Release Date: October 29, 2024
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.
Positive Points
- Nautilus Biotechnology Inc (NAUT, Financial) has made significant progress in developing its proteomics platform, particularly in detecting proteoforms, which could have substantial implications for biomarker discovery and drug development.
- The company has demonstrated a scalable and reliable process for building flow cells and chips, and robust single molecule deposition, which are crucial for their platform's success.
- Nautilus Biotechnology Inc (NAUT) has successfully integrated all aspects of their assay and platform, indicating readiness for commercial availability in the near future.
- The company has managed its resources efficiently, maintaining a flat headcount while significantly increasing experimental capacity and output.
- Nautilus Biotechnology Inc (NAUT) has a strong cash position with $221.2 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments, extending their cash runway into 2027.
Negative Points
- Nautilus Biotechnology Inc (NAUT) is behind on its internal milestones for broad scale discovery, specifically in quantifying a significant number of proteins from complex samples.
- The fallout rate for probe candidates is currently too high, indicating challenges in transitioning probe candidates to platform-ready probes.
- The company has not yet achieved its goal of decoding 500 to 2000 proteins from cell lysate, a critical milestone for their broad scale platform.
- There is uncertainty regarding the exact timeline for achieving key development milestones, such as the broad scale milestone by the US HUPO conference.
- Nautilus Biotechnology Inc (NAUT) faces potential challenges in breaking into the market with established players like Astral and Ultra 2, which have gained traction in the proteomics space.
Q & A Highlights
Q: Could you elaborate on the reasons for the higher than expected fallout rate for affinity probe candidates, and what are some ways you're addressing these issues?
A: Parag Mallick, Founder & Chief Scientist, explained that the fallout rate is due to the extensive characterization each probe undergoes, examining kinetic properties, binding diversity, and manufacturability. Some probes have fast kinetics or are impacted by labeling, but the diversity of epitopes they target is extensive. They are working on improving the yield of platform-ready probes.
Q: Could you provide an update on the progress of developmental proteoform capabilities towards launch, and do you anticipate both capabilities to be available to early access customers?
A: Sujal Patel, CEO, stated that the platform has two use cases: broad scale and targeted proteoform analysis. While initially planning to release broad scale first, customer interest has driven focus on proteoforms. They plan to prove out the proteoform opportunity in the first half of 2025, using Tau as a biomarker, and launch an early access program for broad scale analysis in the second half.
Q: What metrics will you share to help us understand your corporate goals as you move from development to commercial stage, and where do you expect to increase investment?
A: Sujal Patel emphasized that the focus is on development milestones, such as getting proteoform capabilities to customers and decoding a significant number of proteins. Anna Mowry, CFO, added that they will make targeted investments in the commercial team as they approach launch, while continuing to manage spend tightly.
Q: Are you seeing more interest on the discovery side or the targeted side, and how can we think about sizing potential opportunities?
A: Sujal Patel noted that there is significant excitement for both broad scale and proteoform analysis. Broad scale is easier to size due to existing markets, while the proteoform opportunity is still being explored. They believe proteoform analysis could have significant implications for drug development and precision medicine.
Q: How are you interpreting price elasticity among your target customers, and have you changed your thinking on the pricing model?
A: Sujal Patel mentioned that recent high pricing for new mass spectrometry instruments validates the importance of proteomics. They plan to launch with a roughly million-dollar initial deal size and will finalize pricing and business models as they approach launch.
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.
