Genmab A/S (GMAB) 2004 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Genmab conference call. At this time, I'd like to inform you that this conference is being recorded and that all participants are in a listen-only mode. At the request of the company, we will open our conference up for question and answers after the presentation. During this telephone conference, you may be presented with forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Genmab is not under any obligation to update statements regarding the future, nor to confirm such statements in relation to actual result unless this is required by law. I will now turn the conference over to Dr. Lisa Drakeman. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us to discuss our conference call related to our first quarter results announcement of last evening. All of you have seen the press release, you know that our net loss is lower than our net loss in the first quarter of 2003. And our cash position at DKK 986m continues to be strong and that we are within the range that we projected or at least if would have project this outperformed our four quarters through the entire year of 2004. We did have a number of important highlights during the quarter. Roche chose two of our antibodies to be product development candidates, and Genmab unexpectedly an interim Phase II data that was quite positive for HuMax-IL15 now know as AMG 714.

We had some preliminary HuMax-CD4 data in our abstract for the conference of last week, we now know that those results were also very promising. In addition, we received a fast track designation for HuMax-CD4. You will also have noticed if you got the interim report, we continue to focus on R&D with almost 85% of our spending in that area and you will notice a continue decrease in the G&A spending compared to last year. So, our priorities remain the same. To move Genmab's products forward to build value in the company. On the call with me today, I have Joel our Chief Accounting Officer. And I would now like to open up this call for any questions you may have.

Thank you ma'am. The question and answer session will begin at this time. If you are using a speakerphone please pick up the handset before pressing any numbers. Should you have question, please press the star one on your push button telephone. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. Your question will be taken in order that it is received. Please standby for your first question. Our first question comes from Patrick Fuchs of DZ Bank. Please state your question.

Hello. This is Patrick Fuchs, Hi. I have a question regarding a potential milestones, I mean you've reported that the milestone that you reached with Roche and in addition with Amgen, are these or will they have reported any revenues in form of in the next quarter then. The second thing is it right that one can expect an increase in R&D cost towards year-end when you're starting or when you're enrolling the HuMax-CD4 . And the last question is are there any extraordinary costs -- production cost for this antibody as you mentioned that your material must have been used for the trials that have already been done and do you account something as deferred cost or something like that? Thank you.

While we sold the milestone, we really haven't given any guidance about milestones. What we have said in our general guidance is that the budget is conservative and then if we work to receive a significant milestone or if we were to sign a significant licensing agreement that would have an effect on our guidance. So beyond that, I don't really have anything to add. In terms of the increased severance, we haven't really given quarterly guidance, we are preparing for the studies now. We're doing some hiring; we are signing up the sites where we are in fact working on manufacturing. So, I can't tell you exactly when the cost will arrive during the year, but we currently think that our guidance is accurate of the guidance that we've given you, and I think in terms of production cost, we need to be thinking, now that we have seen this data, and it seems quite positive, particularly compared to the products on the market for these patients. We will need to be thinking about our manufacturing filing, which requires us to make a number of lot of material so that we can show that we're consistently doing the same thing. We will have cost associated with that. You are right, always we approach the filing time, we need to have in hand nice of data about the manufacturing process and .

Okay, but these all has been accounting your -- taken into account your guidance?

At present it is, I think if we need to update guidance as we get closer to the study then or to be -- get closer to the filing time. We will certainly do, but right now the guidance includes the kinds of cost that we have discussed in terms of getting ready for the study and also planning for the .

And am I right that you do not report any abstracts on the cancer project?

No. We are going to the dermatology conference because we believe that the clinicians in the United States who would use the HuMax-CD4 antibody were for the most part attending that conference. It was a very targeted audience.

Okay. Thank you.

The next question comes from Peter Welford with Merrill Lynch. Please state your question.

Hi. It's just a very simple question if I can. I was just wondering what would happen to headcount you predicted during the course of the year? I appreciate you may depend on future developments just to show the general idea.

Joe do you know about our headcount increases in the current budget? It's a very small number; I think it's fewer than 10, isn't it?

Yes it's definitely in the single-digit.

Okay.

Even if we decide as we approach the Phase III study that we need people, I don't think we would expect to see a massive increase this year -- few more people may.

Okay. That's great. Thank you.

Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen if you wish to ask a question at this time, please press star one on your push button telephone. If there are no further questions, I will turn the conference back to Dr. Drakeman.

Thank you all for joining us this afternoon. I think this is going to be a regular weekly event between Genmab and all of you, and we appreciate your time, your attention, and your interest in the company. Good-bye.

Ladies and gentlemen this concludes the conference for today. Thank you all for participating and have a nice day. All parties may now disconnect.