Valneva SE (NASDAQ:VALN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Samir Devani: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I think I’ve got three, mainly finance-related. So, the first one just on the guidance, other income €90 million to €110 million, I just wanted to confirm that that’s essentially non-cash revenue recognition. So, that’s the first question. And then, in terms of the Pfizer Phase 3, I want you to — I was wondering whether you have made a cash contribution to that in 2022 and if so, maybe you can just explain, I think he previously talked about that not going through the P&L, but if you could have maybe explained where that’s coming out in the cash flow. And then, the final question is just on your distribution of marketing expenses, we saw a little bit of a bump in Q4, is Q4 a good run rate, quarterly run rate going into this year. Thanks.

Thomas Lingelbach: So, I start with the first point on guidance. So, other income as we surface is related to the PRV we expect to receive upon approval of our Chikungunya vaccine candidate, and as we expect to sell this PRV with you, it will be cash-related, because we will recognize that other income as we get to cash and just also to be very clear, we expect this to go not into other revenues with other income i.e. further down in the P&L. With regards to the Pfizer Phase 3, cash, I mean the way the agreement works is that we basically pay every quarter our share to the trial, and indeed to your point that does not go into the P&L but it would go on the against the balance sheet against the refund liability which is talked about previously in Max’s question.

Then distribution and marketing expense, so, what you see in Q4 is an increase in yield versus prior year’s previous quarters which is primarily driven Of course as we get ready with our, we get prepared, we prepare for chikungunya I think candidate launch. Also of course, related to overall, commercial activities ramping up as the markets come back, and it’s safe to assume that you could see further increases there as we get ready with our commercial infrastructure in our strengthening the commercial infrastructure in view of the new launch.

Samir Devani: Okay, that’s great. Thanks very much.

Operator: Thank you. We will now take the next question. It comes from the line of Suzanne Van Voorthuizen from VLK. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi, thanks. Yes, it’s (ph) calling in for Suzanne. I just have one confirmatory question, so since you’ve mentioned that you’ve written off all COVID-19 inventory in 2022, if I understand correctly that we will see no financial impact for the current year?

Thomas Lingelbach: I mean we will continue to have some R&D expense as we continue to finalize certain clinical trials that we have had started in the past, we will not initiate new clinical programs, of course, but we do need to ramp up the clinical trials at that cost is included in our R&D expense. We do not expect further inventory write-offs to that point. Of course, we mentioned also the final shipments to Bahrain. So, that was of course drive revenues. So, that’s basically what we expect for 2023 in terms of COVID hitting there.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay, thanks. And then, one final question. So, last year’s R&D day, you presented on various preclinical programs, such as Zika, hMPV, and UBC, which we expect in terms of updates on these programs during this year? Thanks.

Operator: Your line is on mute, please.