Video transcript
Everything in this presentation, other than statements of historical fact, will be forward-looking statements. Please read our SEC filings to better understand exozymes as a business, our risk factors, and as an investment opportunity.
Welcome to today's investor call. I look forward to updating you all on the 2025 year and up until now. We have had so much progress and there is a lot of news to share. What you're looking at here is today's agenda.
We will be going over the following topics. What is the next topic? We have been made aware of that a few of our IPO investors are not getting our updates via our newsletter. So please make sure if you or someone you meet isn't getting the updates that you go to our web page and sign up for our newsletters.
We're obviously sending to everybody that we have the names and emails on. Thank you. If you have questions for today's presentation, please use the Q&A feature in the browser. We love getting questions and we can take them in the end of the call here.
I will say that it's not necessarily everybody we can answer because we often get more questions than we have time and especially because we have been asked to keep our investor calls short and concise.
In case you ask a question that is not answered here on the live session, then we will reach out to you afterwards. of focus, scaling up and execution. We went from being a company with a large potential via the Big Idea platform to becoming a commercially focused entity going after the very valuable products we can make and basically capturing the extraordinary business opportunities.
As you will remember from the Q3 call, we talked about how we started realizing that the idea of having a lot of different partners and being relatively broad with many solutions was less optimal for us and our shareholders.
I want to pin out that exact point. We were in a lot of negotiations. People were interested and is interested in our biosolutions. But the reality is that we are in a market, in an industry where a lot of people suffer from having burned their fingers on synthetic biology.
They have spent a lot of time and money and seen nothing come in return. And therefore when we show up with a new generation of biomanufacturing, they are naturally skeptical. And the people that still wanted to work with us wanted very large discounts and very, very favorable licensing terms.
And that's obviously not in our interest and in your interest as our shareholders. So what we decided to do was to be the icebreaker ourselves, sit down and especially when we started realizing with, for example, NCT, how much value and potential we can build in a matter of a short time.
And without that much capital, we decided to double down and take it forward ourselves. So the refocusing that happened in 2025 was really about securing shareholder value by taking projects further along than maybe originally planned for.
By doing more of the work, we will end up in a position owning more of the pie and the upside. And the potentials are simply too great, as we will be talking about. While talking to partners and potential investors, it became obvious for us that cell-free is a brand new concept that takes people a little time to understand.
It was very clear that there was a lot of people that already many years ago understood the enormous potential of biomanufacturing and synthetic biology, but obviously were sitting back with burnt fingers and disappointed outcomes.
Those people that understand the potential, but bet on the wrong horse or bet on the wrong generation of horses are obviously people we're happy to talk to, show the difference between cell-based and cell-free biomanufacturing.
All the benefits that comes with this new generation. Our technology platform showed in 2025 and keeps showing all the way up till today that this is the next generation of biomanufacturing. Not only are we much, much faster from the idea inception state to getting to a pilot project, getting to a tech transfer package that is really the commercial handover point, no matter if it's to a spin-off of our own, a joint venture with someone else, or a future licensing package.
On top of that, we are showing parameters and performance that the old generation just cannot keep up with. We have unheard of purity. We have unheard of conversion of feedstock to end product. And we have this very, very intriguing engineering level control over building natural products of high value or natural product inspired drug versions that are new to nature.
And with that, let's dive right into our asset and value creation. We want to hear Damien talk about NCT. Over to you, Damien. G'day. My name is Damien Perryman, Chief Commercial Officer at Exozymes. Today, I'd like to walk you through our accelerator strategy for NCT.
NCTX is a commercial vehicle created by and formed around breakthrough technology from biotechnology innovator Exozymes. Currently owned and controlled by Exozymes, it is the company's first product innovation to support healthy, quality of life outcomes for consumers worldwide.
On this slide, I lay out the core opportunity behind NCTX. Many of the most natural and powerful molecules are incredibly difficult to make with traditional chemistry, which has historically limited their use.
Even when they target the most important of pathways, Exozymes changes that. Our cell-free biomanufacturing platform lets us produce these rare, high value molecules quickly, affordably and at scale. This is the breakthrough that enables NCTX.
We can now access and optimize compounds to activate a particular critical metabolic pathway. Ultimately, this positions us to upgrade health span by making previously inaccessible solutions commercially viable for the first time.
Across the world, metabolic health is spiraling into crisis. Obesity has doubled since 1990, now affecting over 1.2 billion people. Diabetes and fatty liver disease are amongst the fastest growing chronic diseases.
These conditions are deeply interconnected, yet most treatments still depend on long-term lifestyle changes that many struggle to sustain. This widespread growing burden underscores the urgent need for new approaches.
Years of long work days, little movement and convenient meals has created one of the world's largest public health problems. It is too easy to blame willpower and lack of discipline, but the truth in many cases is that metabolism has become dysfunctional and cells are struggling to convert fuel into usable energy.
The fix must start where the breakdown begins, in the mitochondria, the engines inside our cells. Lifestyle has overloaded the mitochondria, undermining fat burning and energy output. It is an energy utilization problem.
HNF4-alpha is a master metabolic regulator. It is a switch for mitochondria and fat burning. It regulates thousands of genes and is central to liver, pancreas and gut function. When it's activated, cells up-regulate programs for mitochondrial growth and fat oxidation.
It is a natural molecule that is the only known potent agonist for HNF4-alpha. Nature holds for us a breakthrough. NCT, a natural occurring molecule that is the only known potent agonist for HNF4-alpha.
NCT has the potential to support a number of interconnected conditions important to health span and quality of life. In diet-induced obesity mouse models, NCT changed the way energy was processed. Approximately 30% to 40% less weight gain on the same calories, with mitochondrial markers up and liver fat down, pointing to restored cellular output rather than appetite suppression.
Early, but compelling. NCT has always been a molecule with extraordinary potential, but it's been almost impossible to access. In nature, it exists only in trace amounts. Peppercorns, for example, contain less than 15 parts per million, far too little to be useful.
And traditional chemistry can't produce NCT at a scale or at a reasonable cost. As a result, the promise of NCT has been locked away for decades. Until now. Exozymes has cracked the scale barrier with cell-free biomanufacturing.
No living cells, high control, high purity, and strong yields. With faster cycle times than conventional routes, and a clean, predictable process that unlocks reliable, economical NCT for productization.
High purity is what finally makes NCT scalable. With greater than 99% food and farmer grade purity, we eliminate the variability and the impurities that complicate formulation and regulatory review. That consistency means every batch behaves the same, every time.
Giving us the confidence to scale production, to simplify safety profiles, and to deliver a reliable, high-performing ingredient to market. Here's the difference in one snapshot. Conventional methods produce a messy mix of byproducts.
You can see it clearly in the HPLC trace with multiple unwanted peaks. Cell-free flips that completely. With full control over every enzyme and reaction step, we generate a single, clean product with no side reactions, stealing yield, or creating variability.
That precision is what makes scale-up fast, predictable, and repeatable. Because if the process is clean at small scale, it stays clean at large scale. Cell-free gives us a cleaner, faster, and more controllable production engine.
No living systems means no variability, no byproduct surprises, and dramatically shorter cycle times. The result is lower costs, higher reliability, and far better return on investment. In short, cell-free lets us scale breakthrough natural products with the predictability of chemistry and the efficiency investors have been waiting for.
NCTX is first advancing nutraceutical formulations aimed at fat oxidation and supporting healthy span. Through partners, we will accelerate our drive into the nutraceutical market and dive deeper into pharma-grade analogues that will investigate activation of HNF4-alpha for chronic disease conditions.
NCTX works in a fundamentally different way than GLP-1-based therapies. It targets a different receptor and does not act as an appetite suppressant. Instead, NCT is designed to support the body's natural metabolic processes, which connects directly to three wellness areas that consumers care most about.
Supporting healthy fat metabolism, helping maintain liver and gut balance, and promoting sustained energy and healthy. Supporting healthy fat metabolism, providing sustained energy and endurance. It's a completely different wellness-first approach.
To win with NCT, we're building an ecosystem of partners that spans the full supply chain. From brand launch to white label to business-to-business ingredient sales, this multi-channel strategy lets us scale quickly, stay asset-light, and put NCT everywhere at once.
By pairing this ecosystem approach with a capital light contract manufacturing model, and a high gross margin product, NCTX can stay focused on what drives value. Product execution and revenue growth.
The result is lower fixed investment, faster market entry, and a cleaner path to strong return on investment and future exit opportunities. Market adoption is driven by a deliberate multi-channel strategy.
While direct-to-consumer builds the NCT story and brand connection, business-to-business partnerships drive volume to scale. Together, this approach supports a trajectory of six million bottles within five years, with a long-range growth curve targeting eight million consumers served by year 10.
Moving ahead, we're de-risking commercialization, completing process optimization, locking IP on process and new compositions, human use studies to elevate marketing impact, and completing the GRAS regulatory dossier.
And moving into contract manufacturing operations at the end of the year to be 2027 product launch ready. In parallel with the nutraceutical launch, we'll begin early screening to identify optimized NCT analogues that pass initial cell-based safety and activity assays.
At the same time, the nutraceutical program builds real-world awareness and validation around HNF-4 alpha activation. Together, this creates a strong foundation, de-risking the pathway while setting up future clinical development opportunities.
Pharma is paying real premiums for mitochondrial innovation. Recent multi-billion dollar acquisitions show that clinical stage assets with compelling proof of concept are being rewarded with strong valuations, especially for mechanisms that complement GLP-1s.
This round is focused on launch readiness and scalability. The majority of capital goes into process scale-up and tech transfer, ensuring reliable production through our contract manufacturing organizations.
We're also funding human use studies and regulatory work to support a strong market launch, while a portion is allocated to early pharma screening to preserve upside. In short, this capital de-risks commercialization, accelerates first the revenue, and maintains future pharma opportunity.
Thank you. Thank you. What a fantastic presentation, Damien! Thank you very much. NCT gets me excited. This is really where we're starting to see all the hard work and efforts of exocymes turning into tangible assets and value.
NCT is not a new molecule. It's been studied for decades. So why haven't it become a success already? Well, it's simply because nobody could make it at scale. There could be made small batches, microgram scale, where people could toy around with it, use it for research projects, prove the principle and the potential, but couldn't manufacture it.
That is where we logged in last year. In 2025, we decided, let's really take this as the example of the platform of the kind of value we unlock when we build these biosolutions. And we sat down and we, in record time, built the first version and started building on top of that version all the way up to the pilot scale that we were reporting on by the press releases earlier.
Mid last year, we basically set the goal for end of the year in regards to where we wanted to be with NCT. It was a very ambitious plan. We wanted to scale from where we were to where we wanted to be a hundred times.
We wanted to make sure that we maintained what we have been saying for years now, that we have a platform that when we scale, we don't go down in performance. And that's why we are so happy about the Cayman Chemicals Partnership, where not only did we show for the first time that we can take our cell-free exercise biomanufacturing technology and hand it over to someone else that doesn't know how the technology is built and how it works, but they can produce with it.
And not only did it work, it actually lived up to the expectations. We delivered exactly what we had said we would do and more. We had extraordinary performance when it came to purity. We had really amazing performance when it came to basically going from feedstock to end product.
So that conversion is unheard of what we did in this project when you compare it to other synth bio. If you haven't seen the video with Cayman Chemicals talking about our technology on this project, then feel free to go to our web page and study it.
It is nice to hear that someone else than ourselves sees the potential. With the Cayman's project, we showed that we are now at kilo scale, not microgram scale. We yielded more than half a kilo of ultra pure NCT.
This means we are now going from the R&D phase of making the system work and perform to now optimizing towards how can we make it better, faster, cheaper. How can we make the unique economics of producing NCT the best possible so that we can have the highest possible profit margin.
With this pilot production behind us, we are now in a great position interacting with potential partners. Everything from researchers that are interested in testing the material in this purity level to potential marketing partners to potential biotech and pharma partners that are intrigued about NCT analogues.
NCT is also really becoming the proof point on cell-free biomanufacturing. You cannot get this kind of purity. You won't be able to get to these price points if you are cell based either via isolating from nature or by genetic engineering by a cell based biomanufacturing.
So the proof point of the next generation is really being delivered via NCT. NCT going as a nutraceutical and as a pharmaceutical is also a business model we will be applying to a number of other types of molecules.
Our capabilities in engineering small molecules with enzymes and exosymes that we use is unheard of. When I talk to a number of people from pharma, medicinal chemists, they literally disbelieve the kind of chemistry abilities we have until they see that we can do them.
What then happens is that they turn around and they go like, but if you can do that over here in the cannabinoid, why wouldn't you be able to do it over here on my drug, on my drug class, in all of these ideas I have? And that's where the aha moment for people really starts that this is a new generation of medicinal chemistry that is coming from this new generation of biomanufacturing.
And by the way, dear shareholders, potential investors, do yourself a favor and go in and use your favorite AI tool to do due diligence on NCT. The market potential and all of that will be nicely explained to you and then you don't have to take my word for it.
My name is Tyler Corman, CSO of Exosymes. You've heard some exciting developments about NCT and the work that we've been doing at Exosymes to advance that program. But NCT is not all that we do here at Exosymes.
We have a number of other programs that I'd like to tell you about. Specifically, I'd like to give you a window into where we are at scientifically. Those areas that are generating momentum, delivering results, and allowing us to build the platform to move into 2026.
First, let's talk about cannabinoids and the progress we've made on our cannabinoid program. Cannabinoids have always been a compelling fit for our Exosynes platform. The biochemistry of cannabinoid biosynthesis is well characterized.
The target molecules are high value. And the regulatory environment, which as many of you know, has been shifting meaningfully at the federal level, is creating new opportunities for both research and commercial development that simply didn't exist a few years ago.
What I can tell you is that internally, the scientific case for cannabinoid production using our platform has only gotten stronger. Our cell-free Exosymes approach offers real advantages here. We're not just growing cells.
We're navigating the compliance complexity of working with scheduled substances inside a living organism. We make the pathway, we run the reactor, and produce the target cannabinoid in our chosen form.
That's a cleaner, faster, and more defensible route to these molecules than most current approaches in the market. Additionally, we are encouraged by our ability to leverage our platform to produce not just rare cannabinoids, but also new-to-nature cannabinoid analogs, for which we recently submitted a provisional patent application.
We're watching this space carefully, and I'm optimistic by what we're seeing, both in terms of scientific fit and commercial timing. And I'll note, our ability to identify novel cannabinoid analogs as targets, and to design the enzymes to produce them, is increasingly informed by AI-assisted enzyme engineering tools.
This is a core part of how we work across all of our programs. Next, let's talk about Santoline and the progress we've made hitting grant milestones. Our Santoline program is progressing exactly as planned as part of a multi-year grant.
Hitting its technical milestones on schedule. For those less familiar, Santoline is a sesquitropine precursor to sandalwood fragrance compounds. A high-value target in the specialty fragrance and personal care market, where natural sandalwood supply is constrained and sustainability pressures on traditional sourcing are intensifying.
The fact that we are delivering on milestones here is significant. Not just for this asset, but as a proof point for the platform itself. We set expectations and deliverables, we're meeting them, and the underlying science is confirming what we believe about our enzymatic pathway design.
That's the kind of disciplined execution that builds credibility with partners and validates the broader platform story. I'd also like to tell you about our pipeline innovation system. We've built a structured idea management system, one that integrates AI-assisted screening to actively generate and filter new program candidates.
What that means in practice is that we're using AI tools to evaluate platform fit, market signal, and technical feasibility at a speed and scale that simply wasn't possible before. Our scientific team isn't just executing on defined assets like NCT and cannabinoids.
They're continuously scouting, evaluating, and qualifying new directions based on platform fit, market signal, and technical feasibility. The pipeline you see today is not the ceiling. We have a process designed to surface the next generation of assets in a disciplined way that leverages platform capability and can also allow us to make new classes of molecules.
Whether that's nucleosides, flavonoids, or other complex natural products in a way that's grounded in where our platform actually does well. That kind of structural innovation capacity is, frankly, a differentiator.
And it gives me confidence that we'll continue to have compelling directions to bring forward. While remaining product-focused, we continue to invest in our core exozymes platform. A key area of progress in 2025 and into 2026 has been expanding our data generation capabilities.
Enabled in part by our cell-free protein synthesis screening platform, this allows us to produce and characterize enzymes rapidly and cost-effectively. This data directly feeds our AI-assisted enzyme design tools, improving the speed and quality of our science across all programs.
We believe these investments in platform infrastructure position us well to accelerate our existing programs and to pursue new opportunities as they emerge. Across cannabinoids, our Santilline program, and our pipeline of innovation, what I hope you take away is this.
The science is working. The platform is proving itself. We are able to now generate those next ideas that will allow us to push biomanufacturing into the next generation. I'm excited about where we are, and I look forward to providing additional updates in the future.
Thank you. Thank you, Tyler. And now it's time to look at the financials. That means let's get over to Folat. Good afternoon, everyone. Our financial results for the year of 2025 are detailed in our press release that was just issued.
I encourage you to read the report, and I'll take a moment to review and summarize the results. As a pre-revenue company, our primary focus remains on building asset value and getting to revenue under prudent financial management.
We continue to make targeted investments to drive commercialization goals and achieve long-term growth. As of the end of December of 2025, our cash and cash equivalents stood at 3.04 million, providing us with sufficient liquidity to support ongoing operations and key initiatives into the middle of Q2 of 2026.
Our total operating expenses for the year were 9.72 million, which represents an increase of 3.78 million compared to the prior year of 2024. The increase in 2025 was primarily driven by R&D investments, personnel expansion of the leadership and the R&D team, with a focus on further developing our internal infrastructure and developing our flagship products.
The net loss for the year was 9.16 million. We have been disciplined in our spending approach and continue to ensure that our capital is allocated effectively to maximize shareholder value. Additionally, we continue to explore non-dilutive funding opportunities such as new grants, strategic partnerships, and potential government programs to further strengthen our financial position.
That concludes my presentation of the financials. And with that, I'll pass the call back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Vlad. Nice insight. And I would like to add on top of that a more fundraising-focused element.
So, it's no news to anyone that we raised the IPO money to build us up to where we are today, have these value inflection points of having proven the technology, is showcasing the business potential to then do another round of fundraising.
I want to start by saying that us fundraising doesn't mean we will start turning up the burn and become a different kind of company. We are lean. We are really good at being capital efficient and making a lot of progress with the resources available.
There is a lot of innovation that comes out of that pressure field of having a little bit too little resources, so we really have to be smart and thoughtful about what we're working on. We'll continue that also in the coming years.
As mentioned on the Q3 call last time, we would use this period to start preparing for and warming up to a financing round. And so we did. So, January 16th, we filed an S3 that is the foundation for us to have conversations with investors that have shown interest in investing into our company.
And with today's presentation and us opening up for a number of road show style deep dives into what we do, everybody gets the chance to be fully up to speed with the business and investment opportunity by the time that we relatively soon will open up a round with concrete terms and start taking in people's investment indications.
If you're sitting on this call and you're thinking, I want to hear more, I want to be a part of some of those meetings, you can either just be signed up to our newsletter and we will ongoingly tell you what the opportunities are.
Or if you want to be proactive, send us an email on investor relations that is basically ir at exoscience.com and indicate your interest. We'll make sure you become part of the road show or the online group presentations.
I'm excited about all the value and assets we managed to build in 2025 and the first weeks of 2026. year. We have done exactly what we set out to do in a capital light fashion, build something that allows us to have unique capabilities to produce biosolutions, tech transfer packages, products that has competitive advantages the world has not seen before.
Either because the small molecule natural product was not possible to manufacture at scale at all, or it's a natural product that we can then customize for a pharmaceutical use case. The value creation, the asset built and with time the revenue growth is what makes me super excited about how we are ripening up as a company.
With NCT, with the Cannabinoid Program and the tail of other development projects we will be doing over the coming years, I am absolutely certain that you will see a number of value inflection points happen also already this year.
Based on our leadership principles, all the great work by the team, the tools and systems of the team, the tools and systems we are building for talent management and making sure we are coordinated and focused.
All of that is starting to pay off. And that is how I am sure that the future is bright, not just because we are building biomanufacturing solutions, but also because we are becoming a really high performance company.
I look forward to the rest of the year and all of these things are obviously the things that makes me fall asleep with a smile on a daily basis. And before we go to the Q&A session, I just want to end on that the next generation of biomanufacturing is here.
It is still free and it is going to make the future bright. Thank you all for the questions. We have gotten more than we can answer in this session, but we will take a handful and then we will get back to the rest of you either in writing or setting up a call.
Damien, why don't you pick a question for me and then we get started. Sounds good. I grabbed this one because I think it's a good place to start. There's a question we can direct to you, Michael. Do you have enough operating cash on the balance sheet to get to operating break even? When will that occur? Yep.
As you have just seen from the presentation, we are fundraising and it's going well. We'll start taking in and locking down indications in April. That is how we finance the company as you are aware of.
This question also allows me to kind of unpack how we create value and how it translates into shareholder value. So let's just dive a bit into that. So first of all, we built biomanufacturing assets. Basically with the next generation biomanufacturing tech transfer packages that we built, we enable our upcoming spin-outs and joint ventures and our partners to basically have competitive advantages in their specific markets.
That is, for example, when people can produce a product that is otherwise impossible to produce at scale. That is a real competitive advantage to be able to offer that that value creation that we trigger there.
We basically do in a super capital efficient way compared to synthetic biology in general. So I have been known to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take many, many years to bring something to market.
And frankly, most people didn't even bring anything to market in the end. From that perspective, we are proud that we can translate this effort into shareholder value. And let me just pin that out exactly how that works.
So when we built the spin-ups and we built the joint venture positions that opens up for exit opportunities. That's how we create assets and how we turn that into capital that comes back to us and you as shareholders.
It's also when we do licensing deals with partners in the future, there will be payments associated with that. And that's basically how we built the cash flows from a short term perspective. What I want you to kind of keep an eye on is when we hit our value inflection points.
That's basically how we make sure that people start to understand exactly what it is we're building, why it's so valuable. And I think today's presentation has with NCT and our cannabinoids given a lot of meat on that bone.
I think there's a nice question that we got to that layers on top of that. And I'll adjust another one to you, Michael. Exozymes has consistently indicated that it's working towards specific milestones before signing partnership agreements.
But shareholders have not been given visibility into what those milestones can be. Can you provide a clearer milestone roadmap? Will you look to provide more guidance going forward to keep shareholders better informed? Yes, we will certainly try, but it is not because of bad will.
It is a true challenge to find this right balance between following a roadmap with milestones versus doing what is actually best for us, the company and you as shareholders. And I think 2025 was a good example of that.
We did our refocusing strategically by basically going from let's make a lot of partnership deals into realizing that the better way of capturing value was to basically investing our time and efforts into these amazing business opportunities we have in front of us with the cannabinoids and with the with NCT.
Let's say if I had sold as a 50% or even 100% of NCT for a couple of tens of millions of dollars, then I think everybody should and would hate me even at this point. But especially in the future when people start realizing the very large potential that this has.
So us going from a big idea platform company to become product and market focus and delivering on that was a shift and therefore also from a communication point of view, a little bit of a challenge to fit into a roadmap because we frankly didn't know in the beginning of the year what we knew in the end of the year.
But will we do our very best to be better at it? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I would say within CT, it gives us some good opportunities to kind of start having conversations about what those value inflection points and milestones are.
I'm thinking human use studies for NCT is something I as an industry would keep an eye on that is very valuable, basically generating our own data and proof for the capabilities of our ultra pure version of NCT.
NCT, I would also say that when we get to finish up the tech transfer package of NCT and basically be ready for the commercial production, that is also a last value increase that will be triggered there.
Yeah, on the last point, if I were to kind of mention a couple of the things milestones to keep an eye on, I would say cannabinoids. Us basically getting to the next level in that business case and I think there's so much potential there and with the rescheduling you talked about and other things, we will definitely get some opportunities that only we can address and therefore frankly dominate and make a lot of value from.
Okay, my turn to pick a question here. I'm going to give you one Tyler. Your website references cannabinoid like and cannabinoid inspired molecules. But in the past, you have indicated that exozymes would also produce rare natural occurring cannabinoids, maybe for the consumer market.
Are you still pursuing a dual track strategy for cannabinoids similar to NCT? Yeah, that's a great question. So we have made both rare cannabinoids. We can and have made both rare cannabinoids and neuter nature cannabinoid analogues.
Like I said earlier, we just recently filed a provisional patent that covers a number of neuter nature cannabinoid analogues. Needless to say, there's a massive underserved potential of targeting the endocannabinoid system.
And so while that is true. And while the regulatory environment is shifting in what looks to be meaningful ways at the federal level. Under the current regulations, we are still focused on the farm opportunities for those cannabinoid assets.
That being said, we will still keep an eye on the changing regulatory landscape to make sure that we keep our options open depending on what those changes are. Good. And Damien time for you to to get a question here.
Let me see. Let me pick something here. I'm actually going to do a combo question here. James and Rodney kind of asking the same thing here. So let me see if I can show it together. Basically Cayman Chemicals was recently made scene making public encouraging statements about exercise.
What is the nature of the relationship going forward? Is Cayman positioned as a long term CMO partner? Or is it primarily a partner for external validation in the smaller scale range and sewing in the question of how do you get from 100 liters to 10,000 liters? And what is the necessary commercial scale volume that is going to be needed for NCT? And how do we know if there will be or will not be scaling issues down the road? I thought this might be one of the questions you pick on.
So I sketched a few milestone points here because I think one of the things we're hearing over and over from our investors is understanding our milestones is understanding our value. So I sketched a few things in the milestones.
I want to make sure I get those right. Let me start by just saying Cayman Chemicals has been an incredible partner. Right? Absolutely. They demonstrated both that transferability of a process technology and they demonstrated the scalability and they demonstrated the performance repetition.
Right? From us to them. But just what a professional outfit to work with. Right? And you know, being able to take our methods and deploy them, encounter a few hiccups that they did, but you know, being able to keep things within within spec and keep things within boundaries.
Like they were a solid operator from that perspective. I think the teams have built a solid working rapport. You probably agree with that Tyler leading that team. And I think what that means with Cayman is there's more we can do with a group like that.
You know, they've become an asset in that relationship. And so I think as we march forward in 26 and beyond, as we look at various applications of NCT and as we look at other molecules, there's definitely more work we can do with Cayman.
But we need to have a conversation with Cayman to come and set that up. But lead us to stay for our investors. It's been a great, great relationship. Cayman's not everything for us though. Right? As we commercialize NCT and we go to larger scale, we'll need a network of contract manufacturing organizations to provide scale.
Yes, but also continuity. We want to make sure we build a supply chain that is robust, right? That can survive a shock to the system somewhere. And we're not so dedicated to one and only one way of making the material that we make.
In terms of the milestones ahead, where do we go next? Well, we've got to take the learnings we came in and we need to optimize our process methods. Yep. So get that feedback, make sure we've optimized our methods with that feedback.
We need to then go into robustness testing, ensure we know enough about our process that it can encounter shocks, it can encounter deviations, and we know how to remedy that. So that's about us becoming the master of our technology, which is really, really important.
We're already underway with supply chain validation and contract manufacturing organization validation. We've got an RFP process out where we're interviewing and we're validating who potentials. What is RFP? RFP is a request for proposal.
Yep. So it's two phases. We send out information on our process under non-disclosure agreement to a handful of CMO organizations. And we're asking them to put a proposal to us on how they would operate our process at scale and at what cost.
Key features for our business case on NCT. Once we've selected, we need to do cross validation of our methods into their hands to make sure everything works as the way it's intended. We'll then put our tech transfer package together, which then allows a CMO to operate with our technology at larger scale, which is a key step to being launch ready for NCT.
So those are the milestones we're working towards in 2026. So in 2027, you know, the engine kit turned on for commercial production of NCT. But how do we make sure as we go from where we are now to where we need to be at the end of the year that we don't encounter unexpected problems? Right.
How do we know that there won't be issues in that scale up? And the honest truth is we don't scale up is not a game of perfection. It's a game of preparedness, which means we need to make sure we're working with good partners.
We need to make sure we understand well our methods. We need to work with good consultants. We have a team of manufacturing and supply chain consultants working with us right now. So all that needs to come together to ensure that we're ready for the scale up.
I want to reference people back to slide 11 in the NCT presentation I gave there. There's a really compelling visual of how cell free allows for very, very clean product compositions. That's the underlying magic for why we've been able to scale so efficiently and so easily.
And I guess that's where I would leave that question is understand what that difference is in cell free. Yeah. Well put, Damien. There's a lot of good work going on. You have time for one last question, I think.
Yep. That's the one. Yeah. So, so Michael, this is for you. I mean, we've talked a lot about nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals. You know, do you see Exozymes evolving into a pharmaceutical platform company or remaining more focused on specific assets in the near to medium term? Okay.
Thank you for the question, David. That asked the question here. But basically it allows us to to obviously, as you've seen from the presentation today, we are going to double down on NCT and cannabinoids.
It is where we are creating the most value per day per dollar. Right now it is really clear to us that this is an important focus. And it also will basically do the do the proof to the world that this is a new generation of biomanufacturing that allows for a new kind and new kinds of products.
So from that perspective, we will have focus on our flagship efforts there. When that's said, I can pull the conversation back to the pharma perspective because we have a lot of conversations with biotech and pharma companies.
And I would say a year, year and a half ago when I was talking with people, I would say the general almost feeling in the room would be dismissive. Nobody can do that. That's that's too ambitious. Like there's no way you can kind of do new additional chemistry where now it's changed.
People are really starting to understand that this is real and especially the people that are studying our work on the cannabinoid side. They're starting to to be very interested in asking about how they get access to the core technology.
Like, because if you can do this on on the cannabinoids, why can't you do it over on my drug? And we can. So you can argue as as it sometimes is in life when when we were looking for partners the most it was done finding.
It was difficult finding the exact right ones. And now when we are focused and we know exactly what we're going for now that the partners are coming to us, that is overall what will lead us in the direction of absolutely utilizing our platform.
You will see more assets being built on it and we will go from being just spin out and join venture focused also over to licensing focus with time. But what the gearing is there and getting it on a milestone timeline.
And that's unfortunately not something I can offer because the world is moving so fast right now, but I can offer the commitment to doing our very best to get there as fast and as capital efficient as possible.
Okay, I think that's for the questions. I want to take this last minute to thank our team. You guys are doing an amazing job. I don't think most people will ever be able to realize how deep our technology stack is, how pioneering it is what we're doing from a biotech perspective.
And it is because of all the ladies and gentlemen on the team that is really pulling the weight on a daily basis, putting efforts and achievements into a exercise that is just something that makes me proud and happy.
So thank you very much for that. Thank you for investing your super talent into this mission. And then, dear shareholders, a big thank you to you as well. Thank you for trusting us with your trust and your capital and all of the support you are giving us.
We are grateful and really, really benefit from all of you that are reaching out with ways of helping us by basically making introductions, coming with ideas and new market opportunities to us and all the other ways you support us and not are we just thankful for that.
We also want to encourage you to keep going on doing that. Introduce us to as many new people as possible. We are obviously still a company that not everybody in the world have heard about yet and therefore help us break into those new opportunities from a shareholder perspective.
With that, I want to say thank you for your time and attention.