Omicar - Business Development

I emailed Steven Yatomi-Clarke soon after AVID meeting on 3 May, with questions regarding Omnicar, but have only got around to sharing now.

I repeated bits from recent PTX announcements:

Included in recent announcement:
"Additionally, Prescient has been regularly presenting OmniCAR at international conferences, where the platform has the potential to accommodate and enhance third party assets"

And in investor presentation:
"Collaborate & license to third parties"
"Potential partner based on Targets"
"Potential partner based on Specific Constructs"
"Potential partner based on Cell Types"

And I asked a few (novice and obviously incorrect) questions about these potential third party partners.

The following is the body of Steven's response:

Engagement with third parties is required very frequently, from very early on. Potential partners typically develop confidence and familiarity following data unfold with regular interactions over a long time. Typically, most deals are done at the end of Phase 2. We happen to believe that OmniCAR has the potential to attract collaborators much earlier than that, even though it would be highly uncommon for this to happen pre-clinically. But the platform is so novel, it is turning heads earlier than one would typically expect. But this is the exception.
Rights can be by indication or jurisdiction. Each agreement is different and requires different contracts, but yes, we have legal templates that can be tailored.

If you struggle to recall licensing deals done by Australian biotechs, that’s simply because there have not been many (Mesoblast is one company that comes to mind). It is bloody hard, and takes a very long time.To say we are not marketing OmniCAR is simply the furthest thing from the truth.

Interactions are usually at huge networking conferences designed exactly for that. Then we have all our follow up meetings. I think we have had well over 300 meetings in the last 6 months. Leading the charge is Dr Dan Shelly, our full time head of BD in the US. But once again, BD is about playing the long game. And that’s exactly what we are doing.Early stage deals typically don’t result in huge upfront payments. These are usually reserved for later stage programs, which have incurred tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in development and are substantially de-risked. Earlier stage assets are the opposite. But it is possible with an earlier program – especially a novel platform - to strike the right deals with the right partners to really accelerate development, fund development for the benefit of PTX and build a much bigger pie for shareholders. Note – the “right” partners/deal does not mean the biggest partners/deal; often far from it.

I’m sure we can do a better job of educating shareholders on the nature of BD and managing expectations. In fact, we are in the process of reviewing this right now.

You are right when you say OmniCAR has great promise. As a case in point, today I just got back from an immunology conference where some hardcore CAR-T experts were very impressed and surprised by the novelty and capabilities of OmniCAR. And it was a tough crowd, too.

Many thanks for the support.
Kind regards
Steven