So this virus, at least in tissue culture, is able to replicate a little bit better, and therefore, we believe can be more immunogenic in humans. So I think that that’s really the big difference. And there is of course some other minor differences in terms of some other deletions or insertions we have made, but that’s the key difference between VIR-1111 and 1388.
Marianne De Backer : Thank you, Phil. And then maybe, Sung, if you could comment a little bit more about our cash position.
Sung Lee : Yes, happy to do that, Joe. This is Sung. So I mentioned earlier I think there was a question about our cash runway. So with $1.9 billion on the balance sheet it gives us a lot of financial flexibility and as Marianne said earlier, certainly to fund our current development programs which are broadly in Phase 2, and HIV obviously is in Phase 1, but we can get to the next inflection points for all of those programs should the data support it. So it’s a real fortunate position to be in. Just to reiterate again, and I really want to make this clarification because I do think some information might have been misunderstood. We did have a large payment to GSK during the second quarter and that certainly is, we don’t consider that to be part of our run rate.
Joseph Stringer : Great. Thank you for taking our question.
Operator: All right. Our next question comes from Patrick Trucchio from H.C. Wainwright.
Patrick Trucchio : Thanks, and good afternoon. I have a couple of follow-up questions on the HPV program. So, first, I’m just wondering if you can talk about the bar for regulatory success in HPV, specifically if you need to demonstrate a 30% sustained clearance of the HB surface antigen six months after treatment is halted to achieve approval, or if a rate below this can be sufficient for approval in the setting of HPV. And then, can you talk about the potential for demonstrating a partial cure in HPV? What’s the latest around how this is being defined and if it could at some point become part of maybe a regulatory bar for approval in the setting of HPV treatments? And then separately with the preclinical pipeline candidates unveiled today, how should we think about the remaining preclinical work that remains in potential timing for filing of INDs?
Marianne De Backer : Excellent. Thank you so much, Patrick. So perhaps, Phil, you can start me talking a bit about our preclinical pipeline.
Phil Pang : Definitely, Marianne. So, Patrick, in terms of your third question, I think that, it really is an exciting time for Vir. I already mentioned to you with the last question, 1388, which is the HIV prophylactic vaccine that is going to be entering the clinic this quarter. I did want to actually add a note to that, which is to say that it is based on human cytomegalovirus, as I noted earlier, and human cytomegalovirus is one of the most immunogenic vectors that has ever been described. Sometimes up to 20% of your T cells can be mounted against that vector, and importantly, it generates a type of T cell known as an effector memory mucosal T cell, which is quite important, we believe, in the prevention of diseases like HIV, but also allows us to use it in other diseases such as human papillomavirus.
And that is another thing that is going to be entering the clinic in the next 24 months, basically a therapeutic T cell vaccine called VIR-1949, which is for the control of precancerous lesions caused by human papillomavirus. So both of those things are quite unique and exciting for Vir. In terms of the respiratory franchise and the antibody platform, we’ve already talked about VIR-2981, our neuraminidase-targeting monoclonal antibody that has activity not just against influenza A, but influenza B. We also have VIR-8190, which I touched on earlier, which is uniquely able to neutralize not just RSV but human metapneumovirus, and also VIR-7229, a next generation COVID-19 monoclonal antibody that has really shown quite broad activity and quite potent activity against historical and current strains.
