Nanobiotix SA

PAR:NANO

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q4

[Operator]

Good day, and welcome to the Nanobiotix Business Update and Full Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

At this point, I will now turn the call over to Craig West, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations of Nanobiotix. Please go ahead.

[Craig West, executive]

Thank you. Good afternoon, good morning, and welcome to the Nanobiotix conference call to discuss our full year 2023 financial and operating results. Joining me on the call today are Laurent Levy, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Bart Van Rhijn, Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, today's call is being webcast and will be available on our website for replay. I would like to remind you that this call will include forward-looking statements which may include statements regarding the progress, success and timing of our ongoing and planned clinical trials collaborations, regulatory filings, data presentation and future research and development efforts, among other things.

These forward-looking statements are based on current information, assumptions and expectations that are subject to change they are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.

Accordingly, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Please review the full description of risk factors that can be found in the documents we filed with the AMF in France and the SEC in the United States, which are available in the Investor Relations section of our website, along with the press release issued yesterday highlighting our corporate and financial results for the period. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Nanobiotix undertakes no obligation to update them to reflect subsequent events or future circumstances.

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Laurent. Please go ahead.

[Laurent Levy, executive]

Thank you, Craig, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. As Craig mentioned, we issued a press release yesterday, highlighting the company's full year operating activity and financial results for 2023. For today's call, I would like to begin with an overview of our accomplishments and upcoming milestones before turning the call over to Bart to address the financial results. Then I will provide closing remarks before opening up the call for questions.

2023 was an incredible year of progress for Nanobiotix and our program on [ MBTA ]. Last summer, we entered into a $2.5 billion license agreement with Janssen Pharmacia, a Johnson & Johnson company, to expand the worldwide potential of NBTXR3, a potential first-in-class [indiscernible] with Universal application across [ the tumor ].

Late in 2023, our partner, LianBio assigned its right to NBTXR3 in China and other Asian markets to Janssen. Thus, consolidating global development and commercialization rights with Janssen, which is now responsible for the $205 million in milestone potentially available to us with this partnership. We also reported positive data from 2 key programs including final and exploratory data from Study 102, a Phase I trial in head and neck cancer as well as initial data from our Phase Ib study, supporting expansion potential in pancreatic cancer as part of an ongoing collaboration with MD Anderson. We will discuss this encouraging finding more in-depth shortly.

First, let's start with our global licensing for development and commercialization agreement with Janssen for NBTXR3. This partnership is designed to leverage the complementary strengths of both companies, accelerating and bothering the treatment potential of NBTXR3. As part of the agreement, the initial clinical development focus will be on head and neck and lung cancer with expansion potential in additional solid tumor indications. We believe this agreement underscores therapeutic and market opportunity of NBTXR3. And importantly, further validate our platform and scientific approach.

We believe that this collaboration with our partner at the International Oncology Group and J&J has the potential to impact the life of many patients. We believe this because NBTXR3 can treat patients at the state of where your disease is local and do so with radiation therapy, which is a treatment utilized by millions of patients. Better control of disease at this stage, we believe could have a fundamental impact on the overall outcome for patients.

As a reminder, our produce new to the story, NBTXR3 is a biogically inert electron-dense nanoparticle. It is a onetime treatment that is designed to be injected directly into solid tumor prior to across our [ prediction ] to amplify the antitumor activity of radiotherapy. NBTXR3 factory is made up of [indiscernible] a stable inner material with high electron density that act as a strong energy absorber and increases the amount of energy transfer to the tumor, which churn leads to sell damage and death.

This unique [ formulation ] of NBTXR3 as the [indiscernible] offers broad application potential across 60% of patients with solid tumor that received variation during the course of the treatment. The potential of NBTXR3 is something that we have been actively evaluating in hundreds of patients across a tumor target treated to date. We continue to see strong proof of concept data that support a well generated [indiscernible] and robust antitumor activity with radiotherapy activated and [ BCF ] treatment.

Our priority size focus has been the last-stage development of NBTXR3 in head and neck cancer, which include an ongoing global registrational trial, the NANORAY-312 study in SLE patients with locally events head and neck cancer as well as treatment approach using [indiscernible] activated [indiscernible] to help with local control of the injected tumor as well as initially prime immune system, followed by anti-PD-1 therapies.

We believe this combination has the potential to be a game changer for cancer and [indiscernible], and is supported by encouraging data from Study 1100. Our Phase I trial in patients with advanced cancer, including those that are anti-PD-1 naive as well as those who anti-PD-1 therapy as well. We also continue to generate additional early stage data to support the clinical potential of NBTXR3 across different [indiscernible] tumor indication as part of our collaboration with MD Anderson.

This effort includes 5 ongoing clinical trials in [ advance ] for the tumor, we've learn or [indiscernible] head and neck cancer, inoperable non-small cell lung and cancer, esophageal cancer and [indiscernible] cancer. As I mentioned earlier, the license agreement with Johnson & Johnson has a total potential value of 2.5 billion. And to this, we cannot have -- and [indiscernible] 5 million related to the rights in Asia, but found by LianBio [ to Janssen ].

The deal values include our [indiscernible] and intangible and a number of developments and regulatory milestones for the certain indication in head and neck cancer and lung cancer, along with [indiscernible] potentially [indiscernible] $1.8 billion. There are additional regulatory and development milestone for new indications that Janssen made as well over time of up to $650 million in aggregate.

For any new indications that Nanobiotix will develop and bring to market, there will be an additional $220 million per annual indication. Of course, this deal also includes the royalties that go from low [indiscernible] to low 20s. In June, we have secured 140 million gross in funding, which includes several deal-related payments and equity rate. This equity deal was supported by a major shareholder and also providing J&J the opportunity to become Nanobiotix shareholder.

About the review in [indiscernible] shortly, we are pleased to have significantly strengthened our balance shift remove the IB cash movement and expanded our cash [ annual ] rate into the third quarter of '25. Looking ahead, we're strongly positioned to further advance and maximize the rapid potential of NBTXR3 within the solid tumor treatment landscape.

Turning to our clinical progress earlier this year, we reported positive final safety and efficacy data and the successful completion of Study 102 [indiscernible] escalation and expansion study in head and neck cancer at the annual [indiscernible] meeting. The robust antitumor efficacy and well tolerated profile being a venerable hardily population with [indiscernible] burden was encouraging and in today, the 64 complete response rate and 82 overall response rate.

We also saw a median progression for survival of 16.9 months and a median overall survival of 23.1 months, which is nearly the [indiscernible] survival reported in historical data. This data informed on [ negative ] and support the positive underlying design of our [indiscernible] NANORAY-312 [indiscernible] study. Additional signs of efficacy in exploratory analysis presented at [ the 23 ] Congress provide further confidence in our ongoing Phase III study, including 42.8 median overall survival observed in the 82% evaluable population would have a response in the NBTXR3 injected lesion compared to 18.1 months in the alternative population. Importantly, a positive correlation associated with objective response, PFS and OS extension like observed in the regulatory activated NBTXR3 injected lesion. This highlight of response in over 80% of [ accretive ] patient linked to the extended survival beyond 40 months is encouraging and support the potential of NBTXR3 to change treatment having in this patient population.

Importantly, there are several key aspects of these Phase I data that give us confidence in the design and potential outcome of our situational NANORAY-312 study. The first is the expanded survival observed in this early and highly comorbid population. We have also applied learnings from our Phase I study, which has the potential to optimize treatment outcome in the Phase III trial. This includes injection both of the primary lesion and the possibility to inject [indiscernible] in the Phase III trial instead of just the primary lesion was done in Phase I study.

Additionally, 312 will enroll a broader population and will be stratified on comorbidities. Collectively, we believe this modification and potential for [ an ] outcome of Phase I finding. But let's [indiscernible] if we reach similar outcome at our Phase I trial, then the 312 should be able to be successful. -- we expect to report initial Phase III interim efficacy and sensory data after 67% of planned PFS [ guidelines ] in mid-'25, which is positive could enable eligibility for [indiscernible] approval has been discussed with the [ PFS MDA ].

In pancreatic cancer, we were pleased to report initial data from our Phase Ib study led by our collaborator, partner, MD Anderson, supporting the potential of radiotherapy-activated NBTXR3 [indiscernible] chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer at the AACR special conference on pancreatic cancer and [indiscernible]. This trial focuses on patients with large tumors that are unable to undergo surgery and rely on radiation combined with chemotherapy as a key treatment option to help control the tumor. This initial Phase Ib dose escalation data support the feasibility and promising durable antitumor efficacy of radiotherapy-activated and NBTXR3 in pancreatic cancer.

The [indiscernible] data potentially help in from clinical trial development by publishing a recommended Phase II dose and demonstrating a favorable safety profile and a preliminary median overall survival of 23 months, which is longer than the 19.2 months median survival achieving patients will previously received a chemotherapy induction followed by radiation plus the second course of our chemotherapy.

In other words, the same center controlled patients received 1 additional course of chemotherapy versus NBTXR3 treated patients. To put this into perspective, when we lose at the comparative data that have been previously opened [indiscernible], we are seeing promising therapeutic potential versus this historical control. We plan to discuss this data with our partner, MD Anderson and Johnson & Johnson to assess potential will make step for patients with pancreatic cancer.

In our efforts to further advance clinical development and commercialization of NBTXR3, we were pleased to welcome industry veteran Dr. Louis Kayitalire to our executive leadership team as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Kayitalire brings an exceptional biopharmaceutical industry track recall with proven success in development, registration and commercialization of oncology therapy. [indiscernible] innovative leadership have and will continue to be invaluable as we focus on [indiscernible] the disruptive potential of our adherence for millions of patients with cancer around the world.

In the year ahead, we expect immunotherapy combination data from our Study 1100 trials in head and neck cancer, where we have seen encouraging activity in both PD1 treatment naive and refractory patients. We also expect initial chemotherapy combination data in [indiscernible] cancer from an MD Anderson collaboration. With that, I would like now to turn the call over to Bart to briefly discuss the financial results for the period. Bart?

[Bart Van Rhijn, executive]

Thank you, Laurent. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. As Laurent mentioned earlier, Nanobiotix has had an extremely productive year, and we believe that the company's position has been completely transformed into one where we have set the stage to allow us to deliver on the potential NBTXR3 [indiscernible] in the quarter.

More specifically, we began our collaboration with Johnson & Johnson through which we are working to bring NBTXR3 to the millions of patients that suffer from solid tumor malignancies that are minimal to treatment with radiotherapy. The first 2 indications targeted for development are planned to be head and neck cancers and lung cancers.

But as far from the full potential, we see possible with a therapy like NBTXR3. And as you've just heard around discuss additional indications such as pancreatic cancer, can, we believe, benefit from adding our potentially first-in-class radio enhancer to the treatment armamentarium.

To date, the company has received $30 million as part of an upfront cash licensing fee, $5 million for the first equity tranche, which was received post signing. $25 million as part of the second equity tranche and we are due to receive $20 million NANORAY-312 operational milestone. And as Laurent mentioned, the company completed an equity offering in which a total of 59 million was raised, which is inclusive of the aforementioned second equity fund of $25 million. And with these events, we have also addressed a significant manner the financial overhang that wasn't understandable concern of market participants.

As of December 31, 2023, Nanobiotix had $75.3 million in cash and cash equivalents compared to EUR 41.4 million as of December 31, 2022. We are grateful for the continued support we receive from existing shareholders, and are pleased to welcome new shareholders in our list. As previously disclosed, the European Investment Bank has agreed to the removal of the minimum cash and cash equivalent covenants from the company's CIB loan effective October 13, 2023. As a result of the terms of this new agreements, maybe the repayment of the prepayments and the recent financing the company has paid the EIB approximately EUR 0.5 million, which is 1% of the net equity proceeds further to the equity milestone acceleration mechanism the company agreed upon.

To turn to the specifics of our revenues and expenses, our top line of EUR 36.2 million reflects an increase of EUR 31.4 million versus the EUR 4.8 million we recorded in 2022. This was primarily driven by the revenue recognized following the signing of the Janssen agreement. Our investment in NBTXR3 as we increased our R&D expenses of approximately EUR 5.8 million to a total of EUR 38.4 million, due to primarily the investments related to the pivotal Phase III registration study, the NANORAY-312 and our immunotherapy combination Study 1100.

Our SG&A expenses increased by EUR 4.2 million to EUR 22 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. This year-over-year increase reflects growth in [indiscernible] costs and onetime business activities, including equity issuance costs, license agreement execution and the termination of the services agreement.

Based on the current operating plan and financial projections, we anticipated the cash equivalents of EUR 75.3 million as on December 31, 2023, in combination with the $20 million milestone we are true to receive results in a cash runway that stands into the third quarter of 2025.

And now I will turn the call back to Laurent. Laurent?

[Laurent Levy, executive]

Thank you, Bart. As you have heard today, we made incredible progress this year, advancing clinical development of NBTXR3. For [indiscernible] strategic partnership to further maximize the potential of NBTXR3 and extending our renewal through key milestones.

The society of clinical data continue to support the potential of NBTXR3 to offer a meaningful therapeutic benefit to potentially millions of patients in oncology. We are pleased with the progress we have made in our initial focus in head and neck cancer as well as the expansion potential across other indications like pancreatic cancer.

Looking ahead, we expect multiple clinical readouts in '24, including immunotherapy combination data from Study 1100 and new data from the collaboration with MD Anderson. With the recent strengthening of our balance sheet, we believe we are strong to execute across our new than milestone and whether toward a mission of bringing nanotechnology derived products like NBTXR3 to more patients worldwide.

With that, I'll now hand to the operator to begin our Q&A session. Operator?

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Jonathan Chang from Leerink Porter.

[Unknown Analyst]

This is Dylan on for Jonathan. First of all, could you provide any context for what we should be expecting to see regarding vision numbers, duration of follow-up and potential readouts in the upcoming ASCO update for Study 1100?

[Craig West, executive]

This is Craig. I'm the Head of IR here at antibiotics. It's our understanding some of our attendees have had trouble connecting to the webcast. I just want to make sure that people know that we are aware of the problem, we will post the slides and the replay as soon as possible. We're very sorry for the inconvenience. And I'm sorry, could you repeat your question?

[Unknown Analyst]

This is [ Dylan Jake ] on for Jonathan. Just wanted to ask if you could provide any context for what we should be expecting to see regarding patient numbers, duration of follow-up or potential readouts in the upcoming ASCO update from Study 1100?

[Unknown Executive]

Thanks for the question. So maybe for the audience, let's maybe recap what is the study and what is the intention here. So that's a Study 1100, which is a study that is made to define and absorb [indiscernible] and efficacy in different population were treated with radiation therapy and just 2 inhibitor in head and neck cancer. So maybe before to go into some of the details on what we should expect to see at ASCO. The [indiscernible] abstracts have been released lately.

Here, we're talking about patients that had received a certain number of line of treatment premedicated which have had rare or chemo or surgery followed by radiotherapy. And then after this first line of treatment, experienced a relapse. And when experiencing this relapse have been eligible to go for PD-1 treatment. So if you want to -- comparator of such a baseline in population, and you should look at trials like [ CheckMate-141 ] or [indiscernible]. So in all trial, we have in the current extension phase that is ongoing split in 2 different calls for [indiscernible] patients.

The first call in patients that are naive to PD-1 and the second car being patients are refractory to PD-1. So the equipment have been going very well. We expect to have a good number of patients to show both for refractory and naive to PD-1 patient for ASCO. And what we would expect in terms of data is, of course, [indiscernible]. And importantly, the efficacy. And in terms of efficacy, we should look at response rate after received also the all target lesion response and overall survival and PFS.

We think that achieving a good number of patient recruitment in this trial will start to really follow us to quantify the potential effect of NBTXR3 and it evolves to amplify the response for naive patients and potentially to reverse the resistance in restructurization to PD-1.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Lucy Codrington from Jefferies.

[Lucy-Emma Codrington-Bartlett, analyst]

So just a couple of one for me. So in terms of the lung cancer trial start, that Janssen is planning. And then just, I guess, more generally about your relationship with the Anderson, how regularly are you meeting to make these decisions, both about the lung cancer start, but also you mentioned about pancreatic cancer with the -- a registrational strategy for IO combination. When will we get more detail on these next indications beyond head and neck?

Then secondly, still relates to the Janssen relationship. What's the visibility on the in-kind funding for NANORAY-312 and the kind of the cadence of that? And why is -- is that included in your cash runway? And if it isn't, why isn't it? I was under the impression it would be near-term funding.

And then finally, in terms of the mid-2025 readout for NANORAY-312, what's your confidence in that time line? I do appreciate it is event driven. But I guess what's your comfort with your current cash runway? And will it get you to that data? And I guess related to that, an update, please, on the recruitment of NANORAY-312.

[Laurent Levy, executive]

Thank you, Lucy. That's a bunch of questions. Maybe let's start with the relationship with J&J and within the priority and how we've been shaping this collaboration since we signed last summer. So altogether before to go in some details about the question you've been asking, we've been working a lot with J&J in order to shape this collaboration.

First of all, establishing the good earnings, then establishing joint team and working team, that I can tell you with almost on a daily basis to work. We have a [indiscernible] of priorities that we are moving forward in the 312 and the lung cancer program owned by J&J. So those are the really 2 priority for the initial development in this program.

Something that you don't see, but we've been working a lot also in manufacturing and also exploring potential other indications with the medical team internal at Nano and the J&J team. So there's a lot of underground work in order to share this collaboration. And there's a lot of discussion ongoing to refine the pathway to go to market with our [ free]. And I can ensure you that in due time, we'll give you more information when things are being finalized and agreed with our partner.

But at the time, we can't say much more on this. But being sure that we're working with the J&J team on daily basis to shape this development and to try to bring NBTXR3 as fast as we can to the market.

Now that there was a question about when the lung cancer program or trial should start. Where we can talk for our partners that being sure that they have been working a lot on that and will all help from time to time. And as soon as we can tell you, we will inform you about this very specific and important program.

Now about the incline contribution that's been. That's something that was in the contract, as you may notice. It's not in the current runaway definition but [indiscernible] that is also ongoing discussion with J&J on how to have, where to have and how can we [ share ] that. Maybe I would like Bart to comment anything on that.

[Bart Van Rhijn, executive]

Yes, happy to. Thank you for the question, Lucy. So for the audience, this is the incline contribution that was agreed upon in the license agreement. And that is in-kind support that will directly be funded by J&J from their own P&L. So it will not flow through our P&L therefore, it doesn't influence our cash runway. However, it helps to accelerate the ongoing 312 study.

[Laurent Levy, executive]

So now for the interim analysis of the 312. So as the previous guidance we've given, we continue to expect to have the right number of events by '25 to be able to do this readout. And as you may have noticed highlighted in our financial statements that we have money up to -- or into Q3 2025. So maybe I will leave Bart to refine or give some context about the financing moving forward.

[Bart Van Rhijn, executive]

Happy to, Laurent. Yes, the cash flow into Q3 of '25 further to the guidance that has been provided previously with regards to the interim, that's continues to be our expectation. And as you may expect in the license agreement that we've concluded with J&J, there is a significant number milestones.

So milestones are typically payable at key inflection points. And without being able to share anything more, the one could expect that at significant moments in time that would trigger payments in order to sustain and refinance the company going forward. That's all that I can share at this point in time, but I hope that, that provides clarity.

[Laurent Levy, executive]

So Lucy, I hope this answer your questions. Would love to more [indiscernible]. Yes, please go ahead.

[Lucy-Emma Codrington-Bartlett, analyst]

Sorry, very helpful. Just to clarify on that last [indiscernible]. So the -- other than the 20 million you've already included those potential significant number of milestones. Some of those could come before the mid-'25 readout to extend that beyond comfortably beyond the data.

[Laurent Levy, executive]

As you know, we're not at liberty to disclose the sequence of the [indiscernible] [ store ] reserve in [indiscernible] of the quantum [indiscernible]. But I think from a close [ recall ] perspective, what we should assume is that some of those milestones may come when some of the derisking events or validating event will occur. And as we did mention in the past, there is a good proportion of this milestone at least for the initial program following to head and neck and lung program.

So not being to tell you more, I think we would anticipate a number of milestone over time linked to this program.

[Operator]

And your next question comes from the line of [ Swayampakula Ramakanth ] from H.C. Wainwright.

[Unknown Analyst]

This is [indiscernible] from H.C. Wainwright. Laurent and Bart, and for a couple of questions, but they are related within the NANORAY-312 program. So the first question is since you will be taking a couple of looks into the data, one for futility analysis and another for the interim safety and efficacy look on the pre plan, 67% of PFS. Would they -- and because you also stated that depending on how strong the data is, you could file for an accelerated approval. My question basically is, would this impact the offer in terms of statistical calculation when you're doing multiple looks before you -- before you see the interim data, especially for significant to file for an [ accelerated ] approval?

[Laurent Levy, executive]

Thanks, [ Aki ]. Yes, if we look at the design of this trial, there is a multiple number of events for the facility than the interim readout and the final of the readout of the data. There's the primary endpoint being PFS and [indiscernible] mentioned, there is a certain number of events that will trigger those certain readouts. And line of the product, those multiple loop will have an influence on the [ alpha ] and also when we have been designing this trial, we have been powering this trial to be good for OS and therefore, has been over for the PFS.

But all in all, this obviously have been taken into account in the number of patients we need to work with in order to get to the positive statistical benefits that we intend in this trial. [ Ark ], if you want to add a bit more detailed discussion, I think we can [indiscernible] over the [indiscernible] to a protocol and have a more precise discussion on this, we'll be happy to -- we can have a call with our CMO for that regard.

[Unknown Analyst]

Send me so we can take that offline. I just wanted to -- at a high level, I just wanted to check on that. And then the second question is on -- obviously beyond what we are talking today, you have multiple studies ongoing with MD Anderson, and I think I've asked this question multiple times, but -- so what is the appetite for Janssen in terms of picking up these other indications, whether it's [indiscernible] the other solid tumors like pancreatic, what do you think is their appetite going beyond what they're doing now?

[Bart Van Rhijn, executive]

Okay. So first, maybe let's remind the context of NDA collaboration and how it does between the J&J licensing out. So in the Janssen licensing out, that's a full licensing out worldwide now that they have taken back the rights from the Nanobio for development and commercialization of NBTXR3. So we have a relationship between Nanobiotix and J&J on that matter.

We do have a collaboration with MD Anderson, which is compatible with this alliance with J&J. And so it's 2 different collaborations, one with MD Anderson and one with J&J. Nevertheless, we hold [indiscernible] with the same intention to try to maximize the impact for the patients. Let's say that if I look at how this pleated in terms of periods of activity for, sure, when you think about a big company like J&J, their intention is to run some [ people ] and randomized trial in order to get to market and start in preparing commercialization and so on within standard of care or outside.

For MD Anderson, the spirit of the collaboration is more about how can we bundle of medicine using NBTXR3, not only in the existing standard of care was radiation as a whole, but potentially beyond that. So [ ICD ] MDA collaboration more as a pushing the boundaries collaboration and also trying to find some signal in term of efficacy that could help us to define future development.

So there's no 3-party relationship in these 2 collaborations, but there is many [ call ] and scientific exchanges in order to make sure that what we do one way or the other is compatible. Now as I mentioned just previously in the call, part of the discussion with the Interventional Oncology Group. It is about, okay, how and what could happen, where we could go after learned that head and neck for the little discussion around that. And definitely, what we do at MD Anderson is part of the information we use to inform that discussion.

Unfortunately, I can tell you more right now if there is a lot of discussion around all those matters.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of [ Clement Sears ] from Stifel.

[Unknown Analyst]

I'm stepping a bit away from the presentation, but I had a couple of questions regarding your [ tragic ] and Equity platform, which you kind of unveiled this year. Can you give us more color on your activities there, maybe at what stage of development you are? Is there any chance to [ second ] that in clinic this year?

And regarding [ China ] in particular, you had a collaboration with [indiscernible] feedback in 2021 for gene therapy. Could you maybe tell us if it's still ongoing, where you are now? And finally, [indiscernible], are there any discussions ongoing with J&J about this platform?

[Laurent Levy, executive]

Thank you, [indiscernible]. So as you mentioned, the 2 other technology platform have at Nanobiotix. Maybe [indiscernible] will dig in and to just briefly explain what it is. I just want to remind the philosophy, which we've been developing those 3 platforms.

So for Nanobiotix the motor, since we've created the company have been to try to find product or platform products that could help millions of patients. And also on the top of that, to have a product or a platform that will be new, meaning we want to be the first one to develop what we are looking at Nanobiotix and the latest ones is that we want that to be broadly protected by intellectual [ potent ].

So far, we've been able to do that and for the [ 3 different ] platform that potentially will generate multiple first-in-class product widely protected with IV. We've been using this and I've been able to develop that because we use [indiscernible] as a fundamental prerequisite to our different products. Why? Because we think when you use [indiscernible], then you have much less viability induced by biology and therefore, you can start imagining products that could help a lot of patients.

So that's why we've been using [indiscernible] biology or chemistry so far. So now within this context, we've been developing the first platform, which is a radio [indiscernible] platform that you know, and 2 of our platforms, one which is linked to CNS disorder, and that's the name that was mentioned at [indiscernible]. This platform is about looking at the brand more at an electric [indiscernible] rather than looking at the brand as a biological organ.

And when you start to looking at the generation [indiscernible], you can look and see that most of the efficiencies [indiscernible] are expressed through a misconnection between your own or that comes conviction that is too fast or too slow or as income. So we've been developing a number of nanoparticles that have the ability to change the way electricity is conducted, and this at the neuron level.

So you can imagine that if we can have this particle in contact like on the surface inside or outside the neuron, we will change the way electric [ conduction ] is done within neuron or between neuron. So this is just the fundamental of this technology platform that potentially will lead to multiple products and then the less advanced platform. And also [indiscernible] focus for Nanobiotix.

So you did mention [indiscernible], which is here again, a different approach, where we've been looking at while so many products cannot be delivered the right way. Or why are we limited in terms of efficacy or safety. And I can thank [indiscernible] like the [ delivery ] systems that have been used to deliver [indiscernible] or some also the RNA-based LNP that faced a number of problems when we deliver IV or oncology [ virus ] on some other technology or approaches. What makes a link between all the technology have been mentioning is when you inject that IV, the liver will has its strength feature, and we'll capture the vast majority of this product and will not allow those products to go outside in the body. Therefore, limited by the way you can deliver. And that's why people are delivering on [ qualitive ] virus most of the time directly where they want to be, just like the LNP with RNA product.

Looking at this, we thought that can we rethink the way products are delivered? And can we changed -- can we do it differently? That's what led us to develop what we call the Nanoprimer, which is a nanoparticle that you inject IV. And this particle will go in the liver as many other particles. But it has been designed in a very specific way, this particle will be sort of digested by the liver for certain amount of time and while deliver is dealing, digesting the particle, when you inject all the type of products, they will go more freely through the leader.

And therefore, you change completely the biodistribution of this product. And more than changing things you can allow to do things in this Nanoprimer but you will not be allowed to do readout. If I take RNA delivery particle as an example, very hard when you inject IV to go and target or other type of organs. And with Nanoprimer and we've been looking at different [ annual ] level we are able to do that.

So there's a lot to do with this platform, as you can imagine, given the potential and the different approaches we could use, both in terms of product impact, but also in terms of therapeutic areas that a big part of the ongoing program internally is about defining the business model, defining how we're going to move forward in different aspects of this product, and we expect to give an update on that before the end of this year.

So we are talking about the stage of development [indiscernible] development, but we already have established a good number of proof of concepts on different type of products. Now it's all about how we are going to bring that to people to patients and how we're going to bring that to market. And even the potential of this platform on so many fronts, I think this will allow us for different type of business ranging from licensing out to -- in higher development for different products.

But as I said, we will tell you more before the year end on this matter. Now you mentioned a collaboration with Sanofi that we've been establishing to try to assess this platform with different types of therapies they have internally. So the collaboration [indiscernible] we've been establishing some good data. Now the next steps on the potential side will be to explore further. But this obviously within the bigger context of establishing the right business model for the company with this platform.

[Unknown Analyst]

Okay. And did you discuss it with J&J or is it only [indiscernible]?

[Laurent Levy, executive]

[indiscernible] haven't been discovering [indiscernible] change about technology platform. We're really focusing on the development of NBTXR3 as is the vast majority of our team.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Colin Bristow from UBS.

[Elliott Bosco, analyst]

This is Elliott Bosco on for Colin Bristow. A few questions for me. You recently shared the recommended Phase II dose in operable lung cancer. I know that study was led by MD Anderson, but is there anything you can say on our next steps? And then on the initial Phase Ib/II esophageal cancer readout that you're expecting, are you able to share what might be expected in the readout and what you see as the threshold for success?

[Laurent Levy, executive]

Thank you for the question. So as you know, we have a number of clinical trials ongoing, done by and act by MD Anderson. We've been in the recent past, delivering to good news coming from this trial. The one on this pancreatic cancer that we've been summarizing during the first part of the call with potential good data coming in. And this trial now is getting close to completion, and we may expect to get additional data this pancreatic cancer trial.

Rightly, you've mentioned that we reached the RP2D in lung cancer trial in one of the lung cancer trial of MDA. Just to precise the context of this lung cancer trial. As you know, radiation therapy is widely used in the lung cancer for different parts of disease. [indiscernible] it was a very partial trial, where we wanted to help patients that already received radiation and relapsed [indiscernible] respond enough to radiation and have a local relapse within the field of previously related [ tissue ].

The [ go ] here being the following. You can't reapply in a revaluated tissue [indiscernible] directed radiation without listing dominating too much the tissue of the patients. So the idea of this trial was first, is it feasible to [indiscernible] the lung area [indiscernible] and two, the [indiscernible] provide [indiscernible] if we put [indiscernible] on the top of radiation, with the lower dose of radiation than the dose that will be for revenue effect.

So we have basically the RP2D had into the [indiscernible] and the recruitment is moving well. And again, we like in [indiscernible], we should be able, hopefully soon to be an update on this trial, including more patients than what we've been [indiscernible] both on pancreatic and lung. But as you know, MDA is the sponsor of the trial. So at the end of the day, we're still depending on when and how to communicate the data even though they're Janssen committee and this collaboration works really well.

So for the esophageal cancer, that's a different type of approach. We're talking about patients having esophageal cancer that cannot be removed seriously. And if you're having a good local control is also very important for the potential improvement of survival of the patient quality of life. And in some case, if we can get to a surgery that could bring the primary tumor.

So the trial is recruiting and we're discussing about potential reshaping of that with MD Anderson. And we don't have the exact timing for now on when this should happen and when we should be able to give you the data. But as I said, when I look at esophageal cancer [indiscernible] for this moving, and we should expect some updates coming in the coming quarters.

[Operator]

And there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to Laurent Levy for closing remarks.

[Laurent Levy, executive]

Thank you, [ all ]. I would like to thank everyone for participating today's call and being sure that we will keep you updated as soon as we are moving forward in some of the developments we've been explaining today. And I would like to personally thank you for all the supports you've been addressing during the past year and decade in helping us to have millions of patients with our different technology platform. And I hope to talk to you soon, and I wish you a great day.

[Operator]

Thank you, presenters. And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.