Company Interview / The small cap with big biotech goals

Tim Oldham of AdAlta (ASX:1AD) shares that the company receives a $1.8M refund from the Australian Government's R&D incentive. This refund helps repay a $1.4M Victorian government loan and strengthens AdAlta's balance sheet. AdAlta focuses on advancing key priorities.

AdAlta's lead asset, 82 and 4, moves ahead after completing its phase one trial, targeting fibrotic diseases. The company seeks partners or investors to finance phase two trials. Oldham notes significant progress in cellular immunotherapy for solid cancers, highlighting a joint venture in Asia.

Dedicated long-term shareholders, including institutions and the Commonwealth Government, support AdAlta.

Oldham aims to showcase AdAlta's (ASX:1AD) potential and emphasises the company's East-West strategy for clinical pipeline expansion. AdAlta aspires to revolutionise the biotech industry.

Full unedited transcript below:

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Well at Alta has received a $177 million refund through the Australian Government's R&D incentive program. Part of the refund has been used to repay a one and a half or sorry, $1.4 million loan from the Victorian government, which was supporting its ongoing research. So let's get a status update, shall we? From Adelaide to CEO and managing director Tim Walden, who joins me now. Tim, welcome to Aussies. Thanks so much for joining us. So yeah, just talk to us a little bit about the dynamics of this R&D credit that you've received and how far along the journey has that taken you? Yeah. So look, I'd love it if it was if it was 177 million. Um, it's about 1.8 million, uh, dollars. Look, the R&D tax incentive is very much the lifeblood of small biotech companies in Australia. It allows us to extend our, um, uh, equity capital much, much further than it would otherwise be possible. Um, our refund this that we've just received in respect of the FY 24

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year, uh, enables us to retire a 1.4 million loan facility with the Victorian government, which enabled us to essentially bring forward our future R&D tax from from now until we received the initial grant in 2021. So that Victorian facility allowed us to extend our equity capital much, much further. We're very grateful to the Victorian government for extending that to us. Um, equally, we're now very pleased to be able to have repaid that in full. Uh, the balance of the refund, um, goes into our general cash position so that we have a much stronger balance sheet or significantly stronger balance sheet than we did a week ago. Um, and really, that's helping us then progress our two key priorities as a delta, which is transactions around our 82 and for lead asset to secure financing for phase two clinical trials. Um, and the in-licensing of cell therapies for solid cancers as part of our East to west cellular immunotherapy strategy. Uh,

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so those two transaction streams are really what our focus is now. Uh, and this rebate, uh, allows us to continue to drive towards those near-term transaction opportunities. Okay, so at Alta, could you just give us some of the milestones that you've achieved, I suppose in most recent times? Yeah. So really, we're up to, uh, earlier this year, we announced the completion of our phase one clinical program for our lead asset 82. And for, uh, 82 and for is taking a whole new approach to fibrotic diseases, trying to provide hope to the half a million patients around the world who are essentially living under a death sentence. That phase one trial was really the last step of work needed to get the asset ready for phase two clinical trials. Um, and we're now in the process of seeking licensing partners and or strategic investors to help us finance that phase two program. Uh, that would unlock then the underlying value of that asset, which we don't believe is reflected in our share price today. Um, and the second key milestone in recent times

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was the formation of HLA, which is the subsidiary which is a joint venture with Synthesis Bio Ventures, a local venture capital firm, which is really designed to bring the innovation in cellular immunotherapies for solid cancers. That's happening in Asia and particularly in China, into a Western regulated market, and make that available to patients in Australia and beyond. And there's a really enormous need for the ability to translate those innovations. We're getting very favorable responses, both from partners in China and also potential investors in that in that subsidiary. So they're the two milestones giving us really two very focused strategies to build and extend our clinical pipeline in the very near term. Okay. And so it's very difficult for the layperson to understand, you know, if you think of a string, how far along the journey you are to potential commercialization, because I see that you've got a preferred manufacturing for your cellular or manufacturer, I should say, for your cellular immunotherapies. So in a perfect

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world, if everything goes to plan, when would you be able to actually begin treating patients with the products?

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So for both of these products, they're still in clinical development. Um, obviously, we we're a long way. It's a very long way to to market an approval for routine use. Um, we would hope that if our financing closes for 80 214, as we plan that clinical trials for phase two would commence towards the end of 2025 or early 2026. Um, the lead time in between is really about manufacturing the drug product and completing some, um, uh, toxicology studies that, you know, just necessary tick box exercises. Uh, and then for our cellular immunotherapy strategy, um, if we were able to secure the transactions, we're hoping in the near term, uh, we were then spend 6 to 9 months technology transferring manufacturing into Australia to Cell Therapies, our manufacturing arm. And we would hope that we would be able to start treating patients again around about that same time frame towards the end of 2025, early 2026. Interesting. It's it's something that you've got to be so dedicated to, and it's such a long journey for

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all of those involved. What is your shareholder base like? I know that you've had institutional interest and a new life sciences came in on the or at least invested in the company back in April. Um, it just talked to us about about, you know, where the support is coming from. Yeah. So we're really blessed with some very dedicated and long term shareholders. Our top five shareholders, um, uh, include four institutions, uh, Platinum Asset Management's Life Sciences Fund, um, uh, the Commonwealth Government, uh, the Muir's family office, uh, and the, uh, and a high net worth new life sciences capital, and then a high net worth family office, uh, from Melbourne. Uh, and they've been with us for, with the exception of new life sciences for a really, really long time. Uh, we're eternally grateful for their support. They have the patience necessary to work through the very, very long development timeframes here. Um. Uh, so they're the core to us. They're between the five top five. We

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have about 55% of the shares sitting today. Um, and that gives us a really solid base for support going forward. Uh, our job now is really to reward that patient through, uh, executing the transactions that unlock the underlying value of our assets and our capabilities so that we don't we aren't waiting for those approval milestones and the completion of clinical trials in order to really bring light to the value of the assets that we are holding today. Um, interesting. And so, um, when you are thinking about

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what Alta could be in the future, I mean, we pride ourselves here in Australia as having quite a lot of well, I think we punch above our might when it comes to biotech when it comes to medtech as well. How do you envision the future?

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So we very much feel that we have the opportunity to build a, uh, sustainable, long term company that has multiple products in its pipeline that is training, uh, drug developers in how to do preclinical and clinical development of some of these groundbreaking assets and to change patients lives. Our mission is not to be a one trick pony that builds an asset ultimately for sale. Obviously, we need to monetize the assets at some point to generate a return on investment. But, you know, our mission in life is to build a robust clinical stage pipeline with multiple milestones. And this is why we embarked on our East-West cellular immunotherapy strategy to build that clinical pipeline behind 8214. And so I'm super excited about what we're up to. Uh, we've got a pretty dedicated team, uh, here in Melbourne that, uh, work both in our laboratories, but are increasingly working on the, the external part of our pipelines. Uh, and I'm really

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excited at a the commitment and the, the development and the challenges that they're taking on as they work into new technology spaces. So, um, super excited. I'm also very positive about some of the developments. Uh, we're going to start seeing in the relatively near term, uh, not just around the transactions, but the steps we're taking as we head into those transactions. Um, to, to build out the preparation for our phase two clinical trials. Um, and our in-licensing efforts.