these pumps moving to seven day wear or even beyond that, almost all type twos would run out of insulin before they get to seven day wear. So seven day wear is simply not achievable today for that type two patient population without a highly concentrated insulin. As you can see here on this heat map with eighty two seven eight which is u 500, almost all type twos would be able to achieve seven day wear in the current ARD systems. And it's not just a type two problem if we look at the type one patient population here, almost just over fifty percent of the type one patient population can't achieve that seven day wear with those current incidents, u 100, that's NovoLog, Humalog, and all of them will get to seven day wear with eighty two seven eight at a 500 units per mil concentration.

17:37 So it really does allow us to open up that access to more people living with diabetes regardless of their daily insulin requirements. And then if we look at this in terms of patient numbers and market size opportunity, this is looking at The US, and US is very much the first launch market here. So in The US, there are around four million people with diabetes that are on intensive insulin therapy, so there are addressable patient population. A lot of those around one million require more than a 100 units of incident a day. So this is a patient population that currently are not using AID systems. They're not practical for use for them, and they're also not reimbursable because they would simply go through too many parts and too many consumables.

18:28 And then there is approximately a million further patients who are currently using AID systems, but they're looking for longer wear, they want smaller pumps, and they want better outcomes, of course, and control all of which can be used with a t two seven eight and achieved with a t two seven eight. So if we look at that two million initial patient population, so we see these as first adopters and take the current net pricing of insulin in The US, and that's over a $3,000,000,000 market opportunity for a t two seven eight. Then there's additional growth opportunities as you look at further miniaturization. It was more of that two million patient population you see on the right hand side here over to the left. If all of the patients in The US were to switch to an 82, now we'll switch to AID therapy of insulin. It's around $5,000,000,000 TAM opportunity.

19:28 And with eighty two seven eight, we're looking to achieve significant market share within this multibillion dollar market opportunity. And then if we zoom out and look at the AID growth, so this is actually the insulin pump market and insulin pump sales, not insulin revenue here. And we can see despite these challenges in terms of the requirement for a concentrated rapid acting incident, it is growing year on year. We're seeing more and more people moving over to an AID systems because they get those improved outcomes there. And this is where we're really looking at in partnership with the AREC companies, really, to open up further access.

20:13 Because despite this growth in The US, AREC systems are still used by only forty percent, around forty percent of the type one patient population, and only five percent of that type two patient population. And the real challenge for the type two patient population here is that they generally have high higher total daily dose requirements, which means that these AID systems are not practical and accessible to them today. So there's a real opportunity to open these up and open up the market using a t two seven eight in combination with an AID system. And on this front, as I mentioned earlier, we entered into initial codevelopment partnership with SQL MedTech. So both companies have committed $1,300,000 to conduct and complete those phase two enabling activities that were required for us to file for approval, so to file an IND for approval for that phase two clinical study with the FDA. So very much showing both companies' commitment there and also financial commitments, of course, here. And that's just easy content for us to enter into this phase two and beyond co development and commercialization deal. As I mentioned earlier, this is advanced stages of negotiation now and we're very confident entering into this next phase of the partnership, which will enable us to

21:44 commence that phase two clinical trial during the second half of twenty twenty six. So just to take a zoom out and a little bit further around what's the the regulatory development pathway to market here. So as I mentioned, the activities for the phase two clinical study are ongoing and on track here. We have very much confidence around that phase two clinical study design where we will be comparing a t two seven eight when delivered via an insulin pump and continuously over a six week period using the twist, so SQLA MedTech's twist pump and comparing against NovoLog. So this is Novo's best in class rapid acting insulin, but it's only available at hundred units per mil. So eighty two seven eighty is five times concentrated, and there'd be around 90 subjects in that clinical study.

22:39 And then we anticipate a requirement for a phase three clinical study. We have modeled this based on what our large farm counterparts have done in the past for approvals of reformulations of insulin. So a six month crossover study, again, comparing with eighty two seven eight to NovoLog and then six month open label period. This is essentially where you continue to provide the drug for use for a further six month period, and you can gather that data. This is relatively conservative approach here, and we'll be most certainly looking to work with the FDA to see if there are any opportunities to further accelerate this phase three clinical study in terms of its duration and number of subjects with the areas that we would focus on.

23:30 And as it stands, that would lead to potential for marketing authorization in 2030. So just to really recap for a t two seven eight, obviously, the non dilutive funding that we talked about earlier with Ligand, the strength of our balance sheet has enabled us the time and that balance sheet strength to support this next phase of strategic deal making with SQL make taking our focus is very much in entering into the best deal that we can with SQL in in a timely manner. Obviously, pace here and time frame to market is key already. All of those phase two enabling studies are on track here, and we intend to initiate that phase two clinical study during the second half of twenty twenty six.

24:24 So just moving on to the oral delivery of peptides. So I want to talk a little bit around the challenge and why we see this as an ideal challenge for the expertise and the ARECANT technology platform that we have here at Arecor. So, you know, all peptides generally are important class of therapeutics. There are over 800 of them in developments and clinical development now today. Many of those in this cardio metabolic space, and I'm sure everybody's seen those particularly in the the obesity indication as well. But despite this, there are only very small number of already delivered peptides on the market today, and that's because they suffer from very low oral bioavailability.

25:16 And the challenge here essentially is when you try to deliver a peptide orally so you can have capsule here, it has to go through very harsh conditions through the GI tract and into the stomach. It's harsh pH. It has a very low acidic pH. We have all these digestive enzymes, which essentially degrade the peptide itself. So they they're degrading the active therapeutic ingredient that we require here to be delivered to the cells and to be active here. So that's challenge number one. And as I mentioned earlier, that's the first challenge that we've overcome is stabilizing GLP one, which is where we started this semaglutide in these very harsh conditions, and we filed IP in that area.

26:04 And then the second challenge here is then getting the peptide across the absorption barrier here and into the cells. And the the only thing that's worked today is the only area that's seen any success and it's incorporated into those peptides that are all peptides that are on the market today is the so called permeation enhancers here. But the challenge here with permeation enhancers are again under these very harsh conditions, these acidic pHs, that they're crushing our solution, that they're not soluble. So, again, you end up with very little of these permeation enhancers in solution and enable to cross these absorption barriers and and essentially shed that peptide through into the cells.

26:56 And that's why we it results in this very low bioavailability of less than 1% for these already delivered peptides. And that's why we're very much focusing now. So we're using our Aristat formulation technology and expertise here to protect and stabilize the peptide, so we've got some novel formulation approaches there. And also then to keep these permeation enhancers soluble as well so that they can encourage that uptake in the cells and improve that bioavailability. And some, you know, other clever formulation tricks that we've got within this matrix, which obviously I won't talk about today, but will be within our IP filings here.

27:46 So in terms of of where we're at, we're obviously starting with GLP one. Here, we've had those positive initial results. We filed the IP, and now we're generating that nonclinical pharmacokinetic data, so that bioavailability data here. If we can show success in the animal PK studies, so this is very much can show improved bioavailability when compared to Rybelsus. So that's all semaglutide that's on the market today, which has less than 1% bioavailability. And that's really highly translatable to other peptides. And from a business commercial strategy space here, this would then offer us the opportunity for more transformational partnering with pharma here. We know there is a high appetite for all delivery technologies for peptides. We know scientifically, it's a challenge that nobody's really cracked to date here, and that would enable us to partner with pharma proprietary peptide assets within their portfolio, which currently, without a delivery technology, will be developed as injectable therapies, but we know there's a high patient preference for oral delivery there. So that would enable and open up and partnering within a a multibillion dollar market opportunity for Arecor.

29:10 And I think as we can see in the space, I mean, we update this slide as new deals come through and the new deals all the time, the most recent Novo Nordisk with VIFTEX there and licensing some oral delivery technologies there, but it's it's a really active space here. There's, you know, there's there's a huge number of efforts ongoing in terms of trying to develop technologies and improve bioavailability, so we are in a race here, Of course, this is a formulation drug delivery challenge, and this is our course, USP, where we've been able to demonstrate over the years and validate that we can deliver enhanced formulation and drug delivery technologies that's in our large pharma partners have not been able to achieve themselves, and there is high appetite in this space, clearly.

30:02 So I think if we look forward in terms of summary and outlook, clearly, for a t two seven eight, we have a very unique and the only highly concentrated ultra rapid acting insulin in development. It's clinically derisked as we demonstrated superiority to those best in class insulins available today in both type ones and type two patient populations. As we've spoken through today, there's an initial US opportunity, market opportunity that translates to an over $3,000,000,000 insulin revenue opportunity with growth opportunities both within The US, but obviously, upside ex US as well. And it's really around catalyzing and opening up access to that next generation of AID systems, which will be longer wear, smaller, and it really continuing to improve that time and range, those clinical outcomes for the patient population.

30:59 Importantly, we partnered with a commercial stage insulin pump company, our ARD company, sequel, med tech, and confidence in terms of entering into that next broader strategic deal for phase two and beyond. As I just mentioned, the oral delivery of technology and peptide technology platform, we've overcome that first hurdle stabilizing the peptide, now focused on that oral bioavailability in those PK studies and significant upside potential there if we can be successful. And what I would note as well in terms of investment here is very low capital investment and resource investment at this stage to get to that PK proof of concept point. These studies are not expensive to run.

31:48 They just take time, unfortunately, and there's a there's a series of iterative studies that we need to to do there. And it's a scientist at Arecor, in house scientists doing what they do best to be creative here around formulation and drug delivery technology. So low capital investment, but significant upside potential. So in terms of what to look out for, obviously, the next phases of our strategic partnership for a t two seven eight phase two and beyond, then leading into it and being in a position to initiate that phase two clinical study. That, of course, is subject to funding. We're looking at co developments and commercialization, deal structures here with SQL med tech. So Arecor, of course, needs to be in a position to be able to fund its proportion of that co development and also that key pharmacokinetic data for the oral delivery of peptides and platforms, which will inform our next development steps, broadening out on success there with building that to work peptides and also partnering opportunities with pharmaceutical companies.

32:59 So that draws the formal parts of the presentation to a close today, and I'd be happy to take any questions. Thank you both for updating investors today. Could I please remind investors to submit your questions just by using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen? And for your reference, a recording of today's presentation will be available on the Investor Meet company platform shortly after the meeting has ended. Sarah, David, as you can see, we received a number of questions during today's presentation. If I could just hand back to you to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Sure. Thank you. So the first question is, I'm just gonna read it out in full as I always do, as you know. So given that the share price is around 29% of the IPO price, what fundraising options are being considered for the upcoming a t two seven eight trial? Are any nondilutive options on the table? I was especially pleased with the previous nondilutive fund raise.

34:01 So, I mean, maybe I'll start on that, and I'm sure David has some additional detail there. I mean, know, obviously, in terms of amounts required here, ultimately depends on the final structure of our deal with SQL med tech. But I think as we we see more than certainly with the first deal that we've done with SQL to allow us to conduct those phase two enabling activities, it was on a on a co development, so that was a $50.50 funding basis. So it's, you know, it's on that co development code basis that we're moving forward now in terms of those deal negotiations there. So, you know, options available to Arecor, of course, on funding would be, you know, traditional equity funding there. Obviously, all of our shareholders would be eligible to participate in that. So I would note that with the changes to the BCT guidance now, we we are able to take advantage of that. So that increased cap now to $40,000,000 where it's proving a pounds. So I've been talking to US parties too much recently. £40,000,000 relative to, you know, the 20,000,000 previous cap. So, you know, it is important to note that, you know, our entire shareholder base would have the opportunity to participate

35:31 should they they wish to there. So that's obviously one opportunity. Of course, other areas such as non dilutive funding, we continue to explore all areas and all opportunities there. We obviously spent a lot of time on that last year really understanding the landscape for non dilutive royalty financing and build relationships there across that ecosystem there. So, you know, we'll consider all of those options. So our priorities here are to enter into the best, you know, the best deal with SQL and to be cognizant and mindful of value share there and retention of value for Arecor and its shareholders.

36:17 And then that's the course around that kind of fundraising. You know, we're conscious of the the current share price, of course, and any impacts or effects of of dilution. Sorry, David. I actually said more than I'll But it's okay. Sorry if you find anything to add. Nothing to add. So I don't know why it's moving the slides. It's not moving. Hang on. Done. So the next question is the recent patent application book to include some very exciting looking graphs of bioavailability for tested peptide, it looked like several percent. Any comments? I mean, the first in terms of that first IP where we're really focused is around stabilizing that peptide and also which was our first challenge, and that's IP around then composition of matter and formulations to protect that peptide.

37:19 In terms of the bioavailability, we're still very much assessing that and assessing because that's a a combination of improved how do we improve bioavailability, and it's got to be in formulation matrices, of course, that are scalable within manufacturing as well. So we haven't, at this stage, filed specific IP around that by availability. Obviously, as we generate that data through the second half of of the year, we'll be looking to assess that where is our availability compared to those commercial benchmarks, in this case, Rybelsus. So it's a little bit of a watcher's space for that one. And there's a question around when would we expect to see the first data from the oral peptide delivery program.

38:12 So that's very much the data that we'll be generating through 2026, of course. It is iterative data, so it partly depends on the the duration of these and when will we have an understanding on our go, no go point pivotally of are we improving by availability or not here is is really each study informs the next. So it's actually difficult to say and put an exact that we expect to be by this time frame. But we certainly expect through the course of the year, we'll be generating, you know, significant body of data here. So we'll be able to say much more about this as as we go through the year and and through the second half of the year.

39:01 Then I think the next question is how are you balancing early partnering to derisk development versus advancing programs internally to capture greater longer term value. So I I think if this is not the really the question, please add another comment. I think what this question is asking is around the the balance of the tech partnering where which is fully funded by our partners. So those three pre licensed partnerships such as the one ship we have with Eli Lilly and MiniMed, for example, where they are paying the development dollars to access Arecor's expertise with developing novel formulations of their proprietary assets under those agreements, which are fully paid for by their partners. And then there's the upside potential, of course, on licensing should they then decide to take those forward in development. So we very much we have a a team, a small team internally focused on that. So they're focused on both bringing in those programs, but also, obviously, working on those and working on developments of those novel formulations under those programs.

40:27 That's certainly ongoing, and it's still ongoing there. We have a number of programs already partnered and and contracted that we're working on that have that outside opportunity as we we go through that development. And and we would expect to bring new programs in. But to be clear, you know, the focus is certainly the senior focus within the business is quite rightly on those two core product areas because the value creation opportunities, particularly if we look at a t two seven eight now being clinically derisked and an opportunity in very large market with a US partner, really does offer the longest the longest and the largest value creation opportunity for Arecor and our our shareholders.

41:27 So the next question is how are discussions with SQL progressing? When are we likely to see a deal for the phase two? Good question. That's yeah. They're progressing really well. I mean, when we say we we don't take it lightly to say that we're in advanced stages of negotiation and, you know, obviously, these these are areas that we discuss at the board as well. Are we all comfortable and keeping the ties on this that, you know, it's right to stay advanced stages of negotiation, and that's a unanimous yes from both myself and David and the board here that we are, you know, genuinely in advanced stages of negotiation here with Sequel MedTech. So, you know, we are confident of moving forward on this deal. Really, it's around now. It's it's fine tuning. We're into the real detail around, you know, value share here and how do we have a fair value share when all parties are motivated and that we retain appropriate value for Arecor for the proprietary, you know, products that we're bringing to the table here. So that's very much at where we are now.

42:38 It's really into the the weeds of the of the detail, but we are confident in moving forward and confident of them being in a position to initiate phase two clinicals in the second half of this year. So that gives you a sense of that time frame when we're not intending to be negotiating this deal through into 2027. So this question here around, do we consider because of the share price currently and and certainly since the IPO, do we consider Arecor to be suitable for public markets?

43:23 Obviously, the focus of Arecor is is very much on these near term value drivers, and we've got significant opportunity here to drive value for the business. I believe that it'll be value driven by entering into this next strategic co development and commercialization. So this also gives a route to market with a, you know, commercial stage US company that have a commercial sales force and, you know, I I think that would create value and then enable us to go to that next value inflection point on phase two clinicals as well as that upside potential from the the oral delivery of peptides. We obviously would always look at all strategic options for the business and make sure that we, you know, make the right decisions for the business at the right times to maximize the value and, you know, that opportunity to return for our shareholders.

44:23 David, I don't know if there's anything you want to add on that one. I only probably in in relation to, you know, the the last part of the question was about our companies such as Arecor suitable for public markets. And I think that part of the discussion here is on the undervaluation. And, obviously, the board, management, people we speak to externally see the large opportunity, and the challenge there is reflecting that within the share price and, obviously, signing a commercial deal starting phase two. Those are both very important value inflection points for us on that journey to effectively getting a reappraisal of what the valuation of the company is.

45:15 Thank you once again for answering questions from investors today. Before we ask investors to share their feedback, which I know is particularly important to the company, Sarah, perhaps I could ask you for some closing comments. Yeah. I mean, I think I think, hopefully, what we've been able to sort of communicate in the time that we have today, the company is very much focused. We're very much focused in those two core product areas. We have a clinically validated, you know, best in class insulin with a large patient unmet need there, so hence leading into a large multi billion dollar market opportunity. And commercial stage partner in sequel med tech. So real opportunity there to drive significant value from that unique profile of $827.08, and also the upside potential then from the oral delivery of peptides.

46:11 You know, we know it's scientifically challenging, but if we can be successful there, that's a huge opportunity. And, you know, as we talked around today, we still continue to leverage that ARRESTAT technology platform in partnering with pharma as well, which obviously brings those revenues into the business, but also offers that upside potential in the future from from licensing. So we're we're confident now moving forward. We've got a number of significant milestones through the course of 2026 entering into deal with SQL, generating the the PK bioavailability data for the oral delivery of peptides. So real opportunities to add significant value to the business.

46:58 Thank you both for your presentation this morning. Could I please ask investors not to close this session you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team of Arecor Therapeutics plc, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.