Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc (ARCT) 2021 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Arcturus Therapeutics Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce Neda Safarzadeh, Senior Director and Head of Investor Relations, Public Relations and Marketing. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. We are joined today by Joseph Payne, President and CEO; Andy Sassine, CFO; Dr. Pad Chivukula, CSO and COO; and Dr. Steve Hughes, our Chief Medical Officer.

Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that except for statements of historical facts, the statements made by management and any responses to questions on this conference call constitute forward-looking statements that involve potential risks and uncertainties for purposes of the safe harbor provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements other than the statements of historical facts included in this communication, including those regarding our planned, anticipated or potential development manufacturing and commercialization activities or events, including with respect to funding, initiation, design or completion of clinical trials, the likelihood of success of the company's coronavirus COVID-19 vaccine candidate or other product candidates, the company's manufacturing and other operations and the company's current and future cash and financial position are forward-looking statements.

Actual results and performance could differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including, without limitation, an inability to develop and market product candidates, unexpected clinical results and general market conditions that may prevent such achievements or performance. Such achievements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties, including those discussed under the heading Risk Factor in Arcturus's most recent annual report on Form 10-K with the SEC and in other filings that Arcturus makes with the SEC.

Except as otherwise required by law, we disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise.

Now it is my pleasure to pass the call to Joe Payne, President and CEO. Joe, please go ahead.

Thank you, Neda. Good afternoon to all. Thank you for joining the Arcturus' quarterly call today. Arcturus is developing a powerful new class of mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics. Over the last decade, our team has developed a differentiated platform technology as well as highly promising pipeline candidates. We believe that our approach has the potential to directly address the underlying molecular basis of many serious diseases and could make a transformative difference to the lives of patients confronting many life-threatening conditions. This quarter has been an exceptionally productive period for Arcturus, where we have made substantial progress with our mRNA-based vaccines, our therapeutic programs as well as the advancement of our underlying core technologies.

In addition, we have also been effective at obtaining non-dilutive financial support to drive our pipeline forward in a very capital-efficient manner. I'll begin with a discussion of the progress we've made with our vaccine programs targeting COVID-19 and starting with ARCT-021, our most -- our lead program.

ARCT-021 is a differentiated single-shot COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidate that clinically exhibits a promising T cell response profile. And this profile is attributed to the STARR, or self-transcribing and replicating mRNA technology. We believe that our approach may provide meaningful advantages compared to currently available vaccines for COVID-19. We believe the single -- the single shot dosing regimen would be highly favored even required in certain regions of the world compared to the 2 shot regimens employed with currently authorized mRNA vaccines for emergency use.

We have an ongoing fully enrolled ARCT-021 Phase II study. We have previously discussed the encouraging preliminary tolerability and immunogenicity data from this study, as well as from our prior completed Phase I study. Specifically, immunogenicity data from the study shows greater than 90% zero conversion for IgG antibodies, binding to the full-length spike protein at day 28, following a single shot dose of ARCT-021.

The full results from the Phase II study remain blinded, and we expect to obtain those data later this year. Based on the available support of data, we've made excellent progress advancing ARCT-021 to Phase III development. We are very pleased to report today that ARCT-021 has been selected by a global entity for inclusion in a Phase III vaccine trial against COVID-19, and we expect this study to begin imminently.

After the specifics of the Phase III study are announced, we will provide more details with respect to this program. We can disclose that this will be a multinational placebo-controlled Phase III study designed to enroll tens of thousands of participants and will evaluate a 5-microgram dose of ARCT-021 administered as a single injection regimen. Again, this is a differentiating feature of ARCT-021.

Importantly, this large Phase III study, upon commencement, will be sponsored and funded by the global entity. We are understandably very grateful for their support, and we very much look forward to the initiation of the ARCT-021 Phase III study as we look to bring this vaccine to communities in need across the world as rapidly as possible.

I will also note that outside of Singapore, Vietnam and Israel, Arcturus retains full global economic and distribution rights to ARCT-021. We've also made progress providing access to our vaccine technology in order to broaden the ability of individuals across the world to access COVID-19 vaccines.

Earlier this month, we announced an agreement with Vinbiocare to establish a manufacturing facility in Vietnam for the manufacturer of Arcturus' investigational COVID-19 vaccines. Vinbiocare will build out a manufacturing facility in Hanoi, and Arcturus will provide access to our proprietary manufacturing technologies.

In exchange, Vinbiocare has made a substantial $40 million upfront payment to Arcturus. Vinbiocare will also purchase the mRNA drug substance from Arcturus and pay a royalty on the doses manufactured. This is a strategically important transaction for Arcturus, and we believe this is also financially attractive, providing valuable capital to support the manufacturing efforts and continued development of our pipeline.

While we have driven forward our lead vaccine candidate along with our manufacturing capacity, we've also advanced our next-generation self-amplifying mRNA vaccines targeting the highly prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants that are circulating across our planet. As we all know, cases have been growing at a concerning rate, driven in large part by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Here in the U.S., daily cases again topped 100,000, and alarming increases in transmission have been seen in many other countries across the world. Our expectation is that this Delta variant and additional SARS-CoV-2 variants will remain endemic in the human population for years to come.

Fortunately, we at Arcturus, can rapidly update our mRNA vaccines as needed to address variants of concern. We identified ARCT-154, a next-generation 2-shot mRNA vaccine that has been optimized to elicit high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the variants. Preclinical data has shown that our next-generation vaccines result in substantially increased levels of neutralizing antibodies to the variants of concern.

If the observed increases of neutralizing antibodies in primates translate to similar fold increases in humans, then ARCT-154 could be an excellent vaccine to protect against the variants of concern, including the Delta variant. ARCT-154 utilizes STARR technology, that's the self-amplifying mRNA molecule. Therefore, it retains a promising T cell profile in primates as well.

In all of our studies, preclinically and clinically, we observe self-amplifying mRNA to generate better T cell responses than conventional mRNA. The robust T cell responses are attributed to the self-amplifying mRNA mechanism of antigen expression. I'll now turn the time over to Dr. Steve Hughes, our Chief Medical Officer here at Arcturus, to discuss our efforts targeting viral variants in more detail, including our clinical development progress as well as the progress we have made with our mRNA therapeutic franchise. Steve?

Thanks, Joe. I'll start with a progress update on our novel vaccine programs designed to target widely circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the highly contagious Delta variant that is now prominent across many countries. Arcturus has advanced ARCT-154 and ARCT-165 to next-generation STARR mRNA vaccine candidates that have been designed to effectively target SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

ARCT-154 utilizes an optimized STARR mRNA sequence, where we have incorporated multiple modifications, including for stability and increased translation, as well as changes made to increase the immunogenicity of the spike protein.

Preclinical data demonstrates strong neutralizing immunogenicity in non-human primates to SARS-CoV-2 Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants, and we have provided additional experimental data in the press release issued this morning. Preclinical non-human primate data demonstrate that ARCT-154 elicits meaningfully higher neutralizing antibodies than ARCT-021, including neutralizing antibodies against the Delta variant.

Also, as we observed with ARCT-021, we have observed robust T cell responses with ARCT-154. Based on the strong support of frequency data, we have taken steps to rapidly advance these novel vaccine programs towards clinical development in multiple studies.

Earlier this month, we announced approval for a clinical trial application from the Singapore Health Sciences Authority to enable advancement of ARCT-154 and ARCT-165 into a Phase I/II clinical trial. This study will evaluate the vaccines both as a primary vaccination series and as a booster following initial vaccination with Comirnaty.

We have been working with our partner, Vinbiocare, to initiate a pivotal trial with ARCT-154, and CTA approval from the Vietnam Ministry of Health was recently received to advance ARCT-154 into a Phase I/II/III clinical study. The trial, which is being sponsored and funded by Vinbiocare is a randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled design that will assess the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy in up to 21,000 participants, with potential for Emergency Use Authorization by the Vietnam Ministry of Health as early as December 2021.

I will now turn to ARCT-810, our therapeutic candidate for ornithine transcarbamylase, or OTC deficiency. ARCT-810 utilizes Arcturus' LUNAR lipid-mediated delivery platform to deliver OTC messenger RNA to the liver, the primary target tissue in OTC deficiency. Expression of the normal ornithine transcarbamylase enzyme in the liver of patients with OTC deficiency has the potential to restore urea cycle activity preventing neurological damage and the need for liver transplantation.

To date, we have completed a Phase I healthy volunteer dose escalation study with ARCT-810. The study demonstrated that administration of ARCT-810 was associated with favorable tolerability and an attractive pharmacokinetic profile up to the top dose of 0.4 milligrams per kilogram, which is within the anticipated therapeutic range based upon data from our preclinical studies.

Based upon these encouraging data, we have advanced this program to mid-stage development. And last month, we obtained approval from the U.K. Health Research Authority to initiate a Phase II multiple-dose clinical trial for ARCT-810, and we are currently recruiting sites.

The ARCT-810 Phase II study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, nested single and multiple ascending dose design that includes adolescents and adults with OTC deficiency. ARCT-810 Phase II study interim results from a subset of participants are expected in the second half of 2022.

Before I close, I will also mention that our collaborator, Ultragenyx, recently got Orphan Drug Designation and IND allowance for a Phase I/II study to evaluate safety, tolerability and efficacy of UX053 in patients with GSDIII, and the study is expected to begin in the second half of 2021.

UX053 is an investigational mRNA-based therapy, encoding full-length glycogen debranching enzyme encapsulated in a lipid nano particle and was developed by the Arcturus R&D team. We are very pleased to see this program advance into clinical development. Furthermore, we believe that the progress made with UX053 represents another example of the board application that is possible with our mRNA technology platform.

I will now pass the call on to Andy, our CFO.

Thank you, Steve, and good afternoon, everyone. The press release issued earlier today includes financial statements for the second quarter of fiscal year '21 and provides a summary and analysis of our year-over-year and sequential performance. In our consolidated balance sheet, the second column should be dated as March 31, 2021, and not March 31, 2020. Please reference our 10-Q for more details on the financial performance.

Today, I will elaborate on the major changes impacting our cost and operations as we transition to a later-stage clinical company with multiple programs in our pipeline. I will also provide some details regarding our manufacturing strategy as we prepare for the potential of Emergency Use Authorization in multiple vaccine programs.

Finally, I will provide some insights regarding our cash position and expected runway. We are fortunate that a global entity has selected our ARCT-021 vaccine to be included in a global Phase III trial, which they will sponsor and fund with participating country. We are also very fortunate to partner our ARCT-154 vaccine program with Vinbiocare, who will sponsor and fund our stage Phase III clinical trial targeting the Delta variant. Vinbiocare Biotechnology is a part of the Vingroup, one of Vietnam's largest corporation. Partnering these 2 vaccines will save us well over $300 million in clinical trial expenses.

I will now talk about our global manufacturing footprint. We continue to build out our global manufacturing strategy by adding 2 key partnerships during the quarter and expanding our capabilities with another strategic partner. We have diversified our manufacturing footprint with strategic partners in Asia, Europe and the U.S.A. Last week, we announced a key partnership with the Vingroup to produce up to 200 million doses per year in Vietnam starting in 2022.

Recently, we signed a joint venture agreement with Axcelead in Japan to form a joint venture, ARCALIS, to produce mRNA drug substance beginning in 2023. Axcelead is a Japanese company that formed a comprehensive, collaborative partnership with Hitachi to develop solutions for next-generation biopharmaceuticals.

We also expanded our relationship with the Recipharm in Germany to significantly expand drug product capabilities, including fill-finish production of our lyophilized vaccines. We are also fortunate to have continuous strong relationship with Aldevron and Catalent in the United States and Polymun in Austria. We continue to plan for the potential that one or more of our vaccines could receive Emergency Use Authorization later this year or early next year.

Along with our global manufacturing partner, we expect to have the capacity to produce hundreds of millions of doses annually. I want to provide some color on our quarterly expenditures and forecasted cash runway. Our total recurring operating expenses averaged about $55 million in each of the first 2 quarters of fiscal year '21. Approximately $10 million is attributed to G&A, and that should increase by $1 million or $2 million for the remainder of 2021. The remaining $45 million in R&D expenses relate to our current pipeline, supporting our OTC cystic fibrosis, LUNAR-FLU and COVID vaccine programs, including stockpiling long lead time raw materials and vaccines for EUA.

This amount is expected to increase in the second half of '21 as we ramp our production of ARCT-154 vaccines. Our cash balance at the end of the second quarter was $434 million, and we received the remaining $30 million for our upfront payment from Vinbiocare last week. Based on our current pipeline, the company's cash position is expected to be sufficient to support operations for more than 2 years. I will now pass the call back to Joe.

Thanks, Andy. As we can hear from this call already that this has been a very productive quarter, and Arcturus has made substantial progress advancing our mRNA-based therapeutic and vaccine platforms. We believe that we have developed a powerful technology with the potential for broad applications across multiple diseases, with both mRNA vaccines and mRNA therapeutics.

To recap our recent progress, number one, we advanced ARCT-021, our lead vaccine program and obtained external support and funding by a global entity for inclusion in a multinational placebo-controlled Phase III vaccine trial. Number two, we identified ARCT-154 as a next-generation vaccine designed to elicit potent neutralizing immunogenicity to widely circulating SARS-CoV-2 2 variants and obtained CTA approvals in multiple countries to support its clinical development, including a Stage 3 -- Phase III study in Vietnam fully funded by Vinbiocare.

Third, we have been approved to transition ARCT-810, our lead systemically administered mRNA therapeutic, into a multiple dose Phase II clinical study. And finally, we've also made considerable progress strengthening our core capabilities and increased our manufacturing capacity. So we expect to have an exciting second half of the year ahead with a number of anticipated milestones with our vaccine and therapeutic candidates, and we look forward to keeping you informed of our progress.

At this point, we can now go ahead and open the line for questions. Operator, please proceed.

(Operator Instructions) Our first questions come from the line of Yasmeen Rahimi with Piper Sandler.

I have 3 questions for you. Maybe the first one is, can you tell us what is the secret sauce behind 154 that drives almost the 15 to 20 fold higher NAB versus 21 and maybe versus other self-amplifying mRNA that we have seen? Second question for you is, did you run convalescent -- human convalescent sera in your NAB analysis? And can you provide the ranges and the severity of that? And then I have a follow-up question in regards to 21.

Great questions. Yes, thanks for joining the call. I'll pass the mic over to Pad to address your question as to why ARCT-154 exhibits high neutralizing antibodies.

Sure. Thanks, Joe. Obviously, we've learned a lot over the last year in terms of improving immunogenicity of these spike protein-based construct. So some of the key optimizations that we've done for the 154 includes modification and stability of the RNA and increasing the translatability of the replicate. So that's a key important change that we've made. And then we've also changed the spike protein to be more immunogenic.

Some of the improvements of the spike protein includes, we've added some key amino acid substitutions to make it more immunogenic. We've also expressed the spike protein in its prestate, and then finally, inactivated the furin cleavage site. We found preclinically that all of these modifications leads to enhanced stability and immunogenicity of the constructs.

And then with respect to the human convalescent sera panel, I can refer to, maybe, Steve. I know clinically, we had a number of, approximately, 147, but...

Yes. So the human convalescent sera, we've tested our human clinical samples and we haven't tested the non-human primate samples against those yet. But just as a comparison, the geometric mean titer from the human convalescent serum that we had, as Joe said, was around about 147, with titers at the low end, down to 10 and at the high end of up to 1,000 or more, with a mean value of around about 140. So in these assays, we would be considerably above that. But we still need to follow up with the monkey testing in a comparable convalescent serum samples.

And if I may ask a last question. So the Phase III for 21 is funded by a global entity. Has this global entity selected other vaccines from other sponsors for running a Phase III? How soon could we be expecting the completion of a large Phase III study that is funded by this global entity? And could you get -- which geographies could you get Emergency Authorization? Just a little bit more detail in terms of this very big announcement would be helpful for us.

No, it's great questions. At this time, we can't comment on any more detail until the details of the Phase III are announced. Once they are, we'll be able to speak more freely.

Only sponsor of which you have been selected for this funding? Or are there other sponsors? I just want to -- maybe you can't comment on that, but I would love to know...

We'd love to speak more in detail on this, and there will be an appropriate time to do so in the near future. But at this time, we can't comment any further.

Our next questions come from the line of Brian Cheng with Cantor Fitzgerald.

It's great progress. So maybe related to the trial in Singapore and that we look at 154 and 165 as booster. So how should we think about the next step for these 2 assets beyond the Phase I/II study? And maybe on a broader level, what is your latest view on the booster approach, particularly in the U.S. and the EU market? And I have one follow-up.

Speculative questions. But Steve, do you want to address the booster market?

Yes. Let me take the questions in reverse order. So clearly, there is a booster market. The United States is working towards approval for giving boost of injections. And more than one country in Europe has announced that they're going to be giving booster injections, I think, Israel as well. So clearly, there is an evolving booster market, and that booster market is focused around emerging variants of concern.

So with respect to 154 and 165, obviously, we got that clearly in our line of sight in terms of addressing the market need. And as we mentioned earlier, our platform approach allows us to very quickly pivot to address emerging variants of concern as well. One thing I would like to add, though, is that what we've seen for -- in a monkey data that's very, very similar responses to all of the variants of concern that we've tested. And so what we're anticipating is that these vaccines will allow us to cover emerging variants as well as the existing variance of concern.

Great. And then maybe on 810, in OTC deficiency. Can you provide some insight on the dose that you have thought about for the Phase II study? And what biomarkers should investors focus on to get a sense of the efficacy in the upcoming Phase II study?

Okay. Yes, Great questions, thanks. So if you recall in our Phase I study in healthy volunteers, we tested all the way up to 0.4 milligrams per kilogram, sorry, confusing between the programs there. And the top dose was very well tolerated. So within the multiple dose study, we're testing 0.3 and 0.4 milligrams per kilogram. So we're at the top of all those range, which sits very, very nicely in the anticipated therapeutic range that come out of our animal studies.

And biomarkers that you should...

So yes, on the biomarker side, really, the traditional biomarkers for this disease are the ureagenesis assay and also looking at the 24-hour ammonia profile. So these are 2 key biomarkers for us and then also the (inaudible) acid as well.

Our next questions come from the line of Nick Abbott with Wells Fargo.

Congratulations on some terrific progress here. So my first question is on 154, and that is how good is a single dose of 154? I think, Joe, you said in your prepared remarks that a single dose would be mandatory in certain geographies. So is there a plan to include a single dose in the Phase III?

No, that's a great question. It's something that we're going to be evaluating. But ARCT-021 is our single-shot vaccine asset with a clinically promising T cell response profile. Where ARCT-154, that's right now intended to be a 2-shot vaccine or a 1-shot booster optimized for high NABs targeting the variance, especially Delta. So we're viewing this as 2 separate assets.

But having said that, are we going to be looking at blood samples and evaluating biomarkers after a single administration of 154? Yes. Is 154 a self-replicating mRNA vaccine? Yes, which implies that it has a promising T cell profile as well. So we'll be closely monitoring it if that may have feasibility at some later point.

Okay. And then on 154, just looking at the graph you provide, which is very helpful. I mean it appears to be around about half a lot less in terms of T cell response on the (inaudible) part. Is that -- is there a reason for that do you think? Or is this just sort of noise between different experiments on different times?

It's a fair observation.

Yes, it's a good observation. But...

Pad, you want to comment on it?

Sure. Thanks, Joe. Our T cells, they hit at least -- from our perspective, the T-cell raters are comparable. As you can see, there's couple of points that are above the median. But I think from our understanding, T cells are important and we're eliciting T cells for both drugs, both 154 and 021.

But nonetheless, it's a fair observation. ARCT-021 does a great job at eliciting T cell response.

And that sort of brings me to...

Sorry, the key thing is that if you look at the 021 graph, the data is spread more widely. So there's a couple of -- on each of these things, there's a couple of animals that scored much higher than the remaining animals, and that pushes the average up. Whereas for 154, the data is tighter. So I think it's just variability.

And if we tested more animals, those 2 sets of graphs would have come much closer together. I think a key observation -- my takeaway from the glass is the consistency of the responses for both 021 and 154. We're not seeing that it's staggeringly better against one and not so good against the others. We're seeing a nice consistent response across all of the variants.

Yes. Like you see variability with NABs but not with T cells, and this could be a very important feature of our vaccine franchise.

And you interpret that as you're targeting a concerned epitope or epitopes?

Exactly.

Exactly.

Yes. And then just maybe one more for me, just going back to what you said earlier, joe. Will it be a trial of your 154 as a booster for 021? And then my last one is what is the rationale and strategy for 165?

So yes, we do have plans to boost 021 with 154 and also 165 for that matter. So we'll make a subsequent disclosure on that once we have the approval for that trial to move forward. 165, I think we're trying to develop a broad vaccine portfolio so that we can have coverage against multiple variants in multiple different countries. We were very fortunate in being able to take 2 of our assets forward into Phase III clinical trials.

165, we're going to really assess how well it performs within the study in Singapore and whether there's any unique advantages in certain situations of 165 over 154 or over 021 before we decide how we move that one forward. We'll be doing neutralizing antibody testing and binding antibody testing and T cell testing against multiple different variants of concern to profile those vaccines in more detail.

Our next questions come from the line of Seamus Fernandez with Guggenheim.

Congrats on all the progress, guys. A couple of things just for clarification. Just hoping to get maybe a better sense of how you're proceeding, in Singapore specifically, with your -- with the 154 and 165 program. Specifically, I'm just wondering if you would happen to incorporate a parallel head-to-head immunogenicity study versus Pfizer's vaccine in part because you're also doing your testing on top of Comirnaty. So just wanted to get a better sense of if we're going to see head-to-head data as we saw today versus your historical vaccine if we might get something similar in the Singapore study from an immunogenicity perspective as a boost program?

And then separately, as the -- one full approval of Comirnaty has been executed. Is it possible to run a head-to-head of 154 against the same exact model so that investors who might be skeptical of the magnitude of change here, obviously, it looks quite substantial to me. But for those who might be skeptical, that might be one way to approach the comparison. Just wondering if you would consider doing something like that.

Yes. We're already considering it. We've already received approval to proceed with evaluating 154 as a booster to not only other ARCT vaccine -- or Arcturus vaccines, but also to Comirnaty. So we're already looking into that and evaluating that and considering -- and that data can be compared head-to-head and understand the value of this particular vaccine. With respect to -- anything else to add, Steve?

Well, I think, as you noted, at this point, we can't get Pfizer vaccine to do the comparison. It's not commercially available. So within the study in Singapore, it's actually not possible right now to do a direct head-to-head comparison. And I think what we'll have is the human data with real antibody levels in humans using well-validated assays that we can then compare with the existing Pfizer data.

So I'm not sure there'll actually be a need. One other important question really is what -- how does the antibody levels, how are they maintained over time. So for the Pfizer-vaccinated individuals, we'll know when they were vaccinated, so we'll know from their baseline sample how far out they are for the original vaccination. And as we collect the data from our study over time, we'll be able to compare our antibody levels over time at a similar time point.

So for example, if somebody was 6 months out from their Pfizer vaccine and they've got antibody level of X, we can have a look when we're 6 months out with our vaccine to see what the antibody levels are at that time as well. So we can do some indirect comparisons in that way. And I do think that the data emerging from the study will kind of overtake the need to do a direct head-to-head comparison.

And I can just touch -- go ahead.

No, no, please.

No, go ahead, Joe.

Okay. No, I was just going to add on to the -- your question about the primate data and how investors should lay hold or be convinced of how important this data is, is the entire vaccine community has been collecting data in both cyno and rhesus macaques this past year, and we've now gained considerable confidence, and there's convincing evidence that immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 are similar to those reported in humans and authentically represent COVID-19 observed in the human population. So these primate models serve to be an excellent model and can be relied upon.

Great. And then just in terms of the timing of OUS or just the utility of the Vinbiocare clinical trial that's going to be run in Vietnam, can you just talk about the -- how you can utilize that data to gain approvals in other markets, and how far-reaching you think those data could actually end up being?

Yes, thanks. That's a great question as well. So the study has been designed to meet international standards. So it's been designed so that the, based on the way the study is laid out and the collection of the endpoints and the way that we're analyzing the data, that it would be acceptable in Europe, the United States and other geographies as well.

In terms of whether conducting the study in an entirely different form population who meet the FDA standards, we plan to have those discussions in the very near future. So conceptually, we're planning to use the data to far wherever we can to get broad acceptance and make the vaccine broadly available in different geographies.

Okay. I guess, as just my final question, in terms of gaining Early Use Authorization, whether it be utilizing some of your -- the antibody titer data -- or I guess, one question is, will you be looking at or be able to do a sub-study of antibody titers based on some of the updates that have been provided by the WHO versus different variants as a way to pursue broader authorizations in developed markets like Europe or, potentially, even U.S.?

Yes. So we're -- we've got a substantial immunogenicity subset within the study, where we're collecting serum over time at different time points. So we will be able to do those evaluations against emerging variants of concern. So if an antibody (inaudible) becomes available in Europe or the United States or somewhere else, then we should be well positioned to take advantage of that.

Our next questions come from the line of Madhu Kumar with Goldman Sachs.

This is Rob on for Madhu. Just 2 questions. How much of a gap do you think there is developmentally between 021 and 154? If 154 works well, would you only pursue commercialization of 154, or would you go after both? And then what kind of data should we expect from ARCT-810 OTC readout later this -- late in 2022? Would it be reasonable to expect scavenger therapy discontinuation and dietary change?

The latter question, I'll have Steve comment on it. With respect to our intent pertaining to our 2 assets, we want to fully develop and market them, that's the intent. ARCT-021 is a single shot vaccine with clinically promising T cell response profile, and that's needed, especially in certain regions, the single-shot nature, for example. While 154 has been optimized for high NABs targeting delta and the other variants, which is also needed as a booster or as a 2-shot vaccine. So I think both of these have a market clearly, and we're addressing those in our Phase III studies.

With respect to the latter question, I don't know, Steve, you need him to read.

No, I got most of the question. So yes, ideally, over longer-term therapy, yes, scavenger therapy would be reduced and withdrawn. This particular study won't go out long enough to allow us to do that because you need to maintain a level of stability of the ammonia -- 24-hour ammonia curve and ureagenesis assay before we start taking people off their meds.

As this study moves out, almost certainly, the data is positive at that interim analysis will be looking at an open-label extension study to roll the participants over into, and that's where we would be doing things like we're doing with their scavenger therapies, or we're trying to push out the dose interval to longer intervals between each dose.

Our next questions come from the line of Ed Arce with H.C. Wainright.

This is Thomas Yip to ask a couple of questions for Ed. Congratulations on the recent progress. First question about the Vinbiocare collaboration in Vietnam. So the goal is a potential EUA by the Vietnman Ministry of Health in December 2021. Can you go over some key catalysts and time frame between now to December?

Steve, do you want to address some sort of interim data between now and the anticipated Emergency Use Approval in December for the Vietnam study?

So the Emergency Use Authorization will be based on the interim analysis. So -- and that will be the first interim analysis of the data. So it's a pivotal study, so we can't go taking multiple data cuts like we can in earlier phase clinical trials. So we anticipate having the first interim analysis of the study in the November time frame to enable Emergency Use Authorization in the December time frame.

Okay. Thanks for the clarity. And perhaps a question about the collaboration. You mentioned $40 million upfront payment, but also in the press release, it says that remaining $30 million received subsequent to quarter end. So was $10 million received in the first quarter or second quarter? And if so, how was that characterized?

Yes. The $10 million -- this is Andy Sassine. The $10 million was received prior to the end of the quarter as a deposit and consequently was reflected as the current liability, accrued liability on our balance sheet. Obviously, we executed the transaction and signed the deal subsequent to the quarter and got the remaining $30 million, so that the accrued liability will disappear from our balance sheet. Hopefully, that helped clarify the accounting treatment of that $10 million deposit.

Yes, it does. And perhaps one last question from us regarding 165. When should we expect preclinical data from perhaps the non-human primate study? And can you go over some similarities and major differences between the 165 and 154?

Yes. Well, if you noticed, we've entered into collaborations or relationships with respect to ARCT-021 and 154. If we do the same thing with 165 because of its specific regional profile, then that will be an appropriate time to disclose more detail around the preclinical data. So whether -- when we get human data for it or when we do some sort of deal around it, if we do, that would be an appropriate time to disclose more detail on 165.

Okay. Sounds good. We look forward to that. And thank you for taking our questions and looking forward to the unveiling of the Phase III study.

Okay. Thank you, and say hi to Ed.

Our next question come from the line of I-Eh Jen with Laidlaw & Company.

First of all, regarding 154, besides Vietnam and, potentially, Singapore, do you guys own the global right for the rest of the world, including the United States?

Yes, correct. Yes. Well, we have the global rights to ARCT-154.

Okay. The second question is that you probably -- the press release revealed that the comparison of neutralized antibody of 2 various variants, you have used 7.5 mg in 021, and you anticipate to use 5 mg instead for the trial. Was there a reason to use this dose? Was that because just for fair comparison, or there's other reason behind it?

No, it's to do with timing of the study. And when we actually set off on the study was earlier on when we were anticipating moving into Phase III with a 7.5 microgram dose. As the data rolled out from our Phase II study, we showed very clearly that the 5-microgram dose performed as well as the 7.5 microgram dose and was a little bit better tolerated.

And so we changed our Phase III dose from 7.5 to 5. So it's just a timing and a legacy issue. But based upon what we know about what we've seen from recent publications about the translation from the macaque studies into humans and the fact that the 5-microgram dose performed at least as well as, or probably a little bit better than the 7.5 micrograms, we would anticipate that if this had been a 5-microgram dose primate study that it would look very similar.

Okay. Maybe the last question here was about 165. I understood -- I understand that you may not want to reveal all the information at this point until later. But just in the conceptional-wise, was there any sort of general differences between 165 and 154 you can sort of describe?

Yes. This is Pad.

Pad?

Sure. This is Pad. And yes, we can tell you that the 165 molecule has a bias towards the Beta variant, and we'll be talking more about that at a future time.

Okay. Great. And congrats for all the progress.

Thanks, Yale. Appreciate it.

Our next questions come from the line of Kumar Raja with Brookline Capital Markets.

So with regard to ARCT-154, how much manufacturing capacity do you have? And when is this 200 million capacity for Vinbiocare [product] expected to come on Board? And is it mostly for (inaudible) in Vinbiocare?

Yes. We -- at this point, what we've disclosed that the Vinbiocare facility will be able to produce up to 200 million doses annually. And we've been guiding that it will happen in probably the second half of 2022. And so that's about all the information we can give you at this point with respect to that capacity.

With respect to the other parts of our manufacturing relationships and collaborations, we really haven't given any specific detail, except to be able to tell you that we have the capability of producing hundreds of millions of doses annually with those relationships.

As you can see, we've expanded it quite substantially in preparation for this opportunity with, obviously, being very capital efficient and working very closely with our partners. So 2 very, very important attribute that we wanted to execute on. Hopefully, that helps.

And with regard to this manufacturing that can be shifted from 021 to 154, or based on whatever the data you're seeing, how seamlessly can that be done?

Yes, that's correct. One of the advantages of this platform technology is you can modify the payload without -- with very little modifications to the manufacturing process. So it's very streamlined.

Maybe finally, with regard to the preclinical pipeline, what's happening in terms of cystic fibrosis as well as flu vaccine?

Go ahead, Steve.

So the CF program, we're anticipating that we'll get a -- we'll submit for a clinical trial application in the early part of next year.

Thank you. That is all the time we have today for questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Joseph Payne for any closing comments.

Yes. Thanks, everyone. It looks like our time is up, and we're going to be closing the call now. Feel free to reach out to our team, as always, if you have any follow-up questions, we'll be as efficient as we can in our responses. And bye for now and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a great day.