Maher Masoud: Thanks, Jack. I can speak to that. And then, Doug, feel free to speak to that as well. Obviously, a very healthy start to the year. We’re still — what we’ve mentioned in the past, we’re comfortable with the three to five per year. The funnel and the pipeline itself for future SPLs is healthy. We’re confident that we can continue to have those three to five. I won’t comment on whether we’re going to sign another one this year just yet. Obviously, for obvious reasons, as I mentioned last time, sometimes you see a bolus of SPLs signed to any particular time. The reason being is we’re oftentimes working in research, working with these customers, really in the benches with them, supporting them. And then from there, it ends up being a negotiation a little bit thereafter where now we’re negotiating licenses where they’re about to enter into the clinic.
So sometimes you might have it where you have three to four at the same time, we’ve been working with in the past 12 months, 18 months that are about to sign licenses. So that’s why you see a bolus. But we’re completely confident at three to five moving forward. Won’t speculate as to whether we’ll sign another one. And then the funnel itself is healthy, and that’s why we’re confident at three to five moving forward as well. Jack, did that answer your question?
Unidentified Analyst: Yes, that’s helpful. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Massaro with BTIG. Your line is now open.
Unidentified Analyst: This is [Jinny] (ph) on for Mark. Thanks for taking the questions. So just a quick one on VLx adoption. It sounds like that might be more of a lagging indicator relative to PAs. But just any new appetite or early feedback to report there?
Maher Masoud: Yes. Thanks for the question. On the VLx in terms of — as I mentioned last time, we’re still working with early adopters. We’re taking a step back to ensure that we do this where we understand the true application needs for the VLx. I won’t mention for confidentiality reasons the name of those early adopters, but it’s just to ensure that we understand the space that we’re entering into, where it’s different than cell therapy, where we’re really trying to disrupt the industry here. And not just with from the VLx, but just in terms of production of proteins in a transient manner that is at a scale that’s never been done before. So in terms of the PA usage for that, we haven’t disclosed that. In terms of instrument sales, we haven’t disclosed that.
But we’re still working with early adopters to truly understand the space and then launch in a manner that allows us to have true market adoption for the VLx and applications around the VLx as well. But we have not disclosed anything specifically there.
Unidentified Analyst: Perfect. Understood. And then just my follow-up. You guys had a pretty healthy balance sheet. Just any tuck-in acquisitions or tech that you might look to evaluate, particularly for upstream or downstream steps, kind of like cell enrichment or harvesting? Just any conversations going on there? Thanks.
Maher Masoud: We have an active corporate development effort. Clearly, we’re not in a position to talk about specific targets we’re looking at. I think the types of things you mentioned are sort of in the realm of opportunities we would look at. But we’ve got healthy effort just to balance out our initiatives to target both inorganic and organic growth opportunities. So this is one of the use of proceeds when we went public, so we’re mindful that. That’s part of the reason why we have the healthy balance sheet that we do. And our goal is to look closely at things but be very prudent. And I think it’s healthy that we’re evaluating things. It’s also very good that we’ve been very disciplined in not pulling the trigger on things that either we didn’t think were valued correctly or just weren’t the right fit.
Unidentified Analyst: Awesome. Thanks for taking all the question.
Maher Masoud: Thank you.
Douglas Swirsky: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jacqueline Kisa with TD Cowen. Your line is now open.
Jacqueline Kisa: This is Jacqueline Kisa on for Steven Mah. Thanks for taking the questions. Just to start off, with regards to your new and ongoing BD discussions for new SPLs, are you seeing these discussions weighted more towards emerging biotechs or large pharma? Is there like a noticeable mix or anything?
Maher Masoud: Yes. Hi, Jacqueline. Thank you for the question. I’ll take that. It’s more towards — it’s not large pharma. It’s more towards, I’d say, smaller to mid-sized biotechs, and it’s a mix of what we’re seeing there. Obviously, as the industry keeps changing and evolving and as cell therapies have greater adoption, we could see that mix begin to change as well. Whether it’s from early to mid-size to larger biotechs, it’s a good mix. I mean it’s a good question. I think you’re seeing it across the board. When I say large pharma, we don’t have — that’s not our focus right now. It’s more on the support that’s needed for that smaller to mid to even larger-sized biotechs.
Jacqueline Kisa: Right. Great. Thank you. And then if you look across the clinical programs you’re supporting, can you speak to the diversity of the cell types and molecules that your partners are using to create their cell-based therapies? And has this trended over the past 12 months? And if you’re willing to call any emerging trends with regards to that, that would be really cool, too.
Maher Masoud: Yes. Absolutely, Jacqueline. So actually, that’s the beauty of our support and what we do truly best is it’s emerging across cell therapies. Whether it’s T cells or NK cells, whether it’s TILs or TCRs, we’re working with all of them. And obviously for the indications, it’s increasing where you went from blood cancers to solid tumors, which is where we’re having a presence in. And then you’re seeing the space really get more complex with the companies we’re working with and truly begin to go into other indications. You’re seeing autoimmune diseases begin to really take shape here, and that’s where it seems the space is lending itself. And we’re working with a few of our partners on immune disorders, cell therapies for autoimmune diseases, rare diseases.
So it’s an entire breadth, and that’s what we anticipate. We anticipate the field continue to evolve, continue to mature and really get more complex. And that’s what we’ve built the last 15, 20 years to ensure that we’re ahead of competition and working with everyone with regards to the cell type, regardless of the modality and indication. So, I hope that answers your question, Jacqueline.
Jacqueline Kisa: That’s great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Operator: Thank you. And I’m currently showing no further questions at this time. I’d like to hand the call back over to Maher Masoud for closing remarks.
Maher Masoud: Yes. Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining today’s call. I look forward and we look forward to speaking with all of you again on our next earnings call in a few months. Thank you.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
