Edx Medical Group (LSE:EDX) — Investor Presentation

0:01 Good afternoon, and welcome to the EDX MEDICAL GROUP PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and they can be submitted at any time using the q and a tab situated on the top right corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And I would now like to hand you over to Chief Scientific Officer, Chris Evans. Good afternoon to you. Thanks, Alex. Hi, everybody. Welcome to EDX MEDICAL GROUP PLC, a company that I founded only a few years ago. Let's dive straight into it. My own background, obviously, I've been in biotech ever since the beginning. I think as a legend, but I've here, I created first ever start up in this country, and that must be four decades ago.

0:54 I've done a lot. I've built a lot, and I've exited a lot for people and developed a lot of both diagnostic tests and pharmaceuticals. We've saved millions of lives, so I'm very proud and privileged with the results that we've achieved and, of course, enabled people to make money from quite a number of these companies. Not everything can work all of the time, but sometimes some of the things work extraordinarily well. And, hopefully, this is one of them, EDX MEDICAL. We're in the business of developing what I call ultra precision diagnostic tests. The reason for doing that is really to get to individuals and find cancers, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases early. The earlier you find these things, the more quickly you could put things right.

1:44 And in some cases, while I believe the cure ultimately to certain cancers would be the combination of a brilliant early test and a fabulous drug. But the drug won't work if the tumor is overdeveloped and becomes late stage. So these early testing precision diagnostics are crucial. In terms of EDX itself, we're now listed on AIM. We, as I mentioned, are specializing in, these three areas, mostly cancer. That's an area I'm particularly interested in in the next ten years, because there are thousands of cancers. There are no cures for any cancer. There are some very good treatments for some, and there are hardly any treatments for others. So once again, the earlier you can find these cancers, at least you can apply surgery, radiology, and chemotherapy, and hopefully some kind of drug to sort them out. The three areas that we're really focusing on is being able to test patients who've been diagnosed with cancer maybe early. We can characterize the cancer. We can produce all sorts of data. I also want to be able to test, for wonderful words, screening individuals who don't apparently have any cancer or cardiovascular conditions where we can actually prove that they do, and that's how you catch them super early.

3:07 The other area that we are focusing on is in is in corporates, that is large employers who employ large numbers of employees where we can screen these employees for cancer, cardiovascular infectious diseases, and other illnesses, kidney, liver damage, lung damage, thyroid damage, etcetera, etcetera. And we have all the skills, technology, and ability to do that in large numbers of people on a daily basis. And then thirdly, we'll be targeting GPs and what we call health care professionals, clinicians, oncologists, where we we... There we supply and service them with very advanced, ultra precise diagnostic tests.

3:52 Some of them extremely complex and tend to be a lot more expensive than the tests we'd be supplying, obviously, to individuals. We will eventually supply our tests to GPs, to pharmacies, as well as to hospitals and clinicians, but also to individuals at home, whether they are patients at home or they are individuals who are concerned about their health at home, as well as running the mass employee testing inside the corporations. In terms of the board, there's a slide here. You can see, myself and my fellow directors. They're all very, very experienced. I've worked with a number of these individuals for three or four decades. We built a number of companies together successfully, which have developed products and have gotten through trials and have developed sales of hundreds of millions. They've been sold, etcetera.

4:44 We have some very good investors. We have some of the... We have many knights of the realm. We have some very big high profile in, family offices, etcetera, etcetera, in in the stock as well. And I I think I think we're very strong, very stable company. In terms of key milestones right now, I think in the next quarter, it'd be... We're quite confident that we'll probably announce not more than 2 or 3,000,000 expected revenues. It'll be more than 2,000,000, because it's only now that we're beginning to launch our products. So in the last three years, we've been developing products, getting those products regulatory approved, and getting them ready for market.

5:29 Now we're beginning to bring things into the market, and it's pleasing to see that as we bring them in, we are indeed selling them, and revenues, millions of revenues are now beginning to appear. Our new pneumonia ICU test, which we've done for the NHS, that's done, developed, regulated, and is available, being used at the moment in Edinburgh in Cambridge. We hope to expand that out to, lots of other NHS trusts over time. Our chemotherapy toxicity test is also being fully developed. That's also in use now by doctors. Cancer liquid biopsy, and another complex cancer genomic tests to characterize, cancer diseases also being supplied, to clinicians for the benefit of their patients.

6:17 We've also brought through this year finished, a very accurate bowel and testicular cancer testing products. The bowel cancer test is about ninety five percent, ninety six percent, sensitive, accurate, probably the number one bowel cancer test in this country today. I don't know of a better test at all across, UK or Europe. The testicular cancer test is about ninety nine percent, point six percent accurate, virtually one hundred percent. If that shows a positive in a young man between the age of 17 and 39, then that means you have testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is one of those cancers you can cure virtually a hundred percent if it's caught early and very quickly. So those are...

7:02 These are two excellent tests that are out there. We have significant progress with our prostate cancer tests, which are coming through, which we have talked about. And I'll talk a little bit more about these a bit later. And our laboratories in Cambridge, which are now UCAS accredited, are producing, these tests and carrying out the assays, as I speak. We have partnerships. Everyone's aware of the various partnerships with Thermo Fisher, which we've announced a few years ago, as well as HCA Inspire and NHS Trusts, as well as with Caris, a very substantive American leading genomics testing company and hospitals like the Royal Marsden. Very proud of these partnerships, which are actively underway.

7:53 In terms of our tests, you've a slide there with about 10, 11 boxes on. On the left hand side, you get the Karis test, the first test there. That looks at a whole range of genomics in solid tumor samples. The one underneath it, is the Assure, is the liquid biopsy test, which I think is the best in the world, for taking a blood sample and looking right across the spectrum of, you know, tumor DNA, genomics that spread through the bloodstream creating metastases and secondary cancers. At the bottom there, you got the ventilator pneumonia test, the one I've mentioned that's being utilized in ADEMBROUP's at the moment, saving some lives there. Above that, you've got the BC ninety five.

8:39 I think this... That little kit there with those three tests there, this this takes fecal samples where we will obviously look at fecal occult blood, and we'll also look at this particular specific DNA marker. And we also have a third element in the kit, which is the hereditary genetic mutations, which are important as well in looking at bowel cancer patients. All three things that are obtainable as part of the BC95 bowel cancer service. And I think that's an exceptional, test, which is now available and is being utilized, people as I speak. The chemo sensitivity test, that's predominantly for five FU, fluorouracil, which is a very important component, a very big component, of chemotherapy.

9:29 And unfortunately, this component can seriously harm certain individuals and even kill them. And in other individuals, it doesn't harm them at all. It benefits them. So the sensitivity to five FU is quite important in chemotherapy patients, we're able to very accurately assess that. The cure response test down below, is probably one of the most advanced, what you call almost a theragognostic test, because it takes tissue, it's able to look at the actual living cancer cells and challenge them with a number of drugs and immunotherapies, and look at the immunotherapy drug that's actually killing the cancer in your particular tumour, in your particular body at the time.

10:14 That's a really new futuristic test, but it's finished. It's there. It's regulated, and it's for sale and available to clinicians today. And that's going to be taken up a lot more, I think, in The UK. At the top there, you see the pan cancer hereditary gene panel measures, all of the the key, mutational, hereditary genes across a whole range of cancers, one of the best available. We we are selling quite a bit of that now. The ovarian cancer test, as shown in the yellow box, that's in development. I'd expect that to be available in 2027, early in 2027. Very excited about that one for ladies. The testicular cancer test I've mentioned that is available now. The prostate cancer super test, which is something I'm particularly very keen on, that's been developed now in conjunction with our Scottish prostate cancer initiative with the twenty five thousand men underway in Scotland. So back in our laboratories, we're looking at a number of tests and test reagents all linked to our prostate cancer super test. And then last is the sepsis blood multi biomarker test, which is again in development, should come out at some stage next year.

11:29 So that's a quick snapshot of 10, 11 of our tests, which are finished and available, and those about to come through, in 2027. All of these tests you see here will be for sale in 2027. And some may only sell for the odd million, and some may well sell for tens of millions in just The UK before we take them into the rest of UK... Europe and then The US. So quite excited that we've, got where we have by now. I want to switch slightly from going direct to, individual patients at home or individual patients in hospitals to individual employees in large groups inside employers, inside corporates. And it's a very interesting area. You know, The UK last year lost, you know, 148,000,000 working days through sickness and absenteeism, etcetera.

12:24 That cost a 130,000,000,000 of loss to The UK economy, which is massive. I mean, a 130,000 million. And I think it's been described in newspapers. Sir Charlie Mayfield wrote a very, very good review earlier this year asking for a far wider introduction of health checks to tackle, you know, the the the health level of employees in in these companies and try and decrease this productivity loss and decrease this absenteeism. And I think it's a really important area. Anyway, we've set about looking at this. We developed three panels of biomarkers. These are... I think they're the best and most extensive triplet of biomarkers available for employees anywhere at this point in time. These are done very, very cost effectively.

13:22 This roughly between 150 and, you know, £300. These prices will vary over time. We will be changing the biomarkers over time, but we're covering between a hundred and two hundred and seventy seven different illnesses and diseases with a single blood draw from a single employee. And what we do, we go into the company. We gather up two or three or 400 employees. We can do up to 600,700 employees in one day inside the employer's facilities, so we don't need to drag them out of the facilities. Our nurses go in with our gear, with our equipment. We rarely distract the employee for more than about ten minutes, to take the blood, take the sample, do the physical checks and the questionnaire, and then we've got everything we need to be able to look at the 100,200, or 300 diseases and conditions with that employee.

14:18 So they're back at work within ten minutes, and I think it's an excellent thing to be doing. We have already won and announced our first contract. We have two or three others underway, which we'll announce in due course. And the first one was announced with Arnold Clark Group with eight and a half thousand employees. And the testing is underway as I am delivering this little talk to you guys now. There are several 100 of those employees being tested right now today with our various panels. So there are numerous talks going on with other large employers. We're now being contacted as well by a number of large employers asking us to come in and give them a quote and get on with the job of looking after their employees.

15:10 And what this does, I mean, the benefits here is that it it it also breeds great loyalty from the employees because they see that their bosses are looking after them. And that's not lost on their wives and their families as well that, you know, you're looking after the men, same as looking after the moms who... In in the workplace as well, looking at particular, you know, female diseases as well as male diseases. And I I think this whole thing just makes sense as long as it's cost effective for the company. And the company, of course, can save many multiples more in profits than it costs them to actually test and decrease the absenteeism from their workplace. So I think this is now... It's gonna grow and grow, and we're very excited about what we're doing here.

15:58 Just switching to our Scottish prostate cancer initiative, which we announced earlier in the year, to tackle twenty five thousand men. Must be honest, a lot of people said to me, right at the outset in February, that was incredibly ambitious. So, Chris, you know, twenty five thousand men is a lot of men to get through in in, say, eighteen months getting around Scotland, where testing particularly for, you know, prostate health, you know, has not has not been done on this scale, ever before. And and I think we've surprised a lot of people. I mean, in the first sort of eleven or twelve weeks, we had actually pored through 12 and a half thousand men turned up all of our various centers, which had been set up all over Scotland, and again by some of the great employers in Scotland, you know, Arnold Clark and the McGill's group, the Malcolm Group, for example, in Glasgow.

16:56 The the... These companies have been fantastic in bringing forward large groups of their men, employees, and flooding out the centers. We were able to move swiftly, you know, and we have carried the work out, diligently. We've uncovered hundreds and hundreds of these men with prostate cancer, some early stage, and completely treatable and curable and, unfortunately, some late stage and all of them with no symptoms. And that's that's pretty serious. All of these men thought they're all fine, and they're not. But hopefully, all of them will now live. They will all be saved, and they'll all go on to have longer lives with their their their families, and be obviously very productive employees in the workplace. So, you know, thank you, the employers up there in Scotland, for making the men available. And, but what a great take up.

17:55 We've nearly finished the 25,000 men. It'll be done before Christmas. We're processing all of the data. There are a number of findings and observations we've made, which are absolutely, fascinating, And we will report in due course to the Scottish government, Scottish NHS, and to others, what we've found up there. And and, of course, we we are developing and experimenting with a number of our own unique, prostate cancer testing reagents back in our Cambridge laboratories and elsewhere from this initiative. So very exciting and so far has been an extremely successful initiative as well. So just summarizing what this company is really about, world class diagnostic tests. We've got strong partnerships in place.

18:45 We've been entrusted as a brand now delivering to to to areas like the NHS as well as to private hospitals and elsewhere. We're operating in a big marketplace here, so it was well in excess of $90,000,000,000, a year. We know exactly what we do in developing these what we call unique, ultra accurate testing diagnostic products. I've done all this before, so many members of my team. So we know what we're doing. We'll generate a lot of data. We are generating a lot of very, you know, personalized digital data, and that's all funneled through algorithms. There'd be quite a bit of AI involved, in... Has all this data. For example, the Scottish Prostate Cancer Initiative I just mentioned, that that will generate hundreds and hundreds of thousands of different, strands of data and scenarios, which all have to be processed in different courts and cut. And so using our AI and algorithm work, is is very important there.

19:46 I myself have built quite a number of start up companies, which have gone places and and have sold for billions or billion or hundreds of millions. And, you know, the aim... The end of the day is to develop these products, make sure they sell, make sure they work, decent margins so everyone can make money, and we can save lives and do good. We are in a quite a strong position in EDX, actually, in The UK where the European IVDR, which is the latest and very complex initiative for getting products regulated like these testing products in Europe, it's frankly seen as quite a pain, particularly for Americans. It is for Asians, for the Chinese as well, and Japanese, but for the Americans who've got a very, very big market of their own, they just see the European IVDR as a real challenge for them to break through.

20:40 We can help a lot of these American companies with their unique diagnostic tests by bringing them through The UK first and into Europe through the IVDR processes, which we thoroughly understand. So that's an area that's that's in... Of interest to you. Very experienced team right through my laboratories right up to the board. And I I think we will represent in due course, you know, a high growth and a high ROI company for investment. Obviously, like, with all biotech companies, there has to be a level of patience and trust. But I think we've got all of the elements in place now over the last three years. These next three years are gonna be particularly exciting. That's roughly it, guys, on EDX. Happen... Yeah. I'll happily take some questions and, and take it from there. That's great, Chris.

21:35 Thank you very much indeed for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the top right corner of your screen. While the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I would like to remind you that recording of this presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q and A, can be accessed via our investor dashboard. Graham, at this point, if I may just hand over to you to chair the Q and A, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you. Thank you very much. Some of the questions that have come through. Chris, why did Arnold Clark choose EDX MEDICAL ahead of others? Interesting. Yeah. They they had already been working with others in the past. But when they saw the the various levels of panels, we've got the sheer number of biomarkers in those panels, the sheer number of illnesses and conditions that these panels cover.

22:23 I think the the slickness of of the test itself in that we'd only distract the employee for so many minutes and get the data back to them, etcetera, etcetera. I think... And then the price, which is very important. Our pricing is probably more competitive than has been seen before. And it also helps that we'd already screened quite a many, many hundreds of their men and uncovered prostate cancer in a number of the male employees already in Ireland Clark through our speedy prostate work there. So I think there were quite a lot of reasons. And I'd like to think we are the best in The UK right now for delivering employee testing, and I think Anna Clark spotted that pretty quick.

23:12 The next question that's come through is how many other employers are you in talks with? And when when might we hear about the next deal? Yeah. I'm not gonna give the exact number. I'm not gonna give, you know... By the way, if I decide not to give an exact answer because it's commercially sensitive, I'm just not gonna reveal everything. I hope my shareholders will thank me for that. But we are in talks with several right now, some of which we've approached and some which have approached us. And I would be disappointed if we didn't announce another one or two before Christmas, and we'd certainly be announcing several more as we get into 2027. Next question is, can you scale up nurses and lab capacity if several big employers sign at once?

23:59 Yes. No quest... No question at all. One of the advantages, I suppose, of a a bit of an old dog like me who's been around for four decades. I mean, I've built over 200 of my own laboratories around the world. I have connections with hundreds of laboratories in The UK, and elsewhere, Europe and The US. So not only using EDX's own laboratories, we can run many others in tandem. So we literally can run millions of test samples per annum. And then secondly, we've already proven in... Up in Scotland the speed at which we were able to deploy hundreds of nurses to pile through 25,000 men, in multiple different areas right across Scotland. We have no issues at all. We have very large networks of nurses, and we have a very good grip of logistics in terms of speed of logistics of moving samples around The UK between patients and laboratories, etcetera. So, no problem with the scale up in the next two or three years.

25:03 Excellent. When will the prostate cancer super test and the sepsis test launch? They'll be next year for another short answer next year. 2027. Another question is what has the Thermo Fisher partnership delivered so far? Well, it's quite a bit. The pneumonia ICU product that's underway in Cambridge, which we developed with the Adam Brooks NHS Trust there, which has been used and has been used on patients and is being used right now and hopefully will be used across other NHS Trusts throughout 2027. That initially came from the partnership with Thermo Fisher using Thermo Fisher's knowledge and skills and equipment that was brought to us. The chemo sensitivity five FU test, again, linked to Thermo Fisher.

25:52 We have we are looking at, certain breast cancer and ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer tests in development, which again have come through Thermo Fisher, the testicular cancer test, which is already out there and available, came via Thermo Fisher as well. And so they're good examples of real things that are really as we speak. There's some other ones which are sensitive. I'm not gonna reveal now. And, hopefully, that partnership will continue indefinitely. Super. What does being a gatekeeper for European IVDR mean for EDX? I mentioned that a bit earlier. I mean, it's really... We can do our own IVDR on our own tests, which we will be doing over the next two or three years.

26:37 It's... It is a long, laborious process. It can be quite costly, quite complex, quite clumsy. And as I mentioned earlier on, it can be quite antagonistic to a number of American firms in particular who who struggle with it. So we really could be a very attractive gatekeeper to a lot of these American companies. We're already working with a number of American products, as I mentioned earlier, which we've taken through on an exclusive basis, in... Into The UK patients, into UK hospitals. And so we'd like to do the same across Europe as well, and help particularly Americans. We'll also will help Chinese, and other Asian companies, navigate IVDR in Europe. Super warm question is how much of... So Chris' time goes to EDX given his other business interests? Oh, god. Ask my wife. All of it.

27:31 All of it. I literally... I mean, I work seven days a week. I think I've worked seven days a week for forty years. It's all... I mean, I do lots of other things in my life, I'm sure, but I I I enjoy working, all of the time. I only have two interests. I have another company which is in cancer, ellipsis, which is clinical trial and drugs, and I have EDX MEDICAL. Historically, I've I've always had seven or eight or nine things on the go, but not anymore. I have these two. And they also partner with each other and they talk to each other and they do things together with each other. You know, ellipsis is private and like EDX MEDICAL is public. And, you know, ellipsis has got over 300 world leading oncologists in it and some very, very smart people. There's a lot of knowledge and energy that comes back to EDX from ellipsis as well. So, we work closely together, and that's it. So I've got all the time I need to have or anybody needs an EDX. They can get me at any time.

28:33 With so many products, how do you how do you decide where to focus? Well, we'd always focus. We're always reprioritizing, and I'm very good at doing that as well, reprioritizing the products as we come through. And and it's, you know, it's 10 or 11 products I took you through earlier, and they were all projects in the early days, and we prioritized them. And we... We've got the first five, six, seven through, and the rest will be through in the next five or six months. So I'm quite I'm quite confident we'll continue to prioritize well. And the final question here is, what should investors expect over the next twelve months? Well, the next twelve months, I think, starting literally this month are the most exciting. I think you're gonna see revenues appearing from product sales and services, at a significant rate over the next twelve months.

29:33 All of the products I mentioned earlier will all be available in the market. Dare I say it, there are three or four others coming through our system, which I have not talked about today. They'll also be on the market during 2027 and will be generating revenue. So I'd be very disappointed if we didn't have between ten and fifteen products generating different revenue streams at different levels throughout 2027. And just one more question that has just come through on the panel is what proportion of EDX's long term growth do you expect to come from scaling in The UK versus licensing and distribution partnerships internationally? Yeah. It's a good question. The... It depends on what we mean by long term growth. I mean, in the next two years, it's gonna be predominantly UK.

30:27 The UK market is big enough for us to generate tens and tens of millions, which I think will be of significant, you know, importance to to UK investors because we have to navigate like everyone else in the world has to navigate. As I mentioned earlier, the long six to nine month IVDR complex processes and costs. We're not in the business of starting 10 or 15 IVDR processes running at £400,000 time all in parallel. There's a there's a way of prioritizing that and sequentially as well. But over time, over ten years, then the bulk of our revenues will come from Europe, not obviously not The UK, because there are certain countries in Europe that are gonna need us pretty badly.

31:19 But don't forget The US Of A. We have tests which are better than anything in America. And so during 2027 and '28, we were beginning to take through, obviously, through distribution partnerships, and clear laboratories in America. And, of course, you know, it's it's competitive in America, but they're also very, very good customers when they see something they like. So will be very exciting. So Britain first, Europe, and America. Excellent. Well, that is it, and that is it for the questions. That's great. Thank you very much. That's it for me. Chris, if I may just ask you for some closing comments to wrap up. Thank you. Well, I hope that was useful.

32:06 Not too fast, not too quick. I kept it as simple as I could. Happy for any investors to contact me directly. You know, come to my colleagues or come to me via email, easily findable. And we'll happily meet individual investors as and when I can. Always here to help and, you know, watch the space. I think there's a lot more excitement about it come from this little company, EDX. Not just saying that because of this presentation, because it's factually true, and it's gonna start happening pretty soon now. And I think even next month, you're gonna see what I meant by that. Thank you very much. Fantastic, Chris. Well, look. Thank you once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you now will be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which will help the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the management team, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.