Carl Hansen: So Steve, Carl here. So I don’t think that our work on the programs we’ve initiated is a bottleneck to doing a platform deal of significance with a partner and we’re engaged in discussions all the time on that front. You’re asking a reasonable question in that we have started some work internally and it could well be that there’s a partner that’s interested in programs that are already in flight at AbCellera. That for me is not a problem. We disclose the programs that we’ve started when we engage in these conversations. If there’s interest, then we can always have a business discussion about it. And if we believe that there’s a deal that makes sense from both sides, that’s a positive thing. If not, the TCE space in oncology and autoimmunity has a very large number of potential opportunities.
And I’m not at all worried that we’d find that a conflict in something we’re working on with a partner would get in the way of coming together to see this platform do what it really can.
Stephen Willey: Okay. And on the CD28 co-stim [ph] side, I’m guessing the objective there is to leverage CD3 and CD28 engagement on the same scaffold. Is that correct?
Carl Hansen: That’s another good question. So we have generated binders for a couple of targets for co-stimulation, recognizing that T-cell exhaustion and T-cell survival is another important problem that needs to be solved if you want to bring TCEs to solid tumors. So we’re running experiments internally with those right now and starting to understand how that science plays out. At this point, we haven’t made a decision as to what the best format would be. And of course, as you know, Steve, there are leaders in the field that are approaching TRI specifics with dual engagement. There are some that are looking at two antibodies delivered together. I think both of those have merit. We’re obviously watching that closely, but we’re also doing work internally to see what looks best in our hands.
Stephen Willey: Okay. Maybe just one financial question. So, Andrew, I know you mentioned kind of the year-over-year impact on R&D spend with respect to the $20 million one time in ’23, but just curious about the sequential step down from 4Q. And I know that there was a restructuring that was announced in I’m not sure how far along that is in terms of completion, but just wondering if kind of the sequential down stroke in R&D spend is kind of indicative of maybe what a trajectory should look like for the remainder of the year? Thank you.
Andrew Booth: Yes. Hey, Steve, Andrew here. Yes, absolutely. The restructuring, first of all, is completely done. So that would have been taken care of in the Q4 numbers. And I think that to — I think your real question there is, is the Q1 number a good indication of what the go forward R&D expense is going to be. And I would say yes, it is a good indication. And yes, it’s quite a difference from Q1 of 2023 because of that $20 million one time, which we called out at the time as well. If you remember this time last year, we did indicate there was a $20 million one time expense related to co-development in internal programs. So we thought it was just prudent to point that out again and why there’s that reduction.
Stephen Willey: Got it. Thanks for taking the questions.
Operator: Our next question today is from the line of Puneet Souda of Leerink Partners. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi, you have Michael on for Puneet. My first question has to do with the deal that you closed with Viking and ArrowMark. I was curious. So I know you mentioned a couple of years ago, you did deal with Atlas Venture in Versant. Has the structure of these new partnerships evolved in any meaningful way relative to those prior deals, kind of as your platform itself has also been evolving?
Carl Hansen: Hi, Michael, Carl here. So I’ll take that one. I don’t know if we’ve disclosed the details of the structures of previous deals. This opportunity to sum it up is based on relationship with both Viking and ArrowMark. And having gotten to know both teams and have a lot of respect for what they bring to the table in terms of target ideas and in terms of the ability to bring capital and teams together around assets to form companies. The structure here is that those two groups will bring forward ideas for first-in-class antibody therapeutics. We vet these and we come together on a work plan. ArrowMark and Viking fund the R&D to take that concept through to a development candidate. And if successful, that development candidate creates the basis for a new co.
As Andrew mentioned on a previous question, we obtain an equity stake in that new co-company and we also maintain downstream stake in the molecules through milestones and royalties that are comparable and on the healthy side of what we’ve done traditionally in the partnership business. So that’s not dissimilar from certainly the deal that we did with Versant in the creation of Abdera. We like that deal a lot and it’s one of the things that we have called out previously as being squarely in the bucket of strategic partnerships.
Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Got it. And then my next question has to do with I guess this recent update in biotech funding. I know you’ve been mostly focusing on strategic partnerships and your internal pipeline, but I was curious if you think if this funding were sustained, if there’d be any sort of impact on other parts of business or maybe even with the more VC [ph] firm type deal, that would potentially I guess grow the number of potential new codes?
Andrew Booth: Hey, it’s Andrew here. Yes, I think that’s — it’s possible. It’s great to have a bit of a rebound in the biotech funding environment. And I think that can only provide a bit of a tailwind for our own business. But our real focus here is on advancing our own internal programs, building completing the platform and then on our strategic partnerships. Now, if ideas are funded and we believe that they’re good ideas and partners come to us with an interesting opportunity, I mean, absolutely, we take a look at that and are certainly open in the co-development as well as the company creation kind of deal structures that we have been doing recently.
Unidentified Analyst: Great. Thank you.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our next question today is from the line of Evan Seigerman of BMO. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
