TRACON Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:TCON) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Charles Theuer: No. Great question, Bert. So this company is really focused on unmet need populations with our focus being oncology. I think the ENVASARC trial is a perfect example. We saw a clear activity of checkpoint inhibitors in sarcoma. We saw that no company was going to pursue a label to make a therapy — approved therapy available for patients in that indication. So we scoured the globe to find what we consider the best-in-class PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor, namely ENVA, and immediately moved it into a pivotal trial. Now given our cost-effective in-house operations model, we’re able to deliver that trial for about $20 million. I don’t know if any other company in the world could make that statement. So we will continue to look for assets to address unmet need populations with oncology being our focus with the similar kind of dynamics that we did with envafolimab.

So example, we’ll take on the burden of a clinical trial, assuming that we have significant cash resources coming out of the arbitration, knowing that we typically offload the manufacturing cost to our partner, who is already making the drug, for instance, to market it outside the U.S. and really are left with the burden just of running a clinical trial at incredibly low cost given our capital efficiencies. So look for us based on resources that potentially would flow from an arbitration award to continue along the lines in that model. One other possibility would be to try to expand the envafolimab license and bring that molecule to other patients in the U.S., who also have an unmet need similar to sarcoma patients, but it also could involve new molecules, antibody drug conjugates, again, based on the fact that we have — based on the prospect that we have access to additional capital.

Operator: This concludes our Q&A session. I would like to turn the call back over to Dr. Theuer for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Charles Theuer: Thank you, everyone, for your questions and for listening. We look forward to updating you in the near future, and we’ll continue to move forward on our development plans with expected announcements coming up in the near future. Thank you.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. You may all disconnect, and everyone, have a great evening.