Fusion Antibodies (LSE:FAB) — Investor update

0:01 Good morning, and welcome to the FUSION ANTIBODIES PLC investor update. Throughout this recorded update, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time by the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives in the meeting itself. However, the company can review all the questions submitted today and publish a response to where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Adrian King Kate, CEO. Good morning to you, sir.

0:29 Thank you very much, Alessandro. Welcome everybody to the IMC meeting investor presentation on fusion antibodies. This is just a trading update. So we are going through the process at the moment of auditing the accounts. Obviously, we can't give anything ahead of that any detail ahead of that. But there are some significant developments in the the the business and the trading conditions in particular that I just wanted to highlight and give some updates as well on our technologies and moving things forward. So, I'm also aware that there are a number of, new investors who may be joining us for the first time, and it's quite easy to forget, that not everybody has seen all of the detail and knows FUSION as well as some of the others. So if you're old hands at this, then please bear bear with us whilst we update the the new members of the community.

1:35 So what is it that FUSION ANTIBODIES does? We we specialize in antibodies. Antibodies have a very wide range of applications, most notably for therapeutic antibodies in actually treating disease. That can be in both people as well as, increasingly commonly now in, companion animals for veterinary medicine as well. And, of course, we also know that the antibodies are, integral for immunodiagnostics, those red lines that we were all developing with or many of us were developing with the COVID pandemic. It's based on antibodies. So diagnostics as well as therapeutics are the key particularly the key areas.

2:21 In the process of developing an antibody in order to meet those needs, it's one of the most complicated, things that mankind's really set out to do to harness biology and and effectively antibodies are a natural, part of, biology in order to, modulate the disease or in the case of diagnostics to identify the biomarkers that indicate those. So what we're we're really working at is the forefront of one of the most complex and challenging fields that mankind's undertaken. It's our partners, our clients who are leading that, and we are there to provide the antibody support. So we work as a collaborative or a contract research organization helping them through that.

3:07 The process that we cover, can be divided really into three parts. So first of all, if you want an antibody, you've gotta find it. You've gotta find your starting point, and there are a number of different technologies that we can use and starting points to to discover those antibodies in the first place, and I'll go through some of those in a little bit of detail later on in the presentation. Once we have a starting point and the first antibody or group of antibodies that come out from that, we assess them, and we look for ways in which we can make those the best antibodies that they can be. Some of our clients have actually already got an antibody starting point, and they want to come to us specifically to have them improved. So we can do that for them. It doesn't have to be end to end service that we offer. People can come to us for very specific needs and very targeted projects. But that improvement of the antibody is processed that we call engineering.

4:02 It goes into the actual sequences, the protein sequences, and the genetic compositions of those antibodies, and it goes to modify them in ways that make them work better. It also means that we can make them easier to manufacture, reduce cost of goods, and really bring attention to the economic requirements that any product is going to have to have without losing sight of the challenging life sciences applications needs of them. We also then go to the actual physical supply of those antibodies so we can actually manufacture them. We do this for preclinical applications. So the antibodies that we make can be tested tested in vitro, in in glass, in various different physical applications.

4:56 And importantly, this is a a step that really brings the theoretical sequence manipulations into the real world for actual testing. They can those samples that we can supply or do supply, our clients may take them through various testing in their laboratory. They may use them in animals, but they are not supplied for use in mankind. So the kind of people that we work with vary very very widely because of the applications of antibodies being so vast. We work with drug discoveries. We work with small biotech companies quite often working on novel targets. We work with virtual companies who don't have their own labs and, obviously, some of the the ones leading the way in terms of AIML generated sequences don't have labs. That would be one of the ways where we could work with them.

5:52 We've been increasingly working with veterinary medicine applications as those companion animal requirements are becoming more in higher focus for for organizations and becoming more valuable, but also diagnostics companies, as I've mentioned, in terms of detecting disease in the in the first place. Even the large pharmaceutical companies, come to us for additional support, helping them out with particularly challenging problems, And, we're hoping, to see more of that coming to us, particularly for our novel technologies as we increase those as well. Research institutions, people working maybe in not for profit and academic centers really at the cutting edge of basic science, fundamental science are also, some of our our customers.

6:46 So what we actually do for them, is accelerate that process. We have all of the expertise that's required from even before the antibody is created or found, we're looking at how can we present the antigen that that antibody would bind to in order to pull it out from different libraries or panels or or create it. We have an excellent team of of scientists. We've got an incredibly extensive knowledge and expertise with with antibodies, worked over 270 different projects with antibodies. We offer all of that combined as an integrated process from beginning to end. So the ITAS scheme service that we've presented on before is still very much there where we capture people working at the the target nomination and those first initial stages of discovery of antibodies, take them through and get them all the way to the the preclinical and indeed the stable cell line that they would need to take on to manufacturing.

7:49 We are organized in a very efficient and integrated way so that we can move that forward as quickly as possible and very efficiently tapping into all of the expertise and knowledge spaces that we have to make sure that the project is really successful and delivered to time and to cost for which we have a very strong reputation of forecasting, which, of course, is really important to our clients. Comprehensive range and portfolio of the of services, including some of AIML approaches where we may work with a third party to support the the client's needs. So I'll just let Steve pick up on some of the financial requirements.

8:39 Yeah. Thanks, Adrian. So I think just before I begin, I would say, contextually, fiscal twenty twenty four was a challenging year for FUSION ANTIBODIES and the primary focus being on the restructuring of the company and positioning it for growth going forward. We have reached the end of the year with results broadly in line with analyst expectations. And we also believe we have been successful in turning the corner on overall business performance with the company I hopefully position to grow over the coming twelve months and beyond. For the full year trading update, again, these are unaudited numbers. Unaudited revenue for fiscal 'twenty four was $1,140,000 That's down 60.8% over the same twelve months in the prior year.

9:35 The highlight is the increased activity in the second half of fiscal twenty twenty four, particularly quarter four, which was up 47% on quarter one. And the highlights in the period included the entry into a collaboration agreement with the National Cancer Institute for the use of OPTIMAL, a first purchase order received under a master services agreement with a leading diagnostics company and a follow on project received with The US or received from a US based biotechnology client. As you would be aware, we had a fundraise, which was announced in February 2024, which raised gross 1,137,000 for working capital and investment into commercial activities.

10:28 Also positively, we've had a significant increase in the sales pipeline opportunities during the second half of fiscal twenty twenty four with an order book standing at the 03/31/2024 of $750,000 which on order book going into the fiscal twenty twenty five year that is already representing 65% of last year's unaudited revenues. The cash position at the end of the year was $1,200,000 which we believe gives the company the cash runway to execute and deliver on its growth plans for fiscal twenty five, and beyond. So that, Adrian, would sort of conclude the, the trading update.

11:18 Yeah. It's not been a a very pleasant journey. The last year has been one to survive. It's been all about survival, but we have survived. I believe we have turned that corner. We are now seeing conditions improve, and we're also seeing the benefits of what we've done during that period in particularly addressing additional markets, reducing our reliance particularly on the VC funded sector, which was really hardest hit. There was a very significant reduction into of investment into VC funded areas of biotechnology, globally speaking. So as tougher time as we've had, it's probably fair to say that many of our clients have had a worse time.

12:05 But even there, we've seen clients that we've been working with some time who have done fundraises and have been successfully completing those fundraises, so that's great. We've seen others turn more to grant income and be successful in securing grant income to take them take them forward, and it's always good to to work with those people there. But we have added further markets to our preexisting sort of market base. So a lot of the recovery and the prospects that we now have within the business are through some refocusing of our commercial activities and really moving that forward. So the last fundraise was really about giving us the capital in order to execute on that and to convert some of those early indications of good positive growth in our client base, convert those into into deals. And as you can see from the penultimate bullet point here that sign Steven's just taken you through, we have been doing that. So there there was at the end of March three quarters of a million of orders in the book, which was a great place to be starting the very significant improvement indeed on on last year. So prospects are really looking positive.

13:30 So what we've been really looking at in those additional markets and really adding to the core that we've we've been attending to thus far is really doing more with diagnostics. And we mentioned in the previous slide that MSA, for example, is one of the deals that we've done with diagnostics company. There have been many more, and we've seen a significant expansion in terms of our portfolio of work that is now related to diagnostics, which is great. Therapeutic applications, the the business really made its name originally by being extremely successful in humanizing antibodies. So the antibodies would be discovered in other species and then the sequences convert to make them compatible with human patients.

14:22 The same can be said or the same approaches can be used, but with a different endpoint in mind. So if you're going to use those antibodies for dogs or cats, then you need to make them dog like or caninize them or cat like, felineize them. And we can use the same processes using the same experience that we had in our humanizing where we were and still are world leaders to apply those in veterinary medicine applications as well. As we're getting, more and more applications, antibodies, of course, being used by in fundamental science all the time, and it's a very significant market even for research antibodies. So it's sometimes considered the the poorer cousin in terms of the value of an antibody, but they still sell in quite considerable quantities and quite considerable amounts for considerable amounts of values.

15:20 So research antibodies is also something that we're looking at to move that forward. So we've addressed all of those. We've made good headway in there. We're continuing to pursue those. We now have the capital, thanks to the fundraise, where we can start attending conferences and being known in those sectors as well where previously we didn't have the the resources to do that. So we're looking forward to very much continuing that momentum, that growth in those areas. It's also fair to be said that the traction in the existing marketplaces, those VC funded, in particular, biotechs, is recovering, and that's a a really good sign. The most important thing here is that we're getting additional markets so we can grow the business and move into new spaces as well.

16:14 Some of the things that we have delivered in the last, year has been the launch of AIM lab, the AIML, generated, antibody sequences, and we've seen projects coming through for that, which is very encouraging. It also point acts as a a point of interest and differentiator where we just start getting engaged with people and discussing about their their antibody needs. And even if things don't come directly or it's maybe considered to be a little bit early for for trying such a new approach as AIML, then there's other things that we're talking about that slot into the more traditional offerings that we have as well. I was particularly thrilled, really, to have also landed in April of this year.

17:03 So a new contract, but we were working on it for some time to bring forward Optiphage. So we've heard a bit about Optimal, and I'll explain that in a bit more detail for those people who need to learn to know more about it, want to learn more about it. Optiphage is the same principles behind the design of the library, but presented in a phage display format. So it's only fragments of antibodies, but it's very much a fairly industry standard way of presenting it. So, again, optophage gives us an opportunity to engage with people who maybe are happy to do the screening themselves but want to tap in to our technology in terms of the Opti design of of that format.

17:53 And I was really encouraged and very much surprised, really, that that people have come forward and and really want to engage us in that and take us use our technology in that way. And it's particularly encouraging because the business model that we can use for that is to design them a library. They go that way and use their labs and their lab resources, and we still have to reach through, and we can provide more and more libraries to different people. I'll come to some of that when I talk a bit more about the Optimal and Opti design of libraries. So we have a comprehensive suite of offerings, and we combine them, as we've previously said, as integrated therapeutic antibody service, ITAS, which goes from beginning to end.

18:42 With the added focus or complementary focus on diagnostics as well, it's worth pointing out at this point that, we can do exactly the same for diagnostics. So we've got different integrated platforms from beginning to end, whether it's a therapeutic application in humans or in, veterinary medicine or indeed if it's an application of that antibody within diagnostics. So we haven't had to really create anything new in order to do that. We're leveraging existing technologies and applying them to this additional market sector. One of the key things that differentiates us and allows us to get those customers at that top of that process in that discovery area is really the discovery engines that we use.

19:34 And these engines are how you find the antibody sequences, how you find them in the first place. And rather than one size fits all, if we can offer, which we now do, a wide range of applications or methods for the discovery of antibodies, we can tailor the projects to give best prospects for success to our clients, and that's really what they're interested in. So, we have AIMLAB. We have OPTIMAL. We have Optiphage, which we are progressing with at this stage. So AIMLAB, was launched in in August 23. We had our first contract from it, really straight away, and we've been pleased to get continuing traction in the section.

20:21 So it uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to design novel antibodies from sequences. So it doesn't actually need a physical sample. What we what we do is partner with people who have these algorithms, these in silico algorithms, and what FUSION provides is the wet lab expertise to actually bring those virtual sequences into the real world for actual testing and making them real. So a lot of the in silico experts, the AIML companies and small groups, particularly spinouts, don't have that wet lab expertise. And if they, if they wanted to make it, real and really have it happen, they wanna work with expert companies such as FUSION in order to make sure that, no mistakes are made and it's as accurate and taps into the experience that we have. So it's highly complementary in terms of the those approaches.

21:22 We also have the expertise to improve on those antibody sequences. We don't expect the AIML to necessarily have have it right first time. Sure. In fact, they they almost certainly won't. It's just another way of discovering the initial starting point. It's very valuable, but then there's still that engineering that's required to make those antibodies the best they can possibly be. And that taps into preexisting, starting points for us, and everybody enjoys the success that comes from that. AIML is, looks very attractive for a lot of clients. There it's it's new, bright, shiny technology that they may want to develop a position on, and it can offer a faster and more cost effective route to that antibody generation process.

22:16 So in terms of the economic conditions, it's actually a very attractive sort of prospect for some of the clients that are out there. They're looking many of them are looking to explore the possibilities. They're wanting to dabble. They're wanting to give some things a try, but it's not clear yet which algorithms and which platforms are the best ones to go for. And that's where FUSION can offer access to multiple platforms, multiple partners that we might work with and can really offer some guidance through that using our expertise in terms of antibody experts to really position us as the people to to go to. So we're looking forward to continuing traction, as I say, with with AIM lab, generation of novel sequences of antibodies feeding into to our platform.

23:05 Optimal is our flagship. So as Steven highlighted and reminded people, we have an agreement with the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health in The US funded to around $67,000,000,000 per year. Absolutely brilliant, people to work with, real experts in in the field dealing with cancer. And we were in discussion with them because one of their team leaders is lab heads is an expert in mammalian display, which is one of the components of Optimal. So Optimal itself is a combination of two technologies. There's the Opti library in terms of the design, which closely matches the natural human immunome.

23:58 So the way that we ourselves produce antibodies. And the way that works is extremely diverse. And so by copying that, replicating that in a very logical way, we can create an Opti repertoire, an Opti library of a theoretical size of about 10 to the 45, which is mind blowingly large number, a one with 45 zeros on the end. And from that, we sample libraries of about 10 to the eight or 10 to the 9,000,000,000 different sequences which are constructed. Those put into cells so that an individual cell will express one particular sequence of antibody and will put it onto its cell surface.

24:49 But because we're sampling 10 to the eight or 10 to the nine from something as large as 10 to the 45, no two libraries that we make are going to be alike. There's no meaningful overlap in sequences, which means that we can do this again and again and again and have different results for different clients each time, which means that we are not restricted really in any meaningful way about the number of times that we can do license deals for this platform with big pharma, small biotechs, large biotechs, diagnostic companies, etcetera. So the scope for Optimal is absolutely huge, and it's an extremely valuable and extremely good technology that can be can be applied.

25:40 Now the principles behind that design of the OptiLibrary can also be used for the different species. So I've spoken already about increasing veterinary medicine applications. So we can do this for dogs and cats where those are economically very attractive options. We can also do it for rabbits, mice, goats, sheep, which feed in very much into the diagnostics space as well. So it's something that can be applied for that. The important thing with Optimal, though, is that it's, like I say, a combination of that library design with mammalian display. A mammalian display critically presents a fully intact antibody on the surface of a mammalian cell. And the reason that's important is because cell selection, in other words, fishing for that individual antibody, is based on the interaction with that actual antibody.

26:38 It also filters out less well expressed antibody sequences, so you've got a a manufacturability process early on in the detection system early on in the project. So it's really very attractive to particularly therapeutic applications. Now optiphage being the third of the discovery engines that we're talking about now have available for people uses that same Opti design of of the sequences. But it's packaged into the more industry standard, more commonly run phage display format, which means a compromise. It uses fragments from full size antibodies. Now phage is widely used in the industry, and many prospective clients are actually looking for phage display when they set about to find So by us offering phage display, we're coming much higher up on their search engines and coming across us a lot more. So it has a very valuable impact in that way too.

27:44 Prospective clients may already be using phage. They may have their labs already set up for it. They just want another library, and the OptiDesign is going to be something that, well, already has been something that they find extremely attractive. So it's great to get that in. Phage display is is more commonly used. It's a much lower price point than the OptiML, so we're covering a much wider range of client types and their affordabilities and the values that they price on this. So it's excellent set up for that. There is no need to use animals in the actual panning process. These are synthetic manufactured approaches as well, which also fits with a lot of the objectives of many of our our partners to reduce the use of animals in their processes. So, again, it positions FUSION to be a very good partner for them to use and fulfill their longer term objectives.

28:44 And, again, because it's based on the Opti design, no two libraries are the same. We can license these out again and again and again even for the same species to many different partners, unlimited really in terms of that because there's no overlap between the individual Opti, in this case, OptiPhage libraries that we might produce. So the first one of those is out and hopefully will herald a beginning for a a really key growth factor for the business. What I wanted to also move on to so we've got these these great prospects and great technologies, but are we getting traction from the commercial activities that we have? We had a very serious look at how we position ourselves and how we do that commercial activities.

29:41 And I believe we're in a much better position, and we're getting much better traction from clients in the way that we are now addressing the marketplace. We've had a horrible time for the whole marketplace, so it was a good time to to refresh and rebuild, and have a look at how things were going. And what we saw in the second half of last year in particular, which is what the graph on the right hand side covers, was, by positioning it in this way, we're getting much more effective, and efficient, generation of leads, particularly from going to particular conferences, which we we believe we could attend. Four of them there highlighted on the right hand side. So we've seen that we know that we can tap into this, and we can generate those leads.

30:29 Significant increase in in lead identification shown in the graph is now converting into purchase orders being received. So q four, as Simon's as Steven said sorry, Steven. That's twice I've called you, Simon. In q four, we showed a 47% increase over q one. We have £750,000 worth of orders in the book at the start of this financial year, which is much in a significant improvement, and we're looking to do more of the same. We're looking to do more of what we've shown to work as we build forward through this this yeah. So I'll move on and make some say some thank yous using the Northern Ireland colloquialism for for plural reviews to our staff in particular for their dedication, resilience, and determination, and particularly that attention to detail, which is so important in the success of scientific research projects, which is what we do.

31:31 Thanks very much to our returning clients for their continuing support. We've met announced very significant deals, which we're going to be working on or are working on already in this financial year. It's really important to get that recurring business and continuing to place their projects with us. To our new clients, in particular, and those established, both the established and the new sectors that we've been targeting, it's great to see those coming through. We've announced master service agreements, for example, with the large diagnostics company, and it's great that we've got multiple projects now under that master service agreement that we're active on and moving forward. Of course, in order to do this like any other business, we've needed support. We needed support from brokers.

32:20 We now have two. There's both Allenby and Shard. So that's I'd like to say thank you to them for their support and belief, but most especially to our investors for the trust, faith, and patience that they've given us and recognizing the potential that is within FUSION. We have a huge amount of potential providing the funds to enable us to drive that business forward despite those really harsh economic headwinds and positioning us in place really to realize that potential, which is the objective the key objective of the business now. Finally, I'll just close out with some feedback from one of our clients, which really describes, in my view, what it is that fusion antibodies do.

33:06 So one of the human antibodies humanized antibodies that we worked on and optimized, took through that engineering process for the client, had been taken to GMP production so that they would then put it's not antibody into people. And they chose to use a highly experienced CMO to do that, contract manufacturing organization CMO. I'm told it's one of the top three in the world, so they've seen an awful lot of antibodies. And as our client says, according to their this CMO, the antibody, which FUSION designed, is the poster child for the best producing and most well behaved antibody they have seen to date, and it serves as a benchmark to match or exceed for their future projects.

33:56 So very happy client there, very happy CEO here. In those terms, if you want to have a fabulous antibody, you want the best in antibody in the world. Basically, that's what we've made for for our clients and what we can do again and again and again. So if you want to be making FAB antibodies, come to FUSION ANTIBODIES. FAB is the ticker tape. And I'll close the the presentation on that point. Thank you very much. Perfect. Adrian and Steven, thank you very much for your presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab, which is situated in the top right hand right hand corner of your screen. Just want the company to take a few moments to review those questions that have been submitted today. I'd 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 your investor dashboard.

34:50 As you can see, we have received a number of questions both pre submitted and throughout today's presentation. And Adrian, if I could just hand over to you just read out those questions, that'd be great, and then I'll pick up from you at the end. Okay. So I'll try and keep up to speed and try and look at read some of the ones that have been submitted whilst we've been online. So first one coming up, these are just in the order that we've received them, really. How is the optimal validation going with NCI? When can the market expect an update on progress? And can you remind us of the diff what differentiates our technologies from competitors?

35:25 Well, the project is underway as we reported, and we will update in in due course. NCI are using the Optimel platform for live projects. They're real projects. It's not a a kick the tires and look see type thing. And they are challenging projects as is the case with what we're doing. As I said earlier, it's the most challenging thing that mankind's ever attempted to do, really harnessing biology to tackle disease. So it will take time. Under the terms of the agreement, NCI are applying their resource to drive these projects through, so it's really with them as to the timeline. Coming to the USP, though, in terms of Optimal versus the closest competitors, I'm not going to name them, but there was one named in the question. I'm just not going to give them publicity.

36:19 It's really the difference there. That competitor, the closest competitors really that we got, some of them have mammalian display, the ability to put a fully intact antibody onto the surface of the cell, but they do not have the Opti library combined with that. So they can got that vast 10 to the 45 set of sequences from which to draw 10 to the eight, ten to the nine in a screening campaign. The closest they can get is well, it's it's very much less than that. So we have a a genuine USP, which is a combination of technologies to really drive that forward. So far as I am aware, no one else has anything quite like Optimal.

37:07 Next question was, what's the breakdown of Vetmed Diagnostics, Biotech, etcetera, in the sales pipeline or order book? Can you demonstrate diversification and less exposure to VC funded biotechs? Can you also update on the live quotes? Is this greater than the 3,000,000 that we discussed at placing? So the breakdown between the sectors is in constant flux, so I won't provide a precise breakdown. But the diagnostic sector in particular has increased. We've obviously got a very significant client that we've announced, and we're doing multiple projects there, but we also have multiple diagnostics clients that we are working with. So we have noted that, and it's it's working well.

38:00 Several clients in terms of the VC ones, as I mentioned at the start of the of the presentation of secured grant funding as well to reduce their reliance on VC. So even the same clients that may have been VC funded or may continue to be VC funded have got all those other sources of income, is adding to the wins that we have. Additionally, we're also aware of several successful funding rounds which have worked through, which is also a positive indication that the hiatus in terms of funding has reduced somewhat. So I think all combined, the prospects for the business look extremely good. I'm not going to go into the breakdown. Specifically, in terms of the life quotes, is it greater than the 3,000,000?

38:46 I'd be a little upset if if it just continued to rise because I'd be looking to convert a lot of those leads into deals. So what I will say is that it's there or thereabouts, and we seem to be moving deals through very successfully now. So I'm looking forward to particularly the output of those live quotes rather than necessarily the number. Next question was, has the company progressed the outlicensing of the antibodies announced on 03/21/2023? I think I know which ones those are. This project is progressing, and we will provide updates as and when appropriate on on that and any other of the significant updates, but assets that we would be developing.

39:41 But at the moment, there's nothing more to report, I don't believe, at this stage. Does the company have plans to update its website for customers and investors? Yes. We do. We had to make some painful cuts in order to survive. Last year was very much about survival. We have survived. It's meant that we've had to go without some of the things we would much rather have, but we are looking at there is a project underway at the moment. It's in progress to refresh the the website, and we'll be seeing some developments in that space. What is the potential for revenues of the master service agreement you've recently signed? Do you see that becoming a recurring significant revenue generator? I don't wanna get into details with them.

40:28 Unfortunately, I can't say who it is because of confidentiality agreements, but it's already generating multiple project revenues. So it already is, I think, is the significant one. Do I see it becoming significant? Yes. It already is. Do I want to do more of the same? I certainly do. The client is a very significant player. We have that appeal to work with very significant organizations alongside them as their antibody expert. And they're also really great people to work with. Phenomenal science being done, real cutting edge, real pragmatic understanding as well. So both parties there are looking forward to repeated successes in building that relationship, and I'd like to replicate it with other clients as well.

41:22 Just moving through. Unfortunately, we can't comment on some of the costs at this stage on some of the questions that have been raised. Interesting one here. Now the Northern Ireland power sharing is back up and running, will you now receive grants that were earmarked for companies like FUSION? Well, clearly, we're not alone in being much more hopeful about the return to of functionality to government in Northern Ireland. The region is a hotbed really of some really excellent science and an awful lot of potential, particularly in the life sciences sector, which is worthy of considerable support by governments and funding bodies, grants, etcetera, which require a functioning government.

42:10 So we're very much hopeful that this will now work through. We've seen early indications for some of the smaller grants where some of our clients have picked those up, and that's starting to function really well. We would be hopeful that the larger grants, which require more coordination with with government, will also follow that same path. Typical that larger things take longer to start moving or restart moving. So, yes, I think that's a really good improvement in the the landscape for us. I'm very much looking forward to some of those coming through, not necessarily directly to us, which seemed to be where the question was aiming, but also into the the region and some of our local clients.

43:04 One that I can't answer in full detail here, but what is the board's expectation for long term value of the business? Well, I would say, and this is a personal perspective, but it's significantly higher than it is now. As I presented in the in the slides today, we've got some really excellent technology that can make a very significant impact complemented by a service business that can apply those technologies to real projects with active clients who are actually trying to get them those antibodies to market, to the clinic and to market. And that's across a wide range of applications such as therapeutics, vet med, and diagnostics more than companies of our size could possibly hope to address through other models.

43:57 And that is really what we're all working towards. And speaking for myself and the reason why I came to FUSION is to make a real step change and get the impact from those new technologies and realize the potential of those in genuine progress both in terms of treating people, identifying and treating diseases, but also in terms of fiscal remuneration for the business and really making FUSION a huge success. We have that potential. We are now working to realize that potential. So that should impact in a very much significantly improved long term value of the business, and we should be seeing that coming through as some of the negative impacts that have weighed heavily on the share price are removed.

44:53 Just looking through some of the other ones. So I think we've addressed that addressed the AIM lab question. I think we've done that in the presentation. One here referring to share options and the latest round of share options that have been released. Share options have been issued in line with the scheme rules, and share options act as a forward looking incentive to align those option holders' staff, and it is all of our qualifying staff that we've issued share options to, with align their their interest with shareholder interests.

45:47 There is a limited number of pool of of options under the scheme, there's a limited number of of shares that would be available. And it's important that those shares and the options, therefore, are as effective as possible in providing the decided incentive. So we're working in line with those, and it's fair to say that some of the older options have indeed been surrendered in order to take some of the pressure off that pool and make sure that there is widely available to all of the staff, all of qualifying staff. And the whole company is motivated and engaged and aligned with shareholder interests. So I think that's a case of really using what resources we have to best effect for delivering what we need for the business.

46:44 I noticed that the company's technology platforms are trademarked, but I'd like to understand the strategy with respect to IP. Can the underlying science techniques be further protected by patents or such and ultimately recognized as company assets? Well, the company does maintain a patent portfolio. We keep this under very regular review. Our CSO, Rick Buick, is responsible for the patent portfolio and does a very good job. We are constantly looking at adding to that patent portfolio and protecting our inventions as we make them, and we've been extremely productive in those technologies. We've got really excellent technologies coming through now and commercializing those.

47:31 That is not the limit and the end story of what FUSION and our staff have to invent. We continue to invent, and we will look to protect those in the appropriate ways and maintain that portfolio. Okay. I'm curious. Please, could you explain how the Optimal library was derived from life by AIML or other? What's the origin story? So I think I've addressed that largely in the presentation. The design of the library itself was created through very insightful and creative thinking by Rick, our CSO. We used a wide range of inputs, including some sequences that were generated from a COVID project, some real human genomic data, so from COVID antibodies.

48:31 But I would point out that there are video presentations available that Rick has done on the library and on the design. So it is that information is out there, and we'll we'll look to highlight that for you. There's also a question on other people's and I won't mention those companies, but other people's approaches to AIML and the products that they offer different ways of actually designing antibodies. Is that an opportunity threat or tool, etcetera, the company keeping appraised and actively reviewing these developments? So, yes, we are.

49:17 We keep an eye open. We have lots of discussions with lots of different providers who have similar sort of tools, algorithms that are emerging. So we use other people's algorithms for the in silico design of novel antibodies. It's a collaborative approach. So we're not really competing with people, and we'd be welcome we'd welcome discussions. We do welcome discussions with additional providers of those different algorithms. What you find with in rapidly developing technologies like this is that the technology leapfrogs and one algorithm may be considered better than the next one. I think AlphaFold is one in case, which is now on its third or fourth iteration.

50:09 So as those come through, they are improvements over their previous formats, but also relative to competitors, they can be improving and deepfrogging each other. So working with the those companies in the format that we have, AIM lab, derisks that for us. It derisks it for our clients. And so I would say that those developments are opportunities to bring those in. They're not typically, they're not competitors because those people tend speaking very generalized here, but they tend not to have the wet lab capabilities, which FUSION is really bringing into play. There's a question here on the Oxford proteomics informatics group of Charlotte Dean.

51:05 Why have you not informed the market about the collaboration with them and explained any significance to fusion antibodies? We're very pleased to be working with Oxford University and Charlotte Dean's lab. Charlotte is also on our scientific advisory panel, which has previously been reported. The projects that I think this is referring to is a very interesting and worthwhile one, but it's a really early stage. And by the very nature of of research, it's not clear what the outcome will be. We will provide updates as and when that becomes clear and if it's appropriate to do so, but, really, it's very early stage. I think the point really there is that FUSION is a sufficiently attractive partner for world leading laboratories using cutting edge technology, and it's recognition really of what FUSION has to offer and what we're what we're all about.

52:05 We will obviously update the marketplace as and when developments come through. Stephen, whilst I've been talking, has anything come up in the live questions that we should address as well? Yeah. I've had to I'll look through them there. I think probably, there are some, you know, ASUSION still involved in the future, Medicines Institute with Queen's University Belfast. If so, what's the latest position, and what value do think that will bring to FUSION? Okay. Sorry. I'm reading other stuff here. I think if you refresh the if you move from the polls over to the q and a, it kind of refreshes what it did for me anyway.

52:59 No. I haven't spotted it. It was the first one that came in at 11:01. Ah, sorry. Yes. Got it now. I hadn't scrolled up enough. Thank you. So, yeah, are we involved in the Future Medicines Institute with QUB? Yes. We are. We are waiting as part of a very significant and large consortium. As I mentioned earlier, the the region is should be very proud and is rightly proud of the component pieces that we can bring together. New future medicines initiative is a consortium to really get critical mass into the region for doing life sciences, a lot of work that revolves about antibodies because antibodies are so significant to life science research.

53:48 So we are a member of that consortium. The the grant is hopefully working through. I know that it had been stalled because of the lack of the functioning government within Northern Ireland. That has now been removed, and we would hopefully hope that that will release things. It's not there yet, though. There are still some processes which need to be taken through. Queen's University Belfast is leading that process, and they're doing an excellent job. So as and when that comes through, if it comes through because it's not done and dusted. If it comes through, we will be very happy, and we will be celebrating with the others and popping champagne called Snowdoubt.

54:44 So that's yeah. We're we're still that's still in play, and we'll update or there will be updates on that as and when it's resolved. I think we've answered the other ones because there's overlap in terms of the questions. Has there been stabilization in new business wins in human therapeutics? It's still it's still increasing. We're seeing the marketplace recovering in particularly in human therapeutics recovering, but actually growing. There's new opportunities that are presenting the whole industry as moving forward, and we're seeing that coming through in terms of leads and, obviously, as and when they convert into genuine contracts and things and and recognize revenues ultimately, which is the most important factor we will be reporting on those.

55:48 But the process at the moment is very positive. The markets are recovering. Our business our order book is recovering and then looking very good, and we're adding to that additional revenues from additional sectors that we're adding. So it's more than recovery. We're onward and upward, really. Can you say anything about the order book at the end of April yet? Only that it's better than it was at the end of March. I think that's as much detail as I can add to that one until we're in position to clarify more. Are there any milestones that could be triggered in this financial year? Technically, yes, but it's not something that I'm banking on or requiring in order to deliver on the plan that we have in place.

56:42 But, obviously, we look continue to look for those upsides as and when they come through. By virtue of the the way those milestones work, they are by and large outside of our control. It's they lie with our clients to make progressions and take antibodies much further forward. And when they trigger those milestones, then those payments get made, but we have very little control over that at the moment. Can you say anything about the size of the workforce now and how this has changed over '24? We had to make some cuts in terms of the the workforce. It's one of the least it's one of the the worst aspects of the job needed to be done in terms of matching the workforce with the the revenues that we could command.

57:42 We did that. We did that, I think, appropriately in terms of the the size, and I'm really, really grateful to those staff who have stuck with us through that process. And now we're replacing lost staff. We are moving forward. We're bringing new people on board. In fact, one started this week. Overall, the numbers should grow during during this year as we match those needs, but we are very cautious about hiring people unless we're pretty confident that that work is sustainable. And we have we connect as a really good employer. I do not want to repeat the process of having to trim back the workforce unless we absolutely have to. It's not something I want to do. I will if I have to, but that is we we really don't wanna get into that position.

58:53 Will licensed deals create a demand from competitors? This is about licensed deals, and I I believe, Optivation, Optimal licensed deals to have the same enhancements for themselves, so making it easier to do subsequent deals. Yes. What we see within life sciences, particularly with new technologies like Optimal and Optiphage, is that once one partner gets it and starts using it, it's reduced to practice in third party hands, which is indeed what we're trying to do with the NCI or the NCI are trying to do with with Optimal. That gives a lot of credibility to the platform, and a lot of people want to join in. And with the way Opti works so that we can license it again and again and again without any overlapping sequences.

59:43 There is no diminishment of the value proposition that we are putting to our fifth client that we did for the first one. So there's no diminishing value. In fact, it's increasing value because there's more people using it. It's more there's less risk involved. So really good point raised there. License deals will add to demand. They the value of those will increase. So there's a very significant way that we can exploit that technology without necessarily, going back to the previous question, having to scale our headcount in order to deliver that. I think that was the last that I can answer. Steve, did you see any others? No. No.

1:00:31 I think that's that's that's pretty much it. Perfect. Adrian, Steven, let me just jump in and thank you for answering those questions from investors today. And of course, the company can review all the questions submitted. We'll publish those responses on the Investor Meet company platform. But just before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to you both, Adrian, could I just ask you for a few closing comments? Well, I feel like we've been put through the mill, particularly over the last year. We've emerged from that. We have survived. We've emerged from it fitter, stronger, better, and we are now on the up. The future is looking extremely bright. In fact, it's converting the future into the present, and things are looking much, much better. So I'm very, very confident about the the year ahead. Not taking anything for granted. We're not complacent in the least, but the prospects are looking extremely good. So thank you very much for all of the support and all the time and investment that's been made. We are converting that into realized potential.

1:01:38 Perfect. Adrian and Steven, thank you very much for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, but some should be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of FUSION ANTIBODIES PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.