Ann: 2022 AGM Chairman's Address and CEO Presentation, page-6

I think it’s fair to say that there was a strong focus during the AGM on how value might be recognised in PYC.

It won’t happen via US listing. In response to a question about this, Rohan Hockings reiterated that previous intention to list had changed in response to worsening macroeconomic conditions. He didn’t rule out the possibility in the future but said it would be unlikely to happen within the next 2 years.

Building company exposure through coverage by third party analysts is one possibility.

Some kind of deal is another.

Rohan Hockings referenced recent licensing and acquisition deals that demonstrate pharma interest in early stage precision therapies.

One was the licensing deal struck earlier this year between Stoke Therapeutics and Acadia Pharmaceuticals for three preclinical stage assets for the treatment of rare, genetic neurodevelopmental diseases. (Acadia is the US licensor of Neuren’s trofinetide). This deal involved a 50/50 share of costs and profits collaboration on Stoke’s most advanced preclinical asset as well as an exclusive global licence for two other preclinical assets, with Acadia taking on all development costs after Stoke had completed preclinical work.  Stoke received an upfront payment of $60 million from Acadia and is eligible to receive up to $907 million in milestones as well as royalties on future sales.

The other was Eli Lilly’s acquisition last month of US biotech, Akouos. Akouos is developing gene therapies for hearing loss and had only recently announced that it had received clearance from the FDA for its IND application to initiate a Phase 1/2, first in human, clinical trial of its lead compound. Eli Lilly paid US$12.50 cash per share (A$768m in total, representing a 213% premium on 30 day VWAP) + non-tradable CRV worth up to US$3 per share (A$185m).

Rohan Hockings was clear that PYC’s preference would be for a licence deal rather than acquisition, and possibly a territorial rather than global licence deal.

With respect to PYC’s lead program, IND acceptance (30 days following submission) may well see an uptick in interest and major growth in share price could also be on the cards following positive first in human safety data.

The example was given of US biotech PepGen as not only validation of PYC's approach, but also of the potential impact of positive early data on share price. PepGen is developing a cell penetrating peptide conjugated antisense therapy for DMD amenable to Exon 51 skipping. Results of its first in human study, which commenced in April this year, were released in September. The therapy was generally well tolerated and exhibited the highest levels of oligonucleotide delivery and exon skipping (2%) seen in a clinical study following a single dose when compared to publicly available clinical data for other exon 51 skipping approaches. The market was impressed - Pep Gen’s share price trebled over the following fortnight.