Ventyx Biosciences at Jefferies Conference: Strategic Developments in Focus

On Thursday, 05 June 2025, Ventyx Biosciences (NASDAQ:VTYX) presented at the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2025, providing a strategic overview of its upcoming clinical trial data readouts and potential partnerships. The company’s strong cash position and strategic agreements with Sanofi were highlighted, alongside the competitive landscape of NLRP3 inhibitors.

Key Takeaways

• Three Phase II clinical trial readouts are anticipated, with the Parkinson’s trial data expected this month.
• Ventyx holds a $200 million cash reserve, covering current Phase II trial costs.
• The Sanofi right of first negotiation (ROFIN) agreement will be triggered after the cardiometabolic trial readout.
• The company’s NLRP3 inhibitors show potential in complementing existing therapies for Parkinson’s and cardiometabolic diseases.

Financial Results

• Ventyx Biosciences maintains approximately $200 million in cash.
• Current stock valuation is trading around or under cash value.
• All costs for Phase II trials are included in the existing cash reserves.

Operational Updates

• Phase II Trial Readouts:

- Parkinson’s trial readout expected in June 2025.

- Recurrent pericarditis and obesity cardiometabolic risk trials are expected in the fall, around Q3 and Q4.

• Sanofi ROFIN Agreement:

- Sanofi’s ROFIN on VTX-3232 will be triggered after the cardiometabolic trial readout.

- Sanofi and other companies can evaluate data before the formal ROFIN process.

• Parkinson’s Trial Design:

- Open-label, 10-patient trial with a 28-day dosing period.

- Focus on safety, CSF exposure, and biomarker modulation.

• Cardiometabolic Trial Design:

- Four arms: placebo, VTX-3232, semaglutide, and VTX-3232 + semaglutide.

- Aims to detect single-digit percentage weight loss and assess metabolic parameters.

Future Outlook

• Parkinson’s Program:

- Positive data will lead to planning for further Phase II studies.

- Seeking partnerships to accelerate development.

• Cardiometabolic Program:

- Exploring VTX-3232 as a monotherapy or in combination with GLP-1 agonists.

- Assessing impact on weight loss and metabolic parameters.

Q&A Highlights

• Sanofi ROFIN:

- Sanofi can negotiate around VTX-3232 post-cardiometabolic readout.

- Other companies can make offers during the ROFIN period.

• Competitive Landscape:

- Roche and other companies like Nodthera, BioAge, and Ventus are also developing NLRP3 inhibitors.

• Cardiometabolic Development:

- VTX-3232 is complementary to GLP-1 agonists, with potential effects on liver and metabolic parameters.

For a detailed understanding, refer to the full conference call transcript below.

Full transcript - Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2025:

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Don’t worry, we would not miss this.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Never a doubt, Mike.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Good afternoon. I’m Michael Yee, a biotechnology analyst here at Jefferies. And very happy to moderate our next discussion with Ventix Biosciences. We have members of the of the team up here. We have Raju Mohan, CEO, and Matt Moore.

Matt Moore. Fantastic. Maybe it would be a great opportunity, Raju, for you to just make some, broad opening comments. Ventix obviously is executing on the pipeline, And actually we’re awaiting some data soon. But, you have a couple of programs going on and I would love for you to just start by discussing the the key programs.

And obviously, again, we’re expecting some data soon, so maybe kind of talk about that and what we’re focused on this year.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Yeah, thank you. And so this is Matt Moore. Matt’s our Chief Operating Officer.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Fantastic.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: And pleasure to be here. Thanks, Mike, and thanks for the folks that are here. So, you know, it’s June of twenty twenty five. And I think this is really our moment in time in the sense of where we were as a company two years ago, where we started out with the inflammasome, where we are today. And the rest of the year, the next two core, going to define us in the field of the inflammasomes, in particular NNRP3.

And we have three Phase II readouts coming. One, the first one, is going to be the trial in early Parkinson’s patients with our, obviously the CNS molecule. This is a biomarker trial. We can talk more about that in a bit.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Is it a brain penetrant NLR3?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: It’s a brain penetrant CNS inhibitor. It’s a different scaffold from the peripheral compound, two thousand seven hundred thirty five. This is VTX-three thousand two hundred thirty two. So that trial is going to read out this month. So we’ve guided folks towards the second quarter.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Can you clarify that? The Parkinson’s study reads out?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: This month.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: This month? Yeah. Okay.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: So we guided folks towards the second quarter and the second quarter is now. The second and third studies are the second one is a study with a peripheral compound in patients with recurrent pericarditis. And this is an open label trial. It’s modeled after a biologic out there, Arcalist. Yes.

Which is It’s an IL-one alpha beta trap. And this is an open label trial. And this trial will read out sometime in the second half. So sort of the cusp between the third and the fourth quarter.

And then the final trial is our large placebo blinded BTX-three thousand two hundred thirty two. Again, this is our central compound, brain penetrant, but also peripheral. Obviously it’s peripheral as well. And this is a trial in subjects with obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors. Call it a obesity cardiometabolic risk trial.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: That’s right. And when does that study read

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: out? And that’ll read out again on the cusp of third and fourth quarters, right? So both these trials will read out.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Call it in the fall, I guess you’re saying?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Call it in the fall, right?

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Think Formal guidance is, okay.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Yeah, so it’s not going to be the last months of the year. So sometime after the third quarter.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Okay.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: So that’s where we are. Know, we’ve executed amazingly well. Can’t wait to see the data and share with folks. Yeah. Multiple opportunities, multiple folks out there also looking for this data as well.

Right? And in a good cash position as we already built out the team.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: So you’ve you’ve teed it up well. There’s a a broad array of different types of investors that are looking at Ventix. I’ve had a number of, people reach out and, kind of revisit this, for a number of reasons. Obviously, there’s data coming up, in the next few months. And, the stock obviously is at a very low valuation right now.

Trading was around cash, under cash, somewhere in that range on any given day. And also, if I may add a third interesting piece of that which has caused a lot of people to start asking about Ventix is because on the NLRP three brain penetrant molecule, Sanofi has a right of first negotiation agreement. They put a little bit of money in, money in, right? They own a little bit of the firm and they have a right of first negotiation on this, which was an interesting deal at the time, but also got particularly interesting because another, company that Jefferies covers, Vigil, had a right of first negotiation also with Sanofi, and that actually just got acquired. So given that there is data coming up for Ventix and they also have a right a first negotiation, a lot of investors have been looking at this.

And so I think he alluded to not only investors waiting for the data, but obviously perhaps other strategic people are also looking at it. So maybe we could start with that because that first Parkinson’s data comes. And I’m trying to figure out like how does the Sanofi transaction transaction negotiation work because that molecule is in Parkinson’s, but also the obesity part. So can you just, first remind us, because it is timely, what the Sanofi deal is and how that is actually structured. And then given that that sets up for, let’s actually look at the data and what’s coming and what is good data.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Yeah. So the Sanofi deal is a ROFIN. So people that are not familiar, it’s rights of first negotiation. It’s not right of first refusal, right of first negotiation.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: And

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: what that means is that it’s a right to negotiate around VTX 3,232. It’s a molecule centered deal. And the Rofin is triggered, or starts, at the end of the second readout, which is the cardiometabolic readout. All right? Now to put it in context, you know, we do When

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: that data is complete or in house?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Like I said, the third, fourth, the cusp of

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: the third, fourth yeah, That’s when the window can you clarify that?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: That’s when the formal process starts as far as defined, is x number of days for them to look at the data, X number of days to come in and say we have an interest, and then of course they

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: get to look at it first and go

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: through some Right, and in reality, if and we believe this from our discussions with Sanofi and their history with neurodegenerative diseases, with their success with the BTK inhibitor. Now their interest in Vigil. They’ve built a and they’re not the only ones, but the fact that we are a little bit close to them I call it a loose handshake, if you want to call it. You know, they’ve got a commitment to cardio to a neurodegenerative disease. They made it public.

They are not afraid to take on Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, TBI, epilepsy, Huntington’s, ALS. So to us, the second readout is essentially they don’t want look at the data. They want to see the safety. Nothing else. That trial is three months of safety with the same compound, right?

Having said that, not to get too much into it, because we haven’t had the data yet, we haven’t put that out yet. But assuming everything is as planned, they they or anybody else can act any time. Right? We can’t solicit other folks as part of Rofin, but somebody can say, hey, look, we love your, you know, we love your data because we’re going to put it out. Right?

Once we have it, it’s not just going to be cloistered. It’s going to be put out to to the

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: investors. What you’re saying is, well, first of all, again, this is very timely, we’ll get into some of keys. But this is timely because investors are trying to understand this, and this would be very helpful for investors and quite frankly the analysts, which is that you said, hey, you could put out the data that is you’re gonna put you’re gonna put

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: out the data.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: And that’s great, and we’ll look at all the data. Technically, right of first negotiation is a specific contractual window that they get to open up and be the first to look at it in kind of a structured way, but that’s after the second data, which is later this fall. Now, if people look at the Vigil situation, which just happened, that was I don’t know if that was a deal specific molecule or not, but Sanofi acquired the whole company

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Mhmm.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: In that case.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Right.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: And so first, I guess, since I don’t cover Vigil but someone else, was that a deal specific situation to you? Maybe they only have one drug.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Well, becomes semantics, right? They took the oral and they gave back the biologic, my guess is back to Amgen is what my recollection is. That’s semantics, right? Look,

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: you were saying, look, obviously anyone can look at the data, anyone can also look at that. That’s public, and we’re going look at it. They can look at a data room, but also anyone can make an offer any time frame, too.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Well, there’s some nuances to data rooms and so on, we don’t get into it. But certainly the public data is available to everybody. Exactly. And the last piece I’ll say on that is that Sanofi is not restricted to waiting until the second readout. They can have a look at this data at the first read itself.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Right? Exactly.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: And that’s the way it’s set up in Exactly.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. So let’s talk, because I think the point is anyone can look at stuff anytime. Sanofi obviously gets a phone call and gets to look at stuff regardless. Tell us about this data set coming up and kind of maybe delineate the value proposition here in Parkinson’s neuroinflammation versus cardiometabolic obesity where, you know, that’s obviously a totally different value proposition. So maybe talk about those two and maybe the risk around that and like what is positive?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Yeah. What is So Parkinson’s, so before, if you back up a year and a half ago before the mouse data came out in obesity, obesity was not on the radar for an inflammasome inhibitor, right? The idea that central inflammation is going to be a player in weight reduction and feeding was not really considered. But the link between neuroinflammation triggered by IL-one beta triggered by NLRP3 in the glial cell, in the microglia, linked to astrocytes had been established, right? Now, by no means is the picture clear.

What happens post that in terms of the neurons dying in Parkinson’s or in Alzheimer’s? That has yet to be established, right? But the fundamental belief in biology that neuroinflammatory trigger is what’s responsible for neurodegeneration is now exciting for folks, including folks like Sanofi, right, that believe that you can perhaps have disease modifying therapy. So just talking about the trial itself. So this trial is a it’s an open label.

It’s a 10 patient trial in patients with early Parkinson’s disease. Primarily, there are three things that we would want to see that would define a success factor here. First, of course, is safety. Second is evidence of exposure in the CSF, which is a surrogate for free fraction in the brain. Evidence of exposure where we can cover the target completely, Which means we’re blocking NLRP3 pathway.

The first pathway is IL-one beta, which then drives IL-six, which drives HSCRP, and downstream, on and on and on. So clear evidence of blocking the pathway in the CSF. Safety, exposure, evidence of biomarker modulation in the CSF.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: PD markers.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: PD markers. Barrow markers of MRP3.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: How long is it the dosing?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Male a twenty eight day trial.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Male So once daily for twenty eight

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: days? Once daily for twenty

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: eight Different cohorts of dosing?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Male Just single dose level. Okay.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: You based on phase one you picked your highest, safest, tolerated We picked

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: the highest, yeah. We picked a dose where our exposure modeling told us we were at least three times above where we would need to completely block the target.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Yeah, based on PK.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Based on And

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: then calculations on how much is getting into

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: ex vivo biomarkers. Yeah.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: So you picked that dose, took it into this. This is once daily for

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: twenty eight Once daily, twenty eight days.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: And open label, so no placebo.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Male But each patient is their own control, So we a baseline on all the factors. Then we have post dose on day twenty eight. So success is defined by exposure, safety, PD in the CSF.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Right? How much exposure do you need in the CSF? The first one I know I know how to look at, safety. Exposure in the CSF, what’s a good level?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Well, if this is a if this is a level that you need to cover the target, you at least want this level. Right? We’re three experts.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Well, what is that level? Don’t want to hear it postoperatively.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Well, depends on let’s say you’re 100% inhibition, 90% inhibition is 100 nanomolar. You need 100 nanomolar in the CSF to

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: cover So you know what is the level that you would like to see?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: 300, four hundred nanomolar? 300, four hundred nanomolar.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Is plenty of exposure, to be covering it. So when we get

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: to the doubt. You have no doubt that you are Yeah.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: You’re, like, three times covered. Yes. Thank you. So three, four hundred nanomolar is multiple fold coverage of the target in the brain. And that’s the amount that you’d see in

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: the And want it covered at trough levels. It means you want continuous coverage 20 fourseven of those levels.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. So you want the trough levels to be 300 to 400. Okay. Now, if all that happens, then you know it’s getting into the brain. So then the next question is it engaging the target and then having downstream effects to be shutting down the biomarkers?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: For NLRP3.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Sure. And so what markers are those and what do we want to see?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: You want to see a suppression of IL-one beta.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: You

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: want to see so then you have a cascade of biomarkers, right? And if you start to see a consistent suppression of all of those, then you know it’s real clear that I’m going to suppress IL-one beta, which then suppresses IL-six, which then affects down acute phase reactants, which is CRP, serum amyloid A, Male on and on

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: and It’s all a consistent

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Male has to

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Male How much IL-1B beta reduction in this would be in the CSF?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Well, so IL-one beta is hard to measure in the CSF. So we look at CRP.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Look at We can see what?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: In the CSF, HSCRP

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: is Okay, say HSCRP, that’s the inflammation marker.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: IL-six, which is upstream of HSCRP. IL-one beta in plasma.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Okay.

Plasma, okay.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: So you’ve got this dynamics of

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: And how much is a good hsCRP reduction, which is a tricky marker in inflammation because cover a lot of other how much in the So

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: wherever these folks come in, and remember they are not severely inflamed, So early Parkinson’s patients are not people that have infection or but wherever they come in, we want the levels to go down to basal levels.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Basal levels.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Towards the level of detection, the lower level of detection,

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: right? And how do we know

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: prospectively what’s the right basal level of HSCR peak? Or do you look

We look at the basal levels coming in, right? So let’s say you’re coming in at two nanograms per mil, for example. You want it to go down to whatever the basal level is, point five, something like that. But then also be consistent with all the other markers. It’s not just one marker.

Picture has to be unambiguous for us.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Well, what’s going to happen, and I’m trying to keep it simple, but this is, you know, a picture. Investors and certainly scientists will look at it. We want to see consistent reductions of the key markers that tell a consistent message that you have coverage but also that the biomarkers are going down. So you listed off some of those and we’ll take a look at that over the 10 patients, so 10, and we’ll determine if it’s active.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Correct.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: How what do you do from there? Do you well, a, you feel good that you could be derisking the target.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Mhmm.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: You’d be like, oh, I I feel good. Now I’ll still look at the cardiometabolic data coming later this year.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Mhmm.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: So what do you do?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Well I think the Parkinson’s team then

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Yeah, what happens?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: The Parkinson’s team says, you know, this is the success factor we defined. We’ve achieved exactly what we wanted. We’ve got safety, coverage, start planning for phase two studies, right? And then certainly we’ve got folks out there that are

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Looking at looking

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: at the data as well. And in all, you know, look, in all candor, to get a drug like this, which we think is disease modifying, right? This is a case for a biotech pharma partnership. But no other business reasons, just the fact that you need to accelerate this. Right?

Sure. There’s multiple opportunities. There’s debate around Alzheimer’s being more appropriate, sometimes easier in terms of the digital biomarkers available. So that’s our goal. And if we if we establish this compound to be the best out there in terms of brain coverage, target coverage in these patients, then we’ve taken the baton all the way to the last person who’s going to take it and run.

Just

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: as the CEO, but also just you would therefore want the maximal value for your shareholders. Isn’t if someone looks at the Parkinson’s data and says it’s clearly got great coverage, clearly CNS penetrant, clearly the biomarkers are going down consistently very well.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: But

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: obviously if you could wait a quarter or two, we’re going to get more information and some form of value based on what we’re seeing in cardiometabolic. And by the way, that’s just more than just obesity. Know, year ago we were just talking about But there’s other things that that drug could be doing in other applications like maintenance of weight loss and all sorts of things. How do you think about that?

It’s like, okay, well if someone just gave us a really attractive offer based on the Parkinson’s, that’s a great deal that also incorporates some value there versus, hey, if we just wait two quarters, we could get there, but maybe the buyer’s gone. Whatever it is,

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: like how’s that working Well, if someone comes to us with an offer, look, we, you know, we look at all options all the time. Let me tell you, our focus right now, I mean, the good thing about where we are is we’ve got three trials. Yep. We’ve been amazing custodians of our capital.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Right?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: We’ve got somewhere upwards of 200,000,000. We disclosed last time $2.30. 2 hundred. And and the trials are all baked in. So we’re we’re we’re in no anxiety to to push this

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Right.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: In any unreasonable way.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: You have 200,000,000.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Yeah. And and we wanna when we wanna play out this story Yep. To understand the potential of this molecule, attend the potential of the peripheral compound Yep. Generate really good data. Right?

And, you know, buyers come, buyers go. But our focus right now is really not to focus on that aspect of

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: it. Sure. Okay. So, we’ll be excited to look at that data. Hopefully, it’s positive data.

You’re looking to put out a press release or whatnot.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: And Mhmm.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: I don’t know if you’d host a call or whatnot, but you put a put a press release, and you’ll come back to us on that. But, this is an important data point. There is no urgency to transact on this data. Mhmm. But this is important to uncover

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: the Absolutely. Yeah.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: The key here

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: So I’m gonna promise you a Yeah. A PR, and I’m gonna promise you a call.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Alright.

Can you remind me, in this landscape, are there other I I do recall that Roche is also running an NLRP3 in Parkinson’s.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Correct.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Where’s their data? Because it was supposed to come and then they don’t have it presented. What’s the landscape right now in NLRP3?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: So Roche yeah, it’s good to talk about that because Roche set the precedent for this type of a trial, arguing that a biomarker trial in twenty eight days was sufficient. And if you look at their trial design, which they publicize now and ours, it pretty much mirrors it, right? So it’s a biomarker. There’s an imaging component in the trial, microglia imaging, but nobody puts a lot of weight in early. It’s an exploratory endpoint.

And we’re looking for the data point as well. I was at the ADPD meeting in Vienna. They haven’t put it out. Right. I don’t know the technical issues.

I mean, could put out, you’d say, look, the compound is is safe, but we’re not seeing anything. Right. I don’t know, Mike. Right. You know?

Right.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: They haven’t even commented on it.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Well, think when companies don’t have a full picture of the brain penetration of their molecule, right, it’s hard to know if they’re hitting the target. If, because if we don’t see exposure in the CSF, you’re not going to see the target, right? Right. So when we lay out our phase one studies, we show you everything from exposure to calibration of the 100 nanomolar as you talked about, right? So it’s hard to, you know, I mean I’d love to see the data.

Maybe they’re in phase two without the data. It’s really hard to So

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: that’s one. Are there other NLRP3s that we should be paying attention to, to track?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: I think there’s a lot of companies out there. I mean I’m not going to single one out, but historically there’s Vintas One

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: named Notethera.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: There’s Notethera.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: There’s Notethera. Metabolic. Oh they also did a, are they in CNS as well?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: They did a CNS study as well. Yeah.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. And are they doing a CNS study?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Don’t know.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Similar comp to what’s going on here.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: I don’t know where they are in progressing that thing, but they did publish a phase 2A study. Again, devoid of any real details. It’s hard to tell exactly what was going on in there in that study.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: I remember the obesity study. Is that what you’re referring to?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: The Parkinson’s one.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: There’s a Parkinson’s one. They also put out some data.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: But there’s going be a lot of players. This reminds me of those two days when, well, so. I don’t want remember those. Well, people, a lot of, I know, I know. And a lot of people jumped in.

Think you see a lot of companies, BioAge.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: BioAge. Yeah.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Nomura had a compound Ventus. There’s a lot of companies. I mean, this is a great target. This is a great target.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: There is. I mean, the great thing about the the CNS, but also the cardiometabolic is there’s various ways to develop it, apply it, you know. How is it going to work? Is it going to be some absolute single monotherapy cure for Parkinson’s? Or maybe it should be added on top of an A beta or an early Alzheimer’s.

So then cardiometabolic too, which I want to shift to as well, which is it’s not, probably not meant to be a replacement for orfaglipron, an oral GLP-one. But there’s ways that that mechanism could be complementary.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: So you’ve been really reading up on this. I spot on. Yeah. So Parkinson’s is going to be poly pharmacy. Yeah.

Even if this directly is a target there’s going to be therapies in Parkinson’s or in A beta in Alzheimer’s. But that’s a real, I think,

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: a I mean in Parkinson’s there’s many different drugs going on in various parts of Parkinson’s. And, you know, people have been looking for new developments. I mean, I’ve covered some of those companies and they can add on to some of those.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Right. And that’s a different value proposition. It’s a clear, you know, whether we as move forward is a clear validation of the approach. Obesity

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Let’s talk about cardiometabolic.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: So tell me about the design of the You hit it right, you know, right where the study is. It’s essentially a signal finding study, And that’s really hard for investors to get and I get why they don’t get it because on one side we have obesity which is a clear endpoint, right? But we don’t guide folks towards any expectation on weight loss, right? The mouse is a mouse. Mouse feeding behavior does not translate into humans.

Mechanistically, you could wave your hand and say there is something. But we’re doing the definitive study. We’ve got a study that is both monotherapy with a placebo, with $3,002.32. And we have a combination arm with semaglutide, also with placebo. Semi is not, but

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: How long is this study?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Three month study.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Three months. So placebo? Placebo drug. Monotherapy three thousand two hundred thirty two and 3232 on top of GLP-one.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Three thousand twenty two GLP-one, sugar GLP-one.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Arms. Got it.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Got it.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Four arms. Four arms.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Four arms upwards of 40 subjects per arm.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: 40 subjects

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: per 40 per arm. Per arm.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Yeah. That’s big. Okay.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: It’s power to detect single digit weight loss percentages. Wow. Right. And so additional weight loss, there’s a complete it’s a complete whole body scan in terms of chemistry, clinical chemistry, glycemic indices, lipid panels, liver panels, DXA for body composition, MRI PDFF for body and liver scan, and a corrected T1 scan for liver fibrosis, liver fat, similar

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: to what ask, can I ask

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Akiro has been doing?

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Can I ask, this is a very relevant? So when this data comes, three month data, having followed the inflammation space, particularly the IL-one space, canakinumab, I think that Wall Street has a very reasonable belief that shutting down the IL-1B pathway through canakinumab has demonstrated clinically meaningful cardiovascular benefits in large randomized studies. Take a look at that study. And so those, you know, require long big studies and then ultimately they got the result. In three months it’s definitely plausible that you’re going to see knockdowns of HSCRP.

You’re going to see, I don’t even know if you’d see lipids and what they’re going to change, but in three months I think you would see various markers change which would mean it’s safe, it’s active, it’s doing something. What do you do with that because you’re totally right that weight loss as a monotherapy would be nominal. Weight loss on top of GLP-one is likely to be nominal. And so how does one develop that?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Well, depends on weight loss on top of what that I think 3025%, thirty % above SEMA would be quite meaningful. MILLER:

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Interesting. Now, let me be clear. On three months of injectable SEMA, three months, are these particularly obese people?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Male They are thirty to forty two BMI.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Male Okay. So in three months you’re going to get a few percent weight loss.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Male Five to 6%.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Male Five to 6%. So you’re telling me if the combo arm had 7%, that’s actually 40 percent But you know, a percent or two added on top is statistically significant. It’s definitely saying it’s incrementally helping. That would be meaningful, I

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: guess, over And what comes with it in terms of either additive effects on sema or direct effects of the drug that are not. Like for example, sema is GLPs are not directly active in the liver, for example, right? And then RP3, if I had to guess one target tissue where this is going to have a profound impact, it is in the liver.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: What effect? Fat reduction

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: folks have shown effect on lipolysis, fat reduction, potentially effects on lipoprotein A. Again, nothing borne out by human studies, right?

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. Are you doing MRI PDFF?

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: We are doing MRI PDFF. We’re doing a CT one scan, which is a corrected water scan, right? So we’re not going to leave any stone unturned. And I think the total composite of this picture would come out of wear. And remember, the the anything outside weight is all peripheral

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Yes.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: In our mind. And that’s where you have the opportunity with the peripheral compound.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: The reality is that there are a lot of strategic players with a lot of deep pockets who would need to do these because you’re a smaller company, certainly in CNS. In cardiometabolic, if you listen to Merck and others, they certainly are looking at other mechanisms that are peripheral or complementary to GLP-one. Likewise, I think we’ve done enough with GLP-one. And so there are other things to add on top to differentiate programs and strategies to be helpful and meaningful in obesity.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: And IL-six, which is something we don’t talk about companies like, well a couple of companies are going after IL-six antibodies right now in ASCVD, right?

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: Yes. Well just that, again, canakinumab definitely shows that there’s clinically meaningful benefits. And so an oral small molecule version of this would be great. So thank you very much. We look forward to data coming up this month.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Our pleasure, yeah.

Michael Yee, Biotechnology Analyst, Jefferies: And then obviously go from there and we’ll have more important data on NLRP three later this year. So thank you very much.

Matt Moore, Chief Operating Officer, Ventix Biosciences: Thank you, Mike. Thank you all. Yep. Thank

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