Ixico (LSE:IXI) — Investor Presentation

0:03 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the IXICO PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged. They can be submitted at any time using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your question at any time and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review your questions submitted today, and we'll publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll, and I'm sure the company may be most grateful for your participation. And I'd now like to hand over to CEO, Giulio Ciorone. Good afternoon. Thank you very much, Mark. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for attending today's call, where we're presenting IXICO's interim results for the first half of two thousand twenty four. I'm Giulio Ciorone, IXICO's CEO, and I'm joined today by Grant Nash, our CFO, and Robin Boltz, our chief scientific officer.

0:53 You're gonna hear today how IXICO is in the business of unlocking the power of medical images with artificial intelligence in neurological disease trials. And whilst we've experienced a shortfall in anticipated bookings for the first half of the new year, why we're confident that we can make up ground in the second half of this year. This is evidenced by the fact that subsequent to the first half year ending March 30, we've signed new contracts and received notification of awards of competitive tenders that we anticipate contracting during the second half of this fiscal year. Grant will walk you through our financial results for the period outlining the cost control actions we took at the beginning of the year because we obviously came into the year anticipating continued market headwinds that we saw in in the previous year, but also demonstrate how we were able to maintain our commitment to provide high quality, flexible, and responsive services to our clients who obviously have come to expect high levels, from IXICO, to support them in their clinical trials.

2:01 And then after Grant, Robin will be presenting on how, the leading with science commercial strategy we implemented at the beginning of this year after a grassroots review of our business processes, and that's playing its way through into a strong pipeline of opportunities, which we're we're very focused to to deliver both support our guidance for FY '24, but also to provide a sustained platform of growth for '25 and onwards. So that's the order. Then at the end, I'll I'll close the presentation with a couple of summary slides. So without further ado, we'll skip beyond the disclaimer onto the next slide, which is slide three. Thank you, Mark. So this slide is headed trusted partner to biopharma.

2:52 For those of you that are new to IXICO, a few words of introduction, but, basically, we have a a a very strong, highly recognized position as a specialist in advanced analytics in neuroimaging. And I'll talk later about the attractiveness of the neuroimaging market. But, basically, I can't emphasize, enough and the importance of the the value of IXICO's track record as being a trusted partner to the global pharmaceutical industry, which in our opinion, would be difficult for others to build or replicate. And and so a a major a major asset that we've built and a major platform that we've built, in in in recent years in particular, but, obviously, the company's been been around for actually, it's our twentieth year anniversary in December of this year. So this highlights this slide highlights a couple of things. First one is that we directly contract with the biopharmaceutical industry.

3:51 That's important. It means that we have those direct connections scientifically, but also from a business procurement perspective, and we are on the approved master vendor list with or supply agreements with with many companies across the industry. We're very focused on differentiating ourselves by expanding our portfolio of AI powered biomarker services. Robin will be highlighting some of the emerging imaging biomarkers that are underpinning our our growth plans for the for the coming years, but also how this is really helping to differentiate IXICO from much larger competitors. If I if we just look at the last five years of our twenty year history, we've worked with five of the top 10 pharma, and and you'll you'll hear from from Grant in terms of our order book. We also have a large range of biotech companies that are existing clients.

4:46 And in terms of our existing order book, we're currently running 26 studies with 17 different sponsors. And, Grant will give you an insight into the makeup of of that order book, which clearly is very valuable and and holds a lot of latent value for for the business in terms of onward, opportunities in terms of pipeline development for our pharma sponsors. And then finally, in addition to to building a stronger position with our biopharma sponsors, what we're also now looking at this year and and going into next year is is how we can raise our profile with the larger CROs who, as we aspire to to take on and and expand with larger trials across a wider range of therapeutic areas, we believe it's important for us to develop those relationships.

5:36 And so, again, we we have a good a good book of mass service agreements with a number of those, but we'd like to expand that to support an increase in acceleration of our pipeline to provide us and feed us with more RFPs that that, again, Robin will will talk to in his presentation. So if we then move to the next slide, I just wanna highlight in this slide here just similar message to the one I've I've highlighted previously, but just with some some different perspectives. And and this is basically talking to the the reason why we're so focused on this area and why many others are as well, but obviously clearly driven by a large unmet medical need in neurological diseases across the globe.

6:22 So just one perspective in terms of a disease area. Neuroscience is the biggest cause of ill health across the world and the second largest cause of death after cardiology. So clearly, with an aging population, that's going to increase and so create an even greater burden on the health care systems. And and clearly as a result, this area is a is a very large opportunity for those companies that can develop new treatments that can support patients and reduce the burden on health care systems. And that's why the biopharma industry is very focused in this area.

7:05 And I should also highlight here that just to put things into perspective, the neurological diseases, obviously, there aren't many treatments in in in in a in clinical practice because they are so complex and it is so difficult to develop new treatments. But clearly, for those companies that are able to to develop drugs and get them onto the market and provide patients with a with really a life changing treatment that can make their lives better and give them, high quality of life for longer. Clearly, there's a very large, price, that, that these pharmaceutical companies are chasing. And and as a result, they're spending billions of dollars. And and just to put that into perspective, you know, these trials are often significantly larger, cost more money, and and take longer than other other trials in other therapeutic areas. So for example, in the case of Alzheimer's, it can take us as long as twice as long, but actually cost as as much as eight times more for a clinical trial in Alzheimer's than it does in an oncology trial. So to giving a perspective there of the the amount of dollars that are being spent in in this field. And that in itself then is obviously driving the clinical trials CRO industry, and in particular, those modalities and technologies that are supporting precision medicine and imaging in neurological diseases is increasingly being adopted as a means to provide objective,

8:35 measurable, biomarkers to support precision medicine. And that that is obviously the space that IXICOs is placed. And so for all those reasons, we see a long runway for growth supported by long term macro growth trends and with a a highly differentiated technology platform that's been validated by the pharmaceutical industry places it's got a very strong position to capitalize on that on those r and d dollars that are being invested in the space. So if we move to the next slide, again, this is same same strategy, precision in neuroscience that you've you've heard me talk to in in recent, presentations. Key points I just wanna make here is that, you know, very much that this is a data driven growth strategy to support precision medicine with next generation AI powered biomarker services.

9:28 So as I said, Robin is going to talk to how we're directly linking our technical differentiation, which is built on our ability to access highly curated data to support the development of cutting edge tools for the analysis of medical images and and how that's playing into our pipeline of opportunities and how we, as a much smaller competitor, many larger organizations are actually able to to get in front of the queue and become the partner of choice for the biopharma industry. So with that introduction, I'll hand over to Grant to present the financial highlights for the first half of twenty four. Thank you, Julia. Good afternoon, everyone.

10:14 I'm going to start with the slide you can see now that shows IXICO's revenues since 2020, both in total and split between those deriving from a large phase three Huntington's disease trial, which is the part of the bar shown in pale blue, and those that arose from all the other projects that we were servicing at the time, which is the bit in grey. As you can see, the large phase three Huntington's disease trial dominated our revenues in 2020, meaning of a total of 9,500,000 revenues, 5,100,000 million of them related to that phase three trial, with 4,400,000 of our revenues relating to all the other trials that we are servicing at that time. As we've communicated many times previously, the large Phase III HD trial was subsequently descoped in 2021 and then cancelled altogether in 2022, which materially impacted our total revenues, reducing revenues from $9,500,000 in 2020 to $6,700,000 in 2023.

11:20 However, with this declining revenue profile was a significant positive in terms of revenue growth from all the other trials that we were supporting, and this is a message we want to make very clear. Across the period 2020 to 2023, we won more than 30 new trials, primarily in Phase I and Phase II, and primarily with biotechs. These underlying revenues grew at approximately 20% CAGR between 2020 and the end of twenty twenty two before holding level across 2023 as capital markets tightened significantly, and biotechs in particular were impacted by the increasing challenges in raising capital to support their planned trials. This tight market has continued into 2024, and following three years of this underlying revenue growth, I. E, growth of all revenues excluding that large phase three trial, we expected, at the start of this year, to see flat revenues over 2024.

12:22 The first six months of 2024 have, however, been even more challenging than we anticipated. Where we had targeted in the first six months of the year to sign five contracts of a significant value, actually, we did sign one of those contracts, we lost one and we saw the other three being deferred by the respective sponsors. Now whilst those delays didn't materially impact our expectations for the first half in terms of revenue, which were close to our internal budgets as we know that new contracts take time to convert into revenues, they will have an impact on the second half, and consequently, we updated the market on the thirteenth of March this year, indicating that our revenues for the full year would be lower than expected. This, of course, has been challenging, but it confirmed that we need to remain very cognizant of costs.

13:15 We had expected challenging market conditions and undertook a cost reduction exercise right at the start of this half year period. The company has consequently reduced total costs by a little over 1,000,000 compared to twelve months ago, with an approximately 20% reduction in headcount being partially offset by a small increase in non staff costs resulting from a combination of one off costs and the impact of the high inflationary environment. This has been completed whilst reorganising our delivery model to reflect our Leading with Science approach, which Robin will speak to more later. As we look forward, however, prospects are materially brighter. We are seeing a pickup in our sales pipeline that Robin will talk to in more detail.

14:01 And significantly, since the half year period end, we have signed new contracts and received notification of awards of further contracts that are material in value and will be announced on contract signature. This gives us confidence that the very challenging markets we've experienced over the last eighteen months are starting to soften. And whilst we don't expect these contracts to change our revenue outlook for this year, these are important to underpin improved financial performance in 2025 and, of course, beyond and ensure we close the year with an order book that is stronger than where we started. And as important, we expect that order book to retain the level of project diversification that we've seen over the last few years, putting IXICO in a strong position to resume revenue growth.

14:51 If you could turn to the next slide, please, Mark. Looking at our financial performance specifically for the first six months of the year. As outlined, we've seen weaker revenues following an eighteen month period of tight capital markets and low booking levels. This has resulted in 2,500,000 of revenues for the first half of the year. The more positive bookings expectations that we have for the second half mean that whilst we only see a marginal positive impact of these bookings in our H2 revenues, these bookings should set the foundations for growth as we look forward to financial year 2025 and beyond. We anticipate this more positive outcome will also be seen in the gross margin and EBITDA of the company, which, due to the relatively high fixed cost base of the business, will benefit from revenue growth with a substantial portion of the revenue increases transferring directly into gross margin and EBITDA.

15:47 The EBITDA will be further supported by the cost reductions that we've made in the past twelve months, although these have been partly hidden by the reduction of costs being capitalized now that our next generation data capture and analysis platform has been fully validated and is ready for use. And this change to Ready for use status

16:09 of what is a significant asset results in an accounting change, which means that costs that were previously being capitalized are now treated through operating expenses and therefore impact on our EBITDA. Moving to the next slide and looking at our financial position. We continue to have a strong balance sheet with net assets of 10,000,000 and working capital of £3,500,000 Within our working capital, we hold £2,500,000 of cash and continue to be debt free. Cash has been impacted by the recent decline in our revenues despite the reduction in costs that we have made over the last twelve months, And this does reflect that IXICO has a largely fixed cost base and is currently operating below the key revenue level for it to breakeven and generate cash, which is at approximately £8,000,000 revenues.

16:57 The key indicator for the company in return to growth after what has undoubtedly been a challenging eighteen months will be the traction that we see over the coming months in winning new contracts. We expect that this will show an augmenting of our order book from the £12,700,000 current position, and we target an order book position above the prior year close of £14,800,000 which in itself will provide good visibility for growth. Turning to my next slide. I'll provide a little bit more detail on our order book. So this slide shows that, despite the last twelve months being challenging for bookings, with tight capital markets, meaning we've seen proposed trials being postponed or even cancelled, we've still, across that period, delivered contract wins higher than revenues.

17:44 However, we have also seen several small trial descopes in the period, as well as a small negative shift in foreign exchange, meaning that across twelve months, our order book has contracted by 700,000. It is this position, however, that we expect to see materially improve across the second half of the year, as several bookings that we have line of sight of come in, and we target an order book well above the current position. Turning to the next slide, again on the order book. Just want to highlight the diversity that we have in our order book. As you can see, the order book is heavily weighted to earlier phase projects, which, while smaller and lower margin than the later phases, do provide an internal pipeline of opportunities for projects to progress to those later phases, should the current phase be successful.

18:39 We're also seeing, as you can see on the pie chart on the right, a diverse mix of therapeutic areas within our order book. Whilst Huntington's disease is still our primary area of project delivery, we have a good proportion of Alzheimer's disease projects, as well as a range of rare indications. The reason to highlight moving to the next slide, please, Mark the reason to highlight some of this in the order book is that it's really important that we convey clearly how far we've progressed in diversifying the constituent parts of our order book since 2020. So this chart shows the total value of our order book across the last few years and shows that now we have a much more balanced profile of order book than we did a few years ago.

19:29 To illustrate, in 2020, our order book was dominated by a single project that constituted approximately 75% of our order book by value. This provided a very positive total order book figure, but contained significant risk and had limited growth opportunities embedded within the order book, as the Phase I and Phase II trials totaled just 3,000,000. Today, however, whilst the overall order book value is lower in total, for all the reasons that I've explained previously, it actually contains much more opportunity to grow, with phase one and phase two trials totalling approximately 9,000,000, with the single largest project totalling just 18% of the order book.

20:16 So we have much more diversity and much more opportunity based on the platform that we have today, even though the order book is lower than it was a few years ago based on that mix of contracts. So the point here is that, as we you can see, as we start to see a recovery in the market, which has been suffering significantly over the last eighteen months, and we target the achievement of new contract bookings equivalent to the levels that we saw across 2020 to 2022, we aim to see older book develop rapidly whilst maintaining the level of diversity of projects that we currently have, which will increase the company's resilience to any single trial failure, significantly compared to previous years, but also provide a very strong pipeline for future growth where those trial phases that we complete succeed.

21:13 I'm now going to pass over to Robin to talk more widely about how we are leading with our science. Great. Thanks. Thanks, Grant, and, good afternoon, everyone. So in my slides, I will, talk a little bit about how we use our scientific engagement, to drive commercial momentum, an approach that we are calling leading the science, which is obviously a target Grant and Julio mentioned in in their slides as well. So as we presented in previous updates sorry. Yeah. If you go to next slide. Thanks. As we presented in previous updates and as also summarized by Giulio earlier in the deck, we continue to execute on our precision neuroscience strategy.

22:01 And in this context, I will briefly touch on what we mean by leading with science and then focus the the second part of the presentation on how we are starting to see some initial indicators on how this change in approach is starting to show an uptick in commercial momentum. So as part of the the changes we implemented over the past past year probably, we have started putting more effort and resource on developing an increasing number of relationships and touch points with an increasing number of pharma sponsors really designed to start developing a sales pipeline from from the very beginning of the discussions and then go through this, what is typically an eighteen months sales cycle in our in our industry.

22:51 The approach is well illustrated by what we do across scientific consortia, which is why I'll I'll talk through some of those on the slides and, the other partnerships we're doing in, in our therapeutic indications, but it also includes, other engagement strategies including conference attendance, direct client engagement, as well as, scientific marketing. So the the consortia really support our commercial strategy in three ways. First, access to data, which supports our R and D roadmap to develop and validate these specific biomarkers as as Julia pointed out early on. It then is a highly useful and valuable opportunity to engage with the scientific community, demonstrate thought leadership, our expertise, and capabilities.

23:42 And then finally, as an extension of the first two points, this helps with direct engagement with biopharma partners on their upcoming development plans and scientific topics more generally. So with this background, if you look at the top 10 panel on this slide, we see the consortium across therapeutic indications we currently partner in and or have worked in recently. I will recap on on the next slide

24:14 a couple of updates I gave six months ago in our full year results 2023 in terms of AD specifically to then get into how this this funnels into our pipeline. Before going there, I'd like to briefly summarize again how this approach has been, and there's a key pillar in our HD success story. Again, as we presented previously, traditionally or historically a core part of our of our order book and trials we've learned. So most recently, this is illustrated through the HGH consortium, which is a consortium focused on the development of HD MRL biomarkers that we have cofounded together with the CHDI Foundation and several pharma sponsors.

25:08 So this partnership enabled us to obtain access to key natural history studies in Huntington's, including TRACK ON and TRACK HD, which are listed here, which in turn helped us develop and validate our ixiq dot ai analysis product that I have presented on previously and that is now our flagship product in in Huntington's and and and other indications as well and is setting new standards on how to do the analysis in those TAs. Separately, we have, as I've previously mentioned, we've secured partnerships with various biopharma partners in this consortium that have an interest in developing Huntington's disease. We see listed here PTC Therapeutics, UniCure, AskBio, all of whom are backing the consortium from a financial point of view but also who are obviously leveraging the results of playing their trials, which helps developing and positioning our analytics solutions to those sponsors, but also the HD community more widely.

26:16 So the contribution we give to the scientific community helps us showcase capability and then at the same time enables us to engage with the member companies on their planned clinical trials, so pretty much addressing all of the three points we see on the left, so a really nice case study of that approach. So moving on, what we have started to present on in the past uptake here and then more generally is that we're starting to put building blocks in place in some of the larger indications, specifically in Alzheimer's disease as well. And so to that end, if you go to the next slide, please, I'd like to just show again a slide that that I've presented in December to then build on it to to to look at the the pipeline.

27:06 So, again, this is a slide I had in the full year's presentation in December, and what it's that was what it's illustrating is really the progress we made in gaining traction in some of the initiatives outside HD, specifically in Alzheimer's disease. I went through all of those in December. Today I just want to highlight and focus on the IOHERMIS trial with the and our partnership with the global Alzheimer's platform. So this is a leading natural history study in Alzheimer's disease that has concluded last year and where we're now working through analysis of the data and the application of our algorithms to the PET data collection and we're starting to see some of momentum this is creating similar to what we had in Huntington's disease. So we for example, as I've mentioned previously, we had a highly visible presentation on those findings at the CTAP conference, which is the main conference in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials with all key pharma sponsors as well as scientific stakeholders attending, so a great forum to showcase our expertise and capabilities.

28:25 So again, what I think this is demonstrating is how we're starting to replicate some of the building blocks we put in place in Huntington's Seas several years ago. There are other examples of that kind, some of which, as I said, I presented on before, some of which we hope to announce over the coming months. So with this context, I'd like to shift gears a little bit and look at, as I mentioned previously, look at some of the lead indicators we're starting to see in terms of commercial momentum as a consequence of the these engagement strategies we we put in place over the past twelve months or so. So if you go to to the next slide, please, what what the center two graphs on this slide show is a split in our sales pipeline per therapeutic area in in September 23 and then again in May 24, so now.

29:24 So this is an eighteen month pipeline. So we're basically looking out for trials we're engaging with that will be outsourced over the next eighteen months, which is roughly the sales cycle we're looking at or we're dealing with in our industry, and therefore, thus define a good point of reference as we look at our midterm outlook. So the the size of each pie chart represents the number of opportunities and then the split, so the pie itself, defines the splitting opportunities across the core indications we track separately, so these are Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and multiple sclerosis. And then separately, studies in in an other category which are typically rare neurodegenerative diseases we support, including ataxias or PSP, MSA, those kind of rare neurodegenerative indications.

30:27 While we need to acknowledge that these graphs include opportunities across all stages of the sales pipeline, which means everything from an early qualification where we have created a new opportunity and are engaging with the client all the way through to a verbal award and then and as as opportunities go into contracting. So it's a it's a it's a range of maturity that sits in these pipelines. However, as we compare them like for like over time, which is what we're doing here, they do show an important direction of travel, so to speak, in terms of where our commercial opportunities are going. So if we look at the size of the pie and what we see really between September and May is largely a double doubling in the number of opportunities we're targeting, and we also see an in an increase in diversification between therapeutic indication.

31:28 Specifically, what we see now is an increasing share of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and MS opportunities, which is by design. So we are starting to see a more balanced picture where previously the pipeline was primarily dominated by Huntington's disease. As acknowledged previously, HD is a comparably small market, and so that trend that we're observing towards increasing diversification is what we'd expect as we grow the overall pipeline of opportunities.

31:58 What we then see on the top left of this slide is is just the the same pie chart shown in his last last slide here with not absolute numbers of trials in all of them, but, again, the percentage split, so as of March 2024. And if we compare that to the sales pipeline in September and then also May, again what we are seeing is an increasing diversification into the larger therapeutic markets, a trend that we expect to be increasingly reflected in the order book as those opportunities mature and then contract.

32:37 In fact, on this point, it is worth noting that is a trend that we are already seeing in the contracts that we've booked since March 31, so basically since we closed h one. Trudeau and Grant mentioned recent awards and recently contracted studies. If we would overlay

32:59 them onto the h one actuals, we would already see that trend towards increased diversification realized. And with this, happy to hand back to Giulio. Thanks.

33:17 Excellent. Thank you very much, Robin. So, I I hope, that level of details given given you all, good insights. And and I've just got a couple of slides. But what what I would say is that if I if I think back at the seven and a half years or so that I've I've been with the company, I I would say that, you know, we we we achieved, you know, heady heights of share price and but but it actually there was quite a time lag between, you know, what we're delivering in in the

33:49 real world if you like and and actually, obviously, the the period of lag between that coming through in the in the financials and and everything else. So so I guess with the, the current valuation of the company where it's at, versus where it's been, that that's quite a a sobering chart. But at the same time as well, I would suggest, an opportunity to to for you to consider, the information we provided

34:14 gives you some some basis there to determine whether IXICO is a is a is a company to to follow closely. Obviously, we believe it is. And so in the last couple of slides, just want to highlight, a couple of key things that, we're gonna be razor razor focused on and, and give you insight as to how we judge ourselves, what KPIs we're looking at, and also, what you can expect from us, over the next well, the second half of this year and beyond. So if we go into the next slide, slide 18. So first of all, just wanna articulate how I'm,

34:49 looking to to measure success and how we we verbalize success within IXICO. So the first one is, you know, are we creating valuable new IP?

34:58 And is our technology being deployed across the the global pharmaceutical landscape? Clearly, we've got good good traction, but but that's that's what we're investing our our time and and efforts in as one area. The second one is, are we realizing the the latency value in the follow on value in our order book, you know, making sure we stay close to our existing customers, keep on supply and servicing them well, responding to their requirements, being much more business friendly than large competitors so that they really value the the close interaction with IXICO so that we are then ready to

35:39 capitalize on their latest studies. And and again, just as a a lesson from history, if you look at the the very transformative thing for IXICO was was that phase one, phase two study becoming a phase or a larger study when it was taken on from a biotech company to a a large pharma. And and that's basically that's the opportunity we have and and and, you can see the impact that one one trial had in a company of our size. So you can imagine, going back to the order book that Grant described, if if we have a number of those happening in the coming coming years, then that'll be a very, another a very, very significant, development for the company. So so that's also why we've invested in our technology platform that that Grant referred to, the trial tracker n x, because in addition to creating a bigger pipeline, we also want to be operationally ready to to be able to scale up, and have the technology to scale up, so that, large pharma and large heroes have confidence in a company of our size that we can deliver large, studies, across many countries in the world.

36:47 And then we've we've talked particularly about the opportunity to to expand into the larger Alzheimer's and Parkinson markets and why we see that the capabilities that we've built in in recent years are very transferable and have a high value, in being applied in those markets. And and also with a particular focus on on the North American market. And, Robin talked to the

37:11 the strategic partnership we have with with the global Alzheimer's platform, which is based in The US, and and that that has been very beneficial to us, in terms of raising our profile. And so we're we're actively looking at, obviously furthering that relationship, but also creating new partnerships with other organizations to strengthen our profile and our position in in particular in the North American market. And then finally, in a nutshell, really be able to replicate the success we've achieved in Hodgkin's disease and not just, in Alzheimer's and and Parkinson's, but also in

37:48 building deeper relationships with large pharma whilst at the same time, obviously, continuing to nurture the the many opportunities that we we see ahead of us with biotech and with the funding, hopefully, position being better for them, that that should capture further growth opportunities. So those are those are the things we look at to measure success. And then just to give you an indicator of some of the

38:11 forward leaning performance indicators that I that I look at is, first of all, as we go forwards, our ability to commercialize new novel MRI based biomarkers in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, that we can demonstrate year over year growth in our opportunities pipeline, that we can grow our order booking. Again, going back to one of the charts that, that Grant had, a number that I'm looking at is, you know, how quickly can we get to an order book of 18,000,000? Obviously, get there as quickly as we can, please, which is what we're all very focused on. And then there's a very, very simple,

38:48 KPI, which is widely adopted across the industry is, you know, you're you're a very healthy business issue. If you can demonstrate year over year book to bill ratios of of one and a half. So, basically, book 50% more than the revenue that you recognize to give you that ongoing continuous trajectory of growth and profitability. And and that's basically what we're looking at in terms of some of the key performance indicators in in the in in the medium to long term. And but, obviously, expecting us to be in a much better position at the end of this year than we are at the moment in relation to the key performance indicators. A, to make sure that we can underpin the guidance we provided back in March, but also to establish a really strong platform for '25 and onwards.

39:38 So, I think, in summary then, I just wanna go into the next slide, which in in the points I've made here is that, you know, we've we've invested significantly in in this neuroimaging platform. We've we've invested in technology, and we're in a very attractive clinical trials market being a specialist focused on, neurological diseases. We've obviously established ourselves as a valued partner to a wide range of companies, but in particular, I want to highlight the five out of 10 big pharma because those are the guys that have the big dollars for the very large billion dollar trials. And actually, even just in recent weeks, we've seen announces from Takeda.

40:23 For example, with a company called AC Immune where they're highlighting that making milestone payments and upfront payments to the to to that company.

40:34 And if if they achieve their milestones, then Takeda would would take on that asset. So that's just an example of the sort of thing and why it's important for us to to be talking to both biotechs, but also the large pharma companies so that, when those things happen, IXICO is the obvious, you know, partner for them to, to to to work with. The, ability to build strategic value in the company, by by being broader than than just to being seen as a specialist in in HD. Clearly, we we see really good momentum in in, both the order bit that we've we've achieved in the last three years. We're very proud of that. But also, actually, I'm really excited by the the the progress that Robin has showed in terms of pipeline because that obviously not only gives us a great diversity, but also actually creates a bigger pie as well.

41:26 And and within that, we would then expect to, you know, in the second half of this year, be announcing more contracts, which in turn will give us a larger set of projects to deliver, which in turn will give us a larger potential for latent revenue within that order book for future periods. And then and then finally, just on on the pipeline, I just want to to highlight that, obviously, we've seen a combination of an uptick in an improvement in the in the the market. I mean, it's definitely a case of haves and have nots in terms of companies that are getting funded and aren't getting funded. But but in addition to that, that combined with the grassroots review that we undertook at the beginning of the year to really make sure that we are executing with our commercial strategies and also actually redirecting significant more scientific resource to business development activities is really playing paying dividends and and hopefully that was very visible and evident in the numbers and and slides that Robin talked to.

42:36 So so with that, I'm gonna pause and we'll move on to to questions, but but also, to thank everybody for listening to us today. That's great. Julio, thank you very much indeed, Robin Grant. Let me just bring back up your cameras for the Q and A. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q and A tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. I just want the guys to take a few moments to review the questions you've submitted already. I'd just 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 investment company dashboard. Julia, as you can see, you've had a number of questions throughout, today's presentation. Firstly, thank you to everybody for your kind engagement this afternoon. If I may just hand back to you, Julia, to read out the questions, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Great. I'm gonna ask maybe, Robin, if you can go back to your slide or actually, Mark, if you can go back to Robin's slide on the pipeline show the chart. So the first question is from Sam m.

43:32 Says, do the increase in RFPs do the increase in RFPs only in Mexico's traditional markets, Huntington's, or are they also being seen in Alzheimer's? It was a pie chart, Mark. Sorry. I don't know what that that one there. This one. Thanks. Thanks, Mark. Thanks, Julio. I think, I've probably answered that or hopefully answered that to the extent, as we see on the on the slide here. So the short answer would be yes. And so far that, as as I mean, obviously, as we see in the order book, we have a significant number of, 80 trials already, but we see this, diversification in the pipeline, which is also reflected in the, RFP inflow and so far that it is diversifying away from, focused on on h t two, including those other indications as well.

44:22 Thanks. Yeah. And then I should say the the question came in before you put the slide up. So, hopefully, that's that marries up. I then got a question from Sam m. One for Grant is, how long do you see the current cash runway? Yeah. Thanks, Sam. So, obviously, in terms of the exact length of that runway, it depends on a good number of things in terms of our our bookings performance and the ongoing work that we do with cost to manage that. We obviously have cash forecasts that take us out well into 2025 without without bookings included beyond the end of this year. So, essentially, we've we've got a a forecast that looks like we've got cash that takes us into 2025, and then we'd expect to augment that with additional bookings.

45:16 Thank you. Another one I'll I'll pass on to to to Grant is well, I'll I'll answer, and then I'll pass it on to Grant for more details. But could you give an update on the CEO search and the timeline when to take over roles? So so what what I'll say here is, as everyone goes, I I announced my planned retirement at the end of calendar year last year. So I'm working, obviously, with the board on that. And I I can say I I'm actually the most confident for the business outlook than I've been for the last twelve to eighteen months. And then if that's linked to my retirement or actually because of the traction that I'm seeing in in the pipeline and and the market. So I I think I'm I'm very confident it's the latter.

46:09 And I'm really excited for the prospects of the business. But but with that, I'll I'll hand over to Grant in terms of any more color he can provide in terms of timelines and and that sort of thing. Yes. So I think as we've we've spoken about previously, we've initiated the succession plans that are in place. We've got a short list of strong candidates that are currently being interviewed by the board. Obviously, until we have our candidate, we don't have our candidate, but we're expecting that but it's moving along nicely, and we we expect to have a candidate in place well before Giulio's full retirement date. Thank you very much. Okay.

46:58 Grant, I'm sorry. We're in a bit of a run here. Just but, again, you've been overseeing the the the the investment in our next generation trial tracker platform. And obviously, we're all very delighted that that's coming to fruition. So question is the validation of the next generation platform is significant. How do you plan to leverage this to gain a competitive edge and drive future revenue growth? And I'll I'll I'll maybe add some words to to yours once you've outlined our plans. Yeah. So this is really important for us. So we obviously, we we have a platform, and that platform's working well and and has has been in place for for a long time. But this platform is gives us a significant level of additional extensibility and scalability, which as we look forward and we look to the aspirations of the business, provide us with a platform for many, many years to come. It's built on Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure, which means that it as the technology develops, so that so that we'll benefit from that because the underlying technology we've built this on will will be updated and developed as well.

48:05 It comes with all of the required security data resilience requirements that are necessary in a highly regulated environment such as the clinical trials industry, and puts us right at the front edge, we believe, in terms of competitive offering as an imaging CRO to that biopharmaceutical industry. Beyond that as well, it actually is an asset that realistically, where we are today has more value than we can access from it ourselves right now. That will come both from the growth that we believe we will drive ourselves, but also provides a an opportunity for us to partner with other industry players who have interesting analysis capabilities, for example, but don't have a platform and therefore can't serve clinical trials market. This will allow us to partner with them support that, expanding our offering to clients whilst also getting potentially a SaaS type revenue stream.

49:10 It also offers the opportunity from bigger players in the market to look at us in terms of the capabilities of our platform and how they might be leveraged more broadly, possibly into other therapeutic areas. So there's a lot of opportunity that comes from this platform. Obviously, it will take time for that to come through. The bookings that we have seen are positive, and they will go onto the platform. But it's it's it'll take a bit of time, but there's a huge latent value sitting there now with that platform. So so what I what I would add to that as well is that this platform allows us actually to to discuss and pen a number of strategic partnerships with other technology companies that we wouldn't have been able to do with our our previous platform. So it allows us to exchange data, more easily and scale, more quickly, and and also make us more resilient.

50:09 But but I think, as I said, this this this platform allows us to have conversations with companies around strategic partnerships that are very exciting. And as soon as, we have something to to be specific about, we'd be you know, rest assured we will be, announcing those, those partnerships and how Trotracker helped us to do that. Okay. Alex, see, with the signs of recovery in the market and the uptick in client request proposals, what is the expected timeline and strategies to convert them? So so I'll I'll answer that, and then Robin can add to that. So cut to the chase, when do you expect to con to convert them? We expect to convert a number of them this year, I. In the next six months as as we've emphasized during the presentation.

50:59 And and then Robin highlighted that, you know, we again, it's it's not it's not a linear thing, but we we kind of use an eighteen month sales cycle as a as a guide. And and that changes. It it ebbs and and flows. Sometimes things come forward. Sometimes things get pushed out. But but the answer is always more faster is better, and and that's what we are looking to do. And as I said, from from a relatively short space of time with the comparison that Robin showed from September of last year to this year, you can see the the the the momentum that we've we've been building. So, you know, as I said, the the the the question that we're looking to ourselves is is how quickly can we build an order book of £18,000,000?

51:49 So I'll I'll leave it at that, and and maybe, Robin, you can add something else if you if you feel I've missed something. Yeah. No. Thanks, Giulio, and thanks for the question. I think we're kind of, like, seeing two things going on in parallel. One is, an uptick in the market as, Alex, c points out in the question. The other one is changing our approach that we I think we talked about previously and then we started implementing around much more systematic engagement in opportunities. And I think the the the first impact of that letter we're seeing now with some of those opportunities that we have targeted in a much more systematic way maturing and actually going toward contract.

52:41 And what we expect to see on top of that from, hopefully, softening of the market is to to basically widen that funnel further and then pushing things things things through the through the pipeline. But we are talking about the eighteen month pipeline. The good thing is that we we have started filling the funnel, so to speak, a while ago. So so these things starting to mature. The things that going now will will will contract in the next twelve months, roughly six to twelve months. Great. I've got about five questions. I'm gonna I've got conscious we've seven minutes left. So I'm gonna rattle through them quickly, so just bear that in mind, Grant and Robin. But then the next one is. Got got three three, four of the five questions left. So quick ones.

53:34 Grant, what criteria is not met to capitalize the platform? Yeah. This is a simple accountancy requirement where while a platform is being built and being developed, it's being it's treated as development cost, development cost under accounting rules gets capitalized on the balance sheet. Once that platform is is is ready for use, it's then converted to what's called an asset in use, and the associated costs then go to the p and l. So it it's simple. It's not that you didn't hit a criteria. It's simple treatment of of the change from an asset being developed to an asset being in use. Yeah. Actually, I think one of the questions from from we've we've already answered is what indicators are you looking at to suggest a turn in the market?

54:24 So, obviously, our own but but, again, this this this was widely published. I think there was an article in the in in the The US press and the Wall Street Journal. I think it's entitled haves and have nots where it was talking about job cuts for a number of companies, but at the same time as well, very high levels of VC funding in in the first quarter of the calendar year. So all of those data points but in particular, I would say, are are very significant increase in early stage pipeline opportunities that we've built in the last four, five months that we've seen. That's obviously reflected in the numbers that that Robin's talked to.

55:13 Right. Again, for Shagar, when do you see positive operating cash flow? Yes. So the answer to that is, essentially, we expect to see posting out so positive operating cash flows will obviously vary on a number of things. Timing of payments, we advanced payments in some client contracts, obviously sometimes there's costs that we pay off on longer timeframes, etc. So there's all that variability. But in terms of the overarching position, we'd expect to see positive operating cash flows when essentially we have income at around about the 8,000,000 mark. And when I say income, that's not just revenues. That's revenues plus the grant income that we get plus the r and d tax credit income that we get.

55:58 So with an EBIT target forecast this year of about 2,000,000 negative, that's essentially our revenues plus our grant income and r and d tax credit, which brings us up to about 6,000,000 of income. The the the gap being and and EBITDA, obviously, is an approximator for for for operating cash. So so that's that's where we sit. Yeah. I think it's a nice simple number to remember that, you know, we can be consistent on. So then question from two kind of similar. One from Sam m. Has the company looked at the benefit stroke cost of delisting? Has this been rolled out, or is it under review? So so what I would answer to that is is, you know, we've we've been listed since 2014.

56:46 Obviously, yes, there is a cost to be enlisted, but also, you know, we've we've been able to, you know, access the markets when we needed to. I mean, when I first started in 2018, we we we did a capital raise. We've we've not needed to do so since but at that point, something that's available to us if if if needed. But it's not I I guess, the the the focus of the business is is fundamentally to get back to growth. I mean, whether you're listed or not, you need to have a a performing business. And and so our focus is not I mean, obviously, we've we've managed our costs and we stay very focused on managing costs. But but my belief and the board's belief is that that shouldn't be your res on detre.

57:35 And so we're very focused on what are the best strategies and what are the best business environments to support growth. And that's what the board are doing. Of course, you know, if we do decide it's not being listed, then that's obviously something that we would we would look at and consider very carefully. But as I said, the the the focus is very much on delivering on the promise of the business and the potential based on the market opportunity that I described earlier. Add to, you know, because I think it's also worth saying that, you know, whilst we have very supportive shelves, meaning that we have, you know, the institutional shareholders that that have invested in IXICO are very supportive of of what we're doing. And whilst they that's the case, then remaining listed and and and having them and having them remaining as our our our shareholders is obviously a key priority for us. So that's that's obviously something we bear in mind as well. Yeah. And and and on that as well, obviously, we've got a a cap table in the appendix. You can see we're we're very fortunate to have a a very strong blue chip set of institutional investors, which, you know yeah, it's very important for a company of our size to have that quality of investment cap cap market.

58:50 That's great. Julio, Robin, and Grant, thank you very much indeed. You've taken all the questions from investors. Thank you once again to everybody for your engagement this afternoon. Julio, as usual, I'll surely redirect those on the call to provide you with their feedback. But before doing so, I wonder if I may just ask you for a couple of closing comments. Well, as I said, closing comments are yeah. Expect more in the second half from us. We're we're gonna deliver it, and, we're feeling positive about the second half. And, I'm really looking to to build a strong platform for not just the second half, but beyond into '25 and onwards. Just wanna thank you all for, taking the time out of your busy schedules to, to listen to Robin, Grant, and I, and, wish you a great evening. That's great, Julio, Robin, Grant. Thank you once again for updating investors. Can I please ask investors not to close this session? As we now automatically redirect you for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order the board can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a couple of moments to complete, but I'm sure we greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of IXICO PLC, I'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good evening to you all.