Valion Bio Q1 2026 Earnings Call: Complete Transcript

On Thursday, Valion Bio (NASDAQ:VBIO) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below. This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation. The full earnings call is available at https://www.webcaster5.com/Webcast/Page/2865/54024 Summary Valion Bio Inc has transitioned from Tivic Health Systems, rebranding and refocusing as a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company with a focus on Entolomid, a TLR5 agonist with FDA fast track and orphan drug designations. Significant progress in government engagements, including a nonclinical evaluation agreement with NIAID for gastrointestinal acute radiation syndrome, which transitions Entolomid development to a federally funded program. Velocity Bioworks, a domestic biomanufacturing subsidiary, is operational with a facility in San Antonio, Texas, aiming to generate revenue through CDMO services. Financials for Q1 2026 show an increase in operating expenses to $5.6 million, driven by Velocity Bioworks' operating costs and continued development of Entolomid and Intelasta. Future plans include initiating physician-sponsored studies for neutropenia, advancing GMP manufacturing validation, and maintaining balance sheet discipline with potential financial opportunities under evaluation. Full Transcript OPERATOR Welcome to Valion Bio Inc's conference call to discuss first quarter 2026 financial results. This call has been prerecorded, the call is being webcast and the replay will be available on the Investors section of the company's website for 90 days. Before we begin, please note that during today's call management will make various forward looking statements. Investors are cautioned that these forward looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those indicated in the forward looking statements. Forward looking statements include, without limitation statements regarding the FDA's animal rule pathway and the development of Entolomid and Intelasta, the Company's engagement with BARDA NIAID, the Department of Defense and other US and allied government agencies, the activation, scale up and customer development plans of Velocity Bioworks, the Company's continued listing on Nasdaq, the Company's working capital and ability to access additional financing and the consummation of any strategic transactions. Please read the safe harbor statement contained in the press release that Valiant Bio Inc. Issued today, as well as the risk factors contained in the Company's filings with the securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual report on Form 10K for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the SEC on March 30, 2026 and its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, which is being filed concurrently with today's earnings release. On today's call we have Valion Bio Inc's Chief Executive Officer Michael K. Handley and Chief Financial Officer Lisa Wolf. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Michael. Michael K. Handley (Chief Executive Officer) Thank you and welcome everyone. This is the first quarterly call I'm privileged to address you under our new identity, Valion Bio. Effective April 28, we completed our transition from Tivic Health Systems to Valion Bio, with our common stock now trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker symbol vbio. The name change is more than a rebrand. It formalizes the company we have built since the start of 2025 a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company anchored by Entolomid, which we believe is the most advanced TLR5 agonist in the world, being the only one in active US FDA development. In addition, we have a wholly owned domestic biomanufacturing subsidiary in Velocity Bioworks and a clearly differentiated role in both commercial oncology supportive care and and national medical countermeasures, potentially leveraging our ability to modulate the innate immune system. We believe Entolomid is a de risk asset. More than $140 million has been invested to date in its development and more than 300 humans have been dosed. The asset arrives at Valion Bio with two active INDS, FDA fast track Designation and Orphan Drug Designation. This foundation is more advanced than where most clinical assets sit and it shapes how we think about capital allocation, regulatory pathway and time to market. 2025 was a year of fundamental transformation for us. Now that we have the foundation in place, we are focused on execution in our long term multi prong strategy. Let me walk you through that strategy. Substantial progress has been made with the US and allied government stakeholders and we continue to advance the entelement and Intelasta development programs and our manufacturing opportunity through Velocity Bioworks, which we view as our most immediate revenue opportunity. Then I'll turn it over to LISA to discuss our financial results. Next I'd like to discuss our government engagement. On March 26, we secured and signed a nonclinical evaluation agreement with the National Institutes of Allergy infectious Diseases, or NIAD. This targets Gastrointestinal Acute Radiation Syndrome. On May 5, we took the engagement materially forward. We announced the receipt of the first FDA Precedent Gastrointestinal Study Protocol from NIAID for Intolerant. Under this protocol, NIA NIAID will fully fund the BLNA enabling in vivo programs and will support the FDA submission process with us. This is a very significant milestone for the company. It moves our animal rule pathway from a company funded development effort to a federally funded, federally supported program. A structurally different posture and one that we believe is meaningful de risks the regulatory pathway and it also builds on the $35.6 million in previous federal funding contracts that have supported ENTOMID's development across BARDA, NIAID, DTRA, NASA and the US Army. On April 28, we announced that we had briefed senior leadership at the U.S. department of War for Entomid for Acute radiation syndrome. In the briefing, facilitated by American Defense International, we provided the Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs and his team at the Pentagon. The substance of that meeting was intolerable differentiation. We believe that it is one of the only agents in development that delivers simultaneous bone marrow and gastrointestinal protection. In published studies, treated subjects were nearly three times more likely to survive than untreated controls and Entomid retains efficacy when administered up to a full day after exposure, a critical attribute because casualties in a mass exposure event will not be reached in the first minutes after the event. On May 7th we presented Entolomid in an oral transmucosal program to the Department of War. This presentation expanded the partnership opportunity beyond injectable and tolimid to a needle free rapidly administered oral formulation uniquely suited for mass casualty and warfighter scenarios. We will provide additional updates on the formulation development partnership as the program advances internationally. On March 31, we announced we received a request for information from the Ukraine Ministry of Health regarding the potential inclusion of Entolomid in Ukraine's national stockpile reserves as a medical countermeasure for acute radiation syndrome. The engagement was at the request of Ukraine and it reflects the kind of allied government interest that follows from the differentiation of Entomid. Taken together, these are not a series of disconnected meetings. They are a coordinated movement of Entomid from a traditional clinical pathway toward a federally supported medical countermeasure program with active interest from both U.S. and allied government stockholders. ARS is a $5.5 billion market for strategic national stockpile procurement. This gives us a non dilutive pathway to first revenue with Intellimod without building a commercial sales force. Next I'll move on to pipeline and clinical strategy. While we believe ARS is a valuable indication that can drive shareholder value, our intended primary value driver over the long term is the oncology supportive care market. This is a multi double digit billion dollar market. It is dominated today by bone marrow stimulating agents called neupogen, neurolastin, leukine. Up to 50% of patients on myelosuppressive chemoradiation therapy develop neutropenia and a substantial larger number experience gastrointestinal toxicity that the current standard of care does not address. Entolomid is differentiated by simultaneous protection of both bone marrow and gastrointestinal tissue and a single dose protocol and the ability to administer prophylactically which none of the other drugs on the market currently have. We believe no other approved or investigational agent in the category delivers these particular combinations. In the second half of 2026 we expect to initiate physician sponsored studies for neutropenia or oncology supportive care indication. Six institutional sites have shown interest in our program. The data from these studies are predicted to form the basis of a phase 2b program that follows for neutropenia. In parallel, our second generation molecule, Intelasta, advanced through internal program planning during the first quarter of this year. Intelasta is structurally re engineered with a 23amino acid deletion variant to reduce the antibody formation that limits intolerance use for long term applications, particularly over two weeks. Published animal data shows that this amino acid change reduces the patient's immune system's negative response against intolerment, the drug. We expect to advance intolerment through IND enabling studies during the 2026 and 2027 years. Next organizational build out on May 4th we announced the appointment of Melinda Lackey, our General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs. Melinda joins us from Alanos Therapeutics in Texas where she served as Senior Vice President of Legal and Administration with prior roles spanning clinical stage, biopharmaceutical development, intellectual property strategy, NASDAQ Public Company governance. As we advance entitlement toward an animal rule, BLA and scale Velocity Bioworks and execute on a broader strategic plan, having in house General Counsel of Melinda's depth and caliber is the right structural step for the company at this stage. Before Lisa walks you through the financials, our cfo, I want to spend a few minutes on Velocity Bioworks which we believe Valion Bio's has its most immediate revenue opportunity where are we with Velocity Bioworks? On May 6th we celebrated the formal grand opening of our facility in San Antonio, Texas. The Innovative campus in San Antonio, Texas was where the ceremony was attended by representatives from the office of U.S. senator John Cornyn, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortez Jones and Biovelocity Bioworks team. That milestone is more than ceremonial. It marks the formal activation of our clinical stage affiliated biomanufacturing facilities with end to end domestic capability for biological assets. Three operational facts give Valion Bio a credible commercial story today. First, we are staffed and operating approximately 45 scientists, engineers and operators on the site in San Antonio. Second, we have completed a 200 fold manufacturing scale up of Entomid at a 50 liter fermentation bioreactor on time and within budget meeting all purity and potency specifications. Third, we plan to offer a full end to end service stack for potential clients. Bioprocess development, GMP manufacturing, analytical method development, film finish and regulatory and quality support will be some of the things that we offer. This is a service profile early stage biological companies actually need from a CDMO player. Why is this the nearest term revenue catalyst? First off, Valion Bio has three planned parallel routes to revenue, two of them government procurement for strategic national stockpile use and commercial oncology supportive care that is Neutropenia are real and large, but they are gated by regulatory and clinical milestones that play out over the coming years. The third route, Velocity Bioworks, a standalone CDMO in Texas serving third party biotech clients, is operationally active today for non GMP activity and is producing revenue and is independent of any single clinical outcome. The market opportunity is structurally favorable. The largest contract development and manufacturing organizations are built to serve large pharma at scale. They are typically not built for the flexibility, the timeline compression and the program level engineer engagement that phase one and phase two biotechs need. The gap is our value proposition. We estimate Velocity Bioworks has the capacity to generate significant annual revenue for value in bio once it's at full third party utilization. CDMO sales cycles are inherently long. Clients plan their manufacturing capacity 12 to 18 months in advance and during the first quarter we brought on commercial development leadership and begun customer development conversations that build the pipeline of clients that we need to generate revenue. We expect early stage commercial engagement and qualified pipeline development to be the relevant near term metrics. The revenue will follow how we Read First Quarter Operating Expense Profile I want to be direct on the cost side because Lisa will walk you through the operational expense. Step up in a moment. The bulk of that increase comes from Velocity Bioworks. The dollars we are spending at Velocity Bioworks are not carrying costs, they are deliberate front loaded investments in revenue capability. The acquisition closed in December of last year. We brought the facility from acquisition to operational status in approximately five months. We have made substantial progress in equipment recommissioning, qualification, staffing, build and customer readiness work that must be completed before any third party client and CDMO contract can be signed. As we move through 2026, we now have a path forward to shift our focus to revenue generation. With that, I'll turn the call over to Lisa Wolf, our Financial Officer, to walk you through the first quarter financial results. Lisa Wolf (Chief Financial Officer) Lisa, thank you Michael. For ease of listening, all of the financial metrics I'll be reporting today. Compare the three months ended March 31, 2026 to the three months ended March 31, 2025. Our quarterly report on Form 10Q is being filed concurrently with today's earnings release and contains the complete financial statements and accompanying notes. As Michael noted, The first quarter of 2026 is the first reporting period to reflect the combined operating footprint following our December 2025 formation of Velocity Bioworks. The legacy ClearUP consumer device business has been presented as discontinued operations in our financial statements. Consistent with our prior reporting, total operating expenses for the first quarter of 2026 were 5.6 million, compared with 1.4 million in the first quarter of 2025. The year over year increase reflects the additional Velocity Bioworks operating cost base which was not part of the company in the prior year period, together with the continued advancement of our Entolomid and IntelASTA programs and the build out of regulatory, manufacturing and corporate functions following our pivot to the biopharmaceutical model in 2025. Research and development expense for the quarter was 1.9 million compared with 0.3 million in the first quarter of 2025. The increase reflects approximately 1 million from the velocity Bioworks operating cost base. Additional headcount related expenses and the team expanded beyond the prior period baseline and external biopharma development consulting that was not present a year ago. Selling general and Administrative expense was 3.8 million compared with 1 million a year ago. Approximately 1.7 million of the increase came from the Velocity Bioworks operating footprint, primarily the recurring facility costs associated with operating a domestic biomanufacturing site, together with related headcount and professional fees. The quarter also included approximately 0.4 million of executive severance which we're calling out separately so that the underlying run rate is clear. The remainder reflects increases in headcount and professional fees in support of the broader corporate build out. Other expense net was 0.6 million for the quarter, primarily reflecting approximately 0.7 million of interest, expense and amortization related to our 16.3 million convertible note payable, partially offset by interest income and a non cash adjustment to the fair value of an associated derivative liability. Income from discontinued operations for the first quarter of 2026 was income of approximately 23,000 compared with a loss of approximately 0.1 million in the prior year period. This reflects residual ClearUP consumer device sales during the first two months of the year before our Shopify storefront was closed. Net loss for the quarter was 6.2 million compared with the net loss of 1.5 million a year ago. Net loss per share, basic and diluted was 2.23 compared with 2.52 for the prior year period, an improvement on a per share basis despite the higher absolute loss reflecting the meaningfully larger weighted average share count following the equity issuances we have executed since early 2025. Cash and cash equivalents at March 31, 2026 were 7.2 million compared with 12.6 million at December 31, 2025. Cash used in operating activities during the first quarter of 2026 was 5 million compared with 0.9 million in the first quarter of 2025. The increase in operating cash used reflects the addition of the Velocity Bioworks operating footprint and the continued advancement of our pipeline programs. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Michael for closing remarks. Michael K. Handley (Chief Executive Officer) Thank you Lisa. Let me close with how we are thinking about catalyst sequence ahead. Our priorities for the balance of the 2026 year are clear. First, in the second half we expect to initiate physician sponsored studies in neutropenia, a supportive care indication. As I mentioned, we already have six institutional sites that have expressed interest in the program. Second, in the third quarter we will initiate Intellimod GMP Manufacturing validation which is required for the BLA submission for the FDA. We're targeting completion of the Intellimod GMP manufacturing validation by the end of 2026 at Velocity Bioworks. Third in our fourth quarter Intelasta manufacturing and Intellimod pre BLA meetings will occur. We expect to advance Intelasta into non GMP manufacturing and request an Entolomid pre BLA meeting with the FDA. Fourth, throughout 2026 NIAID funded BLA Enabling Testing we plan to execute NIAID funded testing for Gastrointestinal radiation syndrome and continue our active engagement with the US and allied government stakeholders. Fifth, throughout 2026 Velocity Bioworks customer Activation we plan to scale Velocity Bioworks toward a third party CDMO customer engagement and if successful we expect we may be able to generate additional revenue in the near future. Sixth and Ongoing Balance Sheet Discipline we will continue to manage our balance sheet and our financing operations with discipline with the objective of executing on our plans while protecting the long term interests of our shareholders. As we have disclosed, the company is actively evaluating financial opportunities to continue to support the execution of its strategic plan. We will provide additional disclosures as appropriate in accordance with our FCC obligations in the coming future. The foundation we have built supports each of these work streams. A late stage asset worth over $140 million in prior development investment a 300 plus human dosed database, two near term value drivers in oncology supportive care and Gastro acute radiation syndrome addressing a combined multi billion dollar market opportunity globally. Specifically, some other points I'd like to address A federally supported regulatory pathway Highly unusual and we have the ability and the backing of the Federal government to see this drug through domestically vertically integrated manufacturing we have allied government interest and a second generation molecule in Intelasta that extends the platform into chronic indications that entelement currently cannot switch. Lastly, Building Institutional Engagement Before I close, a word on how we are thinking about investor engagement going forward. Today's call is prerecorded and does not include a live question and answer session and our remarks are delivered without accompanying slide deck. Beginning with our second quarter call in the next several months we will intend to host a live management Q and A and support our remarks with the presentation. Both changes are deliberate. They reflect the recognition that direct two way engagement with our investors is not a peripheral activity. It is a foundational activity to build shareholder value over time. I want to thank our employees for their dedication, our partners for their collaboration, and our shareholders for their continued confidence and support. We look forward to further updates as we reach out with our upcoming milestones. Thank you. Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.