Participants

Alexander Khan; Vice President, Finance & Investor Relations; Absci Corp

Sean McClain; Chief Executive Officer, Founder, Director; Absci Corp

Zachariah Jonasson; Chief Financial Officer, Chief Business Officer, Treasurer; Absci Corp

Christian Stegmann; Senior Vice President, Drug Creation; Absci Corp

Arseniy Shabashvili; Analyst; Guggenheim Partners, LLC

Vikram Purohit; Analyst; Morgan Stanley & Co LLC

Gil Blum; Analyst; Needham & Company, LLC

Debanjana Chatterjee; Analyst; Jones Research

Swayampakula Ramakanth; Analyst; H.C. Wainwright & Co.

Presentation

Operator

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Absci's fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 business update and financial operating results conference call.
(Operator Instructions) As a reminder, today's program is being recorded.
Now, I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Alex Khan, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations.

Alexander Khan

Thank you.
Earlier today, Absci released the financial and operating results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2024. If you haven't received this news release or if you'd like to be added to the company's distribution list, please send an email to investors@absci.com.
An archived webcast of this call will be available for replay at Absci's Investor Relations website, at investors.absci.com, for at least 90 days after this call.
Joining me, today, are Sean McLain, Absci's Founder and CEO; and Zach Jonasson, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer. Christian Stegmann, Absci's SVP of Drug Creation, will also join for Q&A, following prepared remarks.
Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will make statements, during this call, that are forward-looking, within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Additional information regarding these risks, uncertainties, and factors that could cause the results differ, appears in the section titled Forward-Looking Statements in the press release Absci issued today and the documents and reports filed by Absci, from time to time, with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Except as required by law, Absci disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any financial or product pipeline projections or other forward-looking statements, either because of new information, future events, or otherwise.
This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast, March 18, 2025.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Sean.

Sean McClain

Thanks, Alex. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 business update call.
2024 was a successful year for Absci. I'm proud to say we executed across all aspects of our business, including advancing our proprietary internal programs, delivering on partner programs, and adding four new partners to our ecosystem of collaborators.
We capped the year off with our 2024 R&D Day in December, where we unveiled our potentially category-defining ABS-201 program, targeting the prolactin receptor for the treatment of androgenic alopecia.
At this event, we shared new data supporting a potential best-in-class profile for ABS-101, our anti-TL1A program, and pre-clinical data for ABS-301 and ABS-501 programs.
Additionally, we showcased new breakthroughs in de novo antibody design from our leading AI platform and hosted distinguished guest presenters including our KOLs and partners such as doctors Dennis Slamon from UCLA and Doctor Luis Diaz from Memorial Sloan Kettering.
For those who did not view the webcast, I encourage you to access the replay on our website.
ABS-201, in particular, is an asset we are extremely excited about. We see the opportunity for ABS-201 to become a potential flagship asset for Absci.
But, first, I'd like to reflect on the capabilities that enabled us to generate these differentiated antibody assets.
Looking back on 2024, we're encouraged by the significant advancements in our AI-integrated drug creation platform. Similar to how the broader tech industry is experiencing successive breakthroughs in generative AI, we do the progress of our model and platform in a similar light.
Just two years ago, in January 2023, we released our first AI de novo proof print. Since then, we have demonstrated notable platform improvements, progressing from single-CDR design to designing antibodies to targets with no known binders.
These capabilities were clearly showcased in December, particularly through our collaboration with Caltech, which focused on designing a universally neutralizing HIV antibody.
Before discussing that collaboration further, I'd like to highlight the key factors behind our success.
At Absci, we see four key ingredients for success: our data advantage, our leading AI models, access to scalable compute, and fostering a team with multilingual expertise.
While we've spoken, extensively, about each of these in the past, I'd specifically like to focus on compute. In January, we announced a collaboration with AMD, a leader in high-performance computing. As part of this partnership, AMD made a $20 million strategic investment in Absci.
This collaboration supports our mission of creating better biologics faster by offering optimized compute solutions for complex biological modeling. These solutions provided exceptional performance, reduced infrastructure costs, and accelerated cycle times.
At the J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference, in January, I outlined several key reasons we chose to partner with AMD. AMD chips gave us unmatched training resolution, allowing us to model large protein complexes without the need to crop, preserving biological context and enhancing model accuracy.
Furthermore, this collaboration significantly accelerates throughput scaling in silicone antibody design and evaluation and, ultimately, reducing R&D timelines and costs.
Stepping back, what's the broader purpose of harnessing generative AI for antibodies design? It's not just about designing faster or cheaper, it's about creating truly differentiated candidates and unlocking novel biology for the benefit of patients.
In December, we shared a case study illustrating breakthroughs in AI de novo design for our collaboration with Caltech. Using our proprietary de novo design model, we created antibodies targeting a difficult-to-drug epitope in the HIV caldera region, potentially facilitating the development of a universal neutralizing HIV antibody.
The caldera region, uniquely accessible only in the gp120 open confirmation has remained untargeted by previously neutralizing antibodies. Successfully creating these antibodies marks a potential pivotal milestone in HIV vaccine research and underscores the capability of our de novo design model to target previously undruggable epitopes.
We're also actively applying our generative AI drug creation capabilities to our proprietary internal pipeline.
In December, we unveiled ABS-201, a potential best-in-class anti-prolactin receptor antibody for androgenic alopecia. This is an indication with significant unmet need and a large patient population, approximately 80 million people in the US alone.
Androgenic alopecia, also known as male and female pattern hair loss, affects 50% of men and 40% of women by the age of 50. There's been no real innovation in nearly 30 years, creating a large market potential.
Our approach aims to not just slow hair loss but to unlock an entirely new category focused on hair regrowth. We've nominated a development candidate for ABS-201, supported by free clinical data, suggesting high affinity and potency, favorable safety and immunogenicity, extended half-life for convenient infrequent dosing, and excellent developability and manufacturability
Pre-clinical models demonstrated improved hair growth compared to Minoxidil. As we advance ABS-201, we envision a straightforward path to clinical development and have assembled a robust network of renowned hair and dermatology KOLs advising our progress.
ABS-201 is currently an IND-enabling study, with phase 1 trials anticipated to begin in early '26. Since unveiling ABS-201 three months ago, we've received very positive responses from industry experts and the financial community.
Given the compelling data, clear development path, and significant market opportunity, our strategy is to develop ABS-201, internally, through later-stage clinical development and proof of concept, retaining maximum value for Absci.
Turning, now, to ABS-101, our potential best-in-class anti-TL1A antibody.
At December's R&D Day, we shared new data indicating ABS-101 shows reduced internalization of TL1A complexes and in vitro THP-1 immunogenicity tests compared to competitor molecules that had high clinical ADA rates. These data suggest ABS-101 may have lower ADA development risk in clinical settings.
Additionally, in January, we shared new ABS-101 NHP PK [PD] data, confirming prolonged target engagement; demonstrating dose-dependent engagement, including a ceiling effect; and significantly improved target engagement compared to competitor molecules at comparable dosing regimens.
We plan to initiate phase 1 clinical studies for ABS-101 in the first half of 2025, with an interim readout expected in the second half of this year. We continue to see active partner interests and have begun developing a potential first-in-class bispecific antibody, incorporating our TL1A antibody as one arm.
Additional data will be provided later.
We recently shared data on ABS-301 and ABS-501 programs, as well.
ABS-301, targeting an undisclosed immuno-oncology target discovered through Absci's reverse immunology platform, showed expression across squamous cell carcinomas. Our first in vivo target validation study demonstrated potent anti-tumor response, strongly supporting further development.
For ABS-501, our potential best-in-class AI-designed anti-HER2 antibody, pre-clinical data confirms novel epitope interactions, affinity comparable or superior to Trastuzumab, efficacy against Trastuzumab-resistant xenograft tumors expressing wild-type HER2, and good developability.
Earlier, I mentioned that our team was a key ingredient Absci's success. This is evident in our achievements in 2024.
As always, I'd like to thank our dedicated team at Absci for their unwavering commitment and efforts towards our mission.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Zach to walk through our new partnerships, our outlook, and financial updates. Zach?

Zachariah Jonasson

Thanks, Sean.
As Sean mentioned, we added two new partners toward the end of 2024 and achieved our partnership guidance for the year.
In addition to our partnerships with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Twist Bioscience, which were announced earlier in 2024, we entered into new partnerships with Owkin and Invetx in December.
Our collaboration with Owkin combines Owkin's novel AI target discovery and agentic AI expertise with our leading AI de novo design models, with the aim of designing and co-developing potential first-in-class therapeutics. Together, Absci and Owkin plan to co-develop therapeutic candidates, addressing novel targets in immuno-oncology and other indications such as immunology and inflammation.
The partnership will leverage Owkin's predictive AI models and its biomedical data sets and patient-derived organoids for target selection and validation. Absci's generative AI drug creation platform, including our de novo antibody design models, will be used to design novel therapeutic candidates against these targets.
Together, we aim to streamline and accelerate the development of novel therapeutics targeting novel disease targets.
Our partnership with Invetx will leverage our leading generative AI drug creation models to create novel antibody Half-Life Extension or HLE capabilities for animal health applications. Through this partnership, Absci will utilize its AI models to design novel, modular antibody sequences that confer Half-Life Extension in specific animal species.
Invetx will have rights to use the HLE sequences across its product portfolio to enhance duration of therapeutic effect and customer convenience, both significant potential differentiators in the animal health market.
This partnership includes R&D funding, as well as election fees, milestone payments, and royalties on a product-by-product basis.
We believe this collaboration has the potential to address significant unmet needs in animal health, starting with initial applications for large market indications in canine medicine.
Since our IPO, nearly four years ago, we have continued to evolve our business model, as our capabilities have grown. Today, we are focused on building and advancing a balanced portfolio of high-quality, high-value therapeutic programs, including a growing number of proprietary, internal, wholly owned programs.
Moreover, while we continue to collaborate with partners to create therapeutic programs for their targets under traditional deal structures, we have also more recently initiated creative co-development partnerships to leverage risk-sharing and cost reduction synergies for the creation and development of first-in-class therapeutic programs.
Based on our business model today, including expansion and advancement of our wholly owned programs, we believe that the legacy metric of number of external-partnered programs, simply on a gross-volume basis, has become outdated and is now a less meaningful approach to understanding and valuing our business.
Our strategy is based on leveraging our platform and resources to create a portfolio of novel and differentiated therapeutic programs that offer the most promising return. Accordingly, we invest our resources in internal programs, as well as a variety of partnership programs, that we believe offer the best risk/return profile, rather than simply seeking a potential gross number of partnership programs.
We, of course, continue to see value in adding partner programs with high-quality collaborators. And we will continue to do so, on a selective basis.
Hence, going forward, we do not plan to provide an exact number of expected new partners or partner programs, as a business outlook, as we have in prior years, but rather, plan to provide material updates and guidance on our internal and/or partnered therapeutic programs, when possible.
This year, we plan to advance our proprietary internal asset programs, as described by Sean earlier. We also anticipate signing one or more partnerships, including with a large pharma company for a drug creation collaboration; and continue to plan to provide material updates on ongoing partner programs, as they advance through development.
We will also, very soon, be a clinical-stage biotech company, with ABS-101 expected to enter the clinic, shortly; and ABS-201 accelerating toward first-in-human clinical trials, potentially early next year.
And, as a reminder, our business model is focused on out-licensing or selling our internal programs and co-developed programs, following value inflection proof points, as early as pre-clinical proof of concept or at much later stages.
Turning, now, to our financials.
Revenue in the fourth quarter was $0.7 million, as we continue to progress our partnered programs.
Research and development expenses were $18.4 million for the three months into December 31, 2024, as compared to $12.3 million for the prior year period. This increase was primarily driven by advancement of our internal programs, including direct costs associated with IND-enabling studies for ABS-101 and the increase in stock compensation expense.
Selling, general, and administrative expenses were $8.8 million for the three months ending December 31, 2024, as compared to $9.3 million for the prior year period. This decrease was due to lower personnel and other costs, offset by an increase in stock compensation expense.
For the full-year 2024, our gross use of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, exclusive of partnered program payments, was approximately $72 million, below our outlet of $75 million on a gross basis.
Turning to our balance sheet. We ended the year with $112.4 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, as compared to $127.1 million, as of September 30, 2024.
In January of this year, we announced a new strategic collaboration with AMD. As part of that collaboration, AMD made a $20 million-dollar equity investment in Absci, purchasing Absci common shares at a price representing an approximate 14% premium to Absci's share price, based on the prior day's market closing price.
Further, this year, we have also raised an additional approximately $20 million by utilizing our at-the-market facility. The vast majority of which was raised from two premier mutual funds.
This additional approximately $40 million raised, since the end of 2024, enables us to continue investing in our internal programs, including accelerating the development of ABS-201, our anti-PRLR program for the treatment of androgenic alopecia; as well as our co-development programs.
In sum, we continue to deepen our focus on the high-value proprietary internal programs, as well as high-quality co-development and drug creation partnerships with industry leaders who bring synergistic capabilities.
We believe that this strategic, balanced approach will provide us with the best return for shareholders.
Based on our current plan, we believe our existing cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments will be sufficient to fund our operations into the first half of 2027.
In all, we are very pleased with the progress we have made over the past year and are confident in our ability to execute across our portfolio of programs, this year and beyond.
With that, I'll turn it back to Sean.

Sean McClain

Thanks, Zach.
In closing, we've made tremendous recent progress across our platform and internal pipelines.
New data for ABS-101 reinforces its best-in-class potential. And ABS-201 presents an exciting opportunity to create an entirely new category, addressing a significant market and patient need.
In coming months, we'll reach the milestone of becoming a clinical-stage biotech company, as ABS-101 enters the clinic. As we also advance ABS-201 towards the clinic, we're energized by the potential to bring this innovative product to roughly 80 million people affected in the US.
Alongside progress on our internal programs, as Zach mentioned, we anticipate adding one or more new partners, including a large pharma partnership.
Again, these achievements are possible because of our dedicated team of (inaudible), at Absci, who would advance our mission each and every day.
Thank you, all. I'll, now, turn the call back to the operator for Q&A. Operator?

Question and Answer Session

Operator

Kripa Devarakonda, Truist Securities.

Hi. This is [Alex], on for Kripa. Congrats on all the progress. Looking forward to another exciting year with Absci.
We have a couple of questions on our end. One, for Absci-101, we saw compelling pre-clinical data, last year at your R&D Day. We know, as we wait for the clinical trial to get underway, now; and the phase 1 data, later this year, does Absci plan to conduct additional pre-clinical studies with ABS-101? Would investors get to see that?
And, maybe, also, with ABS-201 as well, if there are pre-clinical studies underway and plans to present that in the 2025 timeframe.
Thanks.

Sean McClain

Yeah. Great question, [Alex]. Christian, do you want to take that?

Christian Stegmann

Sure. Happy to.
Regarding ABS-101, we have disclosed, at R&D Day, a novel pre-clinical data. At J.P. Morgan, we have also disclosed target engagement data in non-human primates for ABS-101.
We are essentially wrapping up our IND-enabling work, currently. So we will disclose, at a scientific conference, the full toxicology data. But we are proceeding towards clinical development, as mentioned.
And, then, for ABS-201, we are in the IND-enabling phase and we will disclose data in the course of this work. Also, preferably at a scientific conference that's upcoming.

Yeah. Great.

Sean McClain

I was just going to say, on ABS-201, we have accelerated our timeline on that. We do plan to be in the clinic in early '26, with a potential interim efficacy readout next year on ABS-201.
So we'll have 101 in the clinic later this year, followed by 201.

Oh. That's great.
And one more, if I may. I think you said that you're not going to provide the number of new partners, going forward, as some standard practice for the firm, but more material guidance on the internal assets and also the partnered programs.
Any additional color you can provide on the partnered programs? Updates? What that might look like, given that other people might be taking the lead, as part of your contracts, over there? But, obviously, very interested in all that development, for investors and for us.

Sean McClain

Yeah. Absolutely. We're really focused on the large pharma partnership. We plan to execute one new large pharma platform deal, this year.
And, then, additionally, we are in discussions on ABS-101, on potentially out-licensing that asset.
And so, there, definitely, are going to continue to be transactions. But we really want to be focused in on transactions that can bring in significant upfront payments that can, in a non-dilutive way, extend cash runway. And it also provides really nice validation for the platform and, additionally, allows us to go into other indications that we would not pursue on our own and, really, having us to have a diversified portfolio.
Zach, is there anything else you would like to add, there?

Zachariah Jonasson

Yeah. I'll just add that, going forward, there'll be a much greater focus on providing guidance around our internal programs and the co-dev programs, particularly once they're at a DC stage.
As you would imagine, in our drug creation partnerships, disclosure of information on those programs is, sometimes, not as easy because that partner would have to agree to that. But, certainly, for the programs that we're advancing -- and, as you've seen, we've evolved our business models; they have a greater focus on internal programs and, now, adding co-devs in there, as well -- I think gives us quite a bit of guidance to provide around those.
And so, that'll be our focus, going forward.

Fantastic. Thank you, all.

Operator

Arseniy Shabashvili, Guggenheim.

Arseniy Shabashvili

Hi. Congrats on all the progress in 2024.
We have a question on 201, given the data that you (inaudible), clinically, how are you thinking about the design and end point for the planned phase 1?

Sean McClain

Yeah. That's a great question. I can speak a little bit to the design and hand it over to Christian for the end points.
The way we're thinking about this, right now, is that we will start with a SAD study that would begin sometime early next year. Followed by a MAD study, where we do plan to power that study, appropriately, to be able to achieve a proof of concept. All that will be beginning next year.
Christian, do you want to speak to the end points that we're going to be looking at?

Christian Stegmann

Yeah. Absolutely. Great question.
When it comes to androgenic alopecia, there is a number of well-accepted end points described. Importantly, they can all be measured with a very well-established device, the trickle scan device. These end points have also been accepted by regulators.
So this is a non-invasive, computer-assisted optical measurement of hair density, terminal hair count. And it allows us, essentially, to progress this program, very effectively, through clinical development.

Arseniy Shabashvili

Thank you. That's very helpful.
And, maybe, one more on the large pharma partnership that you're hoping to secure in 2025. Can you share, maybe just on the high level, which therapeutic areas the modalities discussions are focusing on? Maybe, what companies are interested in it? And, maybe, where they recognize your capabilities and your (technical difficulty)?

Sean McClain

Yeah. I would say that the focus is pretty broad, in terms of overall indication. I think some of the focuses are definitely INI in oncology.
But I would say, more generally, where the focus lies and what's really driving these platform partnerships is the de novo model's capability that we've been able to show, where we can go after epitopes that have no known binders -- that have been difficult-to-drug in the past -- and being able to ultimately drug those particular epitopes or targets, with our platform.
I think what we're seeing is that there's a lot of interest in ion channels, like the ones that we're working on with Almirall or various GPCRs, where there's been difficulty drugging these.
The indications have been pretty broad, in terms of overall interest.
Zach, did I miss anything, there? Or do you want to add?

Zachariah Jonasson

No. The only one thing I would add, Arseniy, is you can think of the partnerships we're working on or working towards with large pharmas as being multi-target. And, to Sean's point, they could span multiple indications.

Arseniy Shabashvili

Thank you.

Operator

Vikram Purohit, Morgan Stanley.

Vikram Purohit

Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking our questions.
We have two. First, on 101, we just wanted to revisit expectations for the readout in the second half of the year. I was just curious to see any updated thoughts you might have around the size of the data set, the scope of the data set we'll be receiving? Just your current view on what you would consider a really strong outcome, here.
And, then, secondly, I think you mentioned that you're working on a bispecific that addresses TL1A, in part. I was just curious on what the next steps there might be? What you think the future for that program could be? Whether that could be something that's eventually partnered alongside 101 or would that be a separate effort you want to hold on to, for a longer time point?
Thanks.

Sean McClain

Yeah. Thanks, Vikram. I can answer your second one and hand the first question over to Christian.
Regarding the bispecific, we are planning on developing a potential first-in-class T1A bispecific, with TL1A on one arm and, then, a target that has been known but has been difficult-to-drug, in the past. We see this as an exciting potential first-in-class TL1A bispecific but, additionally, developing it out as a monotherapy, as well.
We plan to have a lead on that this year and, then, a DC to follow, shortly thereafter. But we do see this as, I think, exciting evolution of the INI pipeline that we're building out.
And we do see combo-based therapy, or being able to hit multiple pathways with the bispecific, as a way to really meet some of the unmet needs within the IBD and UC space.
Christian, I'll hand it over to you for anything I missed there, and, then, answering the first question.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line.
(multiple speakers) Sorry.

Sean McClain

Christian, are you there? Alex, did we lose Christian?

Operator

His line is still (multiple speakers) -- yes, we can hear you, Christian.

Sean McClain

Christian, are you still there?

Christian Stegmann

Can you hear me?

Sean McClain

Yeah. We can hear you now.

Christian Stegmann

All right. I'm not sure what's going on. I'll try again.
With regards to the interim readout, in the second half of this year, for ABS-101, what you can expect to see is something quite similar to what we have disclosed for non-human primates at J.P. Morgan, earlier this year.
Essentially, what we'd like to see is a demonstration of sustained elevation of soluble TL1A, in serum, in humans, after a single dose. And we'd like to see that in one cohort, after a single-dose administration.
That's an important de-risking point. And I will just remind you that the competitor molecules that have claimed prolonged half-life have, to our knowledge, not disclosed target engagement in non-human, primates. Hence, we think we're very well positioned to demonstrate that, not only in non-human primates but also in humans.

Operator

Gil Blum, Needham & Company.

Gil Blum

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking our questions.
One, relating to the planned pharma partnership, did some of the achievements that you, guys, demonstrated -- binding to the caldera region of HIV -- did that play into your pharma discussions?
And I have a follow-up.

Sean McClain

Yes. That case study has been a big driver in the discussions we're having with large pharma, right now. I think it's a really strong illustration of how we can go after these difficult targets that still exist.
And we do believe that that case study is an important piece to the value prop and, ultimately, driving these large pharma partnerships across the finish line.

Gil Blum

Big deal.

Zachariah Jonasson

This is Zach. I might add to that too, just to contextualize it.
I think the other thing that we're excited about -- and we've seen resonate with the pharma companies we're dialoguing with us -- is not only the results there but if you look over the history of the burgeoning of our models, you can see the dramatic performance and capability gains, as we go from early versions back in 2022 to where we are today, with the models that can address the caldera epitope, for example.

Gil Blum

Okay. That's very helpful.
And as it relates to this bispecific lead, you mentioned, for IBD. What kind of dynamic should we imagine, here, with ABS-101?
I mean there are other companies in the space that are really taking lead on this combo approach. Is this what we're thinking of, here? Or is this something really completely different?
Thank you.

Sean McClain

Yeah. Thanks, Gil.
We do see this as different. But, Christian, do you want to, maybe, talk a little bit about the biology and what we're trying to achieve with this particular bispecific?

Christian Stegmann

Yeah. Absolutely.
You're, of course, correct that there is a competition that has announced to run combination studies.
We think, obviously, this is quite interesting. We do think a bispecific can potentially provide additional value that will be more difficult to realize in the clinic, in combination studies.
So we haven't disclosed the target we're looking at, specifically. But we do think there is, potentially, a strong synergy between TL1A and the other mechanism.

Sean McClain

Yeah. And I will note this is not an IL-23 or an alpha(4)beta(7). This is a novel target, again, that's been difficult-to-drug. And, as a monotherapy, it definitely would be a first-in-class, both as a monotherapy and as a bispecific.

Gil Blum

Great. Very helpful. Thanks for taking our questions.

Operator

Brendan Smith, TD Cowen.

Hi. This is [Jackie], on for Brendan. Thanks for taking the questions.
Maybe, just touching back on your HIV program. Could you remind us on how you plan on progressing that program and how that works, under the current partnership structure? And give any additional color on when we might see updates on the progress, regarding that program?

Sean McClain

Yeah. This is a collaboration that we have with Caltech. It's being funded by the Gates Foundation.
And so, we're going to continue to develop this molecule and, at the appropriate time, work with the Gates Foundation on taking this into the clinic, assuming the pre-clinical data looks good.
At that point in time, once we start to see some in vivo results, we should be able to come out with a plan on how we plan to develop this, in collaboration with Caltech and the Gates Foundation. So stay tuned.

That's great.
And, maybe, just swinging over to more of the business side. Can you give us any update on how to look at 2025, particularly around the expected ramp and spend from the study initiations and, maybe, anticipated cash burn rate?

Sean McClain

Yeah. Zach, I'll let you take that.

Zachariah Jonasson

Yeah. Sure. To start off, just to note, we've reiterated our guidance; that we have a balance sheet that'll fund our strategy and operations into the first half of '27.
I think we're very well positioned to advance our phase 1 studies for ABS-101. And, as we mentioned earlier, we'll have an interim readout on that trial in the second half of this year.
I think the other point, which Sean mentioned earlier, is we'll be accelerating the development plan for ABS-201. And that is within our budget. The plan there is to be able to initiate first-in-human studies early next year, with the potential for an interim efficacy readout in 2026.
So that's all part of our core strategic plan. And I think we're capitalized to achieve that, as well as advance some earlier stage programs that we're working on, today.

Great. Thank you.

Operator

(Operator Instructions)
Debanjana Chatterjee, Jones.

Debanjana Chatterjee

Thanks for taking my question.
Given the recent positive data from Sanofi and Teva's duvakitug in ulcerative colitis colitis, particularly the strong efficacy and low ADA rates in patients, how is Absci positioning its anti-TL1A Absci to compete? To what extent does this raise the bar, in terms of, like, clinical performance or commercial potential?

Sean McClain

Great question. Christian, do you want to take that?

Christian Stegmann

Yes. Great question. We have, obviously, seen the Sanofi-Teva data. It is, indeed, impressive data.
However, it was interesting to observe that the inclusion/exclusion criteria in that study was, perhaps, an aspect that makes it a little bit more difficult to compare this study with other data that's out there. In particular, there was a significant share of (technical difficulty) with the patients in (technical difficulty) .
So that brings the question: to what extent can we expect similar data from other antibodies?
The other interesting thing, we believe, with ABS-101, there may be a potential to potentially dose higher than what we've seen with competitors. This is an avenue we are exploring, as well.
So it remains to be seen, whether in terms of the efficacy, there is a ceiling effect or whether dosing higher can potentially lead to additional efficacy.

Debanjana Chatterjee

Okay. Thanks for that.

Operator

Swayampakula Ramakanth, H.C. W..

Swayampakula Ramakanth

Thank you. This is RK, from H.C. Wainwright. Good afternoon, Sean, and Zach, and Alex.
A lot of my questions on the pipeline have been already asked. But, in the time that you spent generating this pipeline, how much of that data has allowed you to expand the pipeline? Are you able to take it back into your model, into your AI models? Are you able to strengthen it? What sort of benefits are you seeing by developing this kind-of-a last pipeline?
And the second part of the question is: from your initial conversations with Merck, way back in 2021, what conversations happen now, when you start working with potential partners? What's the evolution there?

Sean McClain

Yeah. Great question.
To answer the first one, RK, we have a lab-in-the-loop process. We're in a six-week time period. We can go from data in our wet lab to training our models to validating that. And that occurs both on, as you mentioned, our own internal pipeline but also in our partnered programs.
And so, that lab-in-the-loop process allows us to rapidly iterate on the design and the architectures of our models to continually improve them, as well as being able to feed in new data for training, which is obviously helping us increase the overall accuracy and generalizability of these models.
We've made -- even since two, two-and-a-half years ago, we've made tremendous progress from being able to design the HCDR3 of an antibody to now being able to design an antibody where there was no known binder to difficult and challenging targets, like the caldera region or ion channels.
We see, again, that lab-in-the-loop process as really key to unlocking our ability to increase the generalizability and accuracy of our models. And that's really the reason why we've been able to achieve what we have, today.
Zach, do you want to answer that second question?

Zachariah Jonasson

Yeah. Sure. It bridges up exactly what you were describing, Sean.
RK, our discussions with pharma, right now, are, really, highly centered on the de novo design models that we have and the capabilities that we've advanced, over the last one to two years.
And so, I think the big value proposition, to Sean's point, is unlocking these targets that haven't been addressable with traditional antibody discovery technologies. And so, that's a real central value proposition that we're actively exploring with pharma, right now.
There are some other interest points, too, around the ability to create novel pharmacology profiles. For example, pH-dependent binding.
There's definitely some interest in that aspect of what we're doing. Some of the data we've put out at R&D Day, you can refer to.
But, back to Sean's point, the biggest emphasis, here, and I think the biggest value proposition is being able to use those de novo design models to address these targets, where there's, really, known biology but they just have not been addressable by traditional techniques.

Swayampakula Ramakanth

Thank you, both, for taking the questions.

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions)
This does conclude the question-and-answer session, as well as today's program.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation.
You may now disconnect. Good day.