NovaBridge Biosciences H1 2026 Earnings Call: Complete Transcript

NovaBridge Biosciences (NASDAQ: NBP ) held its quarterly earnings conference call on Thursday. Below is the complete transcript from the call. This content is powered APIs. For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit Access the full call at Summary NovaBridge Biosciences reported a strong balance sheet with $216 million in cash and investments as of June 30, 2026, allowing for financial flexibility and strategic execution.

The company is focusing on two lead programs: Gvostomig in oncology, which is advancing towards potential registrational development, and VIS101 in ophthalmology, both demonstrating NovaBridge's strategy of identifying and advancing promising medicines. CEO Dr. Srishti Gupta emphasized NovaBridge's differentiated position in the biotechnology landscape, highlighting their access to promising therapies, development expertise, and disciplined capital allocation. Gvostomig has shown promising Phase 1b results and is on a potential accelerated approval path for certain cancer indications, with a Phase 3 study anticipated to start by the end of 2026.

VIS101 in ophthalmology has shown positive Phase 2a results and is preparing for a Phase 2b study, aiming for global Phase 3 development. Strategically, NovaBridge is exploring opportunities in the European market and women's health, leveraging their business development and clinical development capabilities. The company's financial resources are expected to support key clinical and strategic milestones, with a runway extending through 2028 for Gvostomig. Management highlighted the importance of regulatory interactions and commercial practicality in differentiating Gvostomig in a competitive landscape.

Full Transcript Bill Begien, Vice President of Investor Relations Good morning and welcome to the NovaBridge Biosciences First Half 2026 Corporate Update and Financial Results call. At this time, all attendees are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and a replay will be made available on the NovaBridge website following the conclusion of the event.

S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied by these forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with the company's business, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of NovaBridge's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2025 and any other filings that are or may be made with the SEC. Please also carefully review the forward-looking statements disclaimer in the slide deck that accompanies this presentation.

In addition, our statements are based on information available to us as of today, August 20, 2026. NovaBridge undertakes no obligation to revise or update any statements or information to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this conference call. I'd now like to turn the call over to Dr. Srishti Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of NovaBridge Biosciences.

Please go ahead. Srishti Gupta, Chief Executive Officer Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure to meet, I'm Srishti Gupta, Chief Executive Officer at NovaBridge. It is really an honor to be here.

I joined the company in July, so this is my first earnings call as CEO. Before discussing our first half results and our portfolio progress, I'd like to spend a few minutes sharing why I joined NovaBridge and how I think about the opportunity ahead of us. Throughout my career, whether as a physician, a healthcare advisor, a board member, or most recently as a CEO of a global biopharmaceutical company, I have been motivated by a simple belief: exceptional science only matters if it reaches patients. Too often, though, promising medicines never reach their full potential.

In many cases, the challenge is not the quality of the science itself. The challenge is advancing that science through development, regulatory review, financing, and ultimately commercialization. That is what attracted me to NovaBridge. I believe the company has an opportunity to occupy a differentiated position in today's biotechnology landscape.

Our goal is straightforward: to identify promising new medicines, advance them efficiently, and pursue the path that gives each program the best opportunity to succeed. We are working to bridge the gap between exceptional science and patient impact. Next slide please. The opportunity to do this has never been greater.

Today, more promising new medicines are being developed around the world than at any point in our industry's history. We are especially seeing this in Asia, which has become an increasingly important source of new medicines and global licensing activity. But the point is not where the science originates. Where a medicine starts is becoming less important than how it is advanced.

We believe that the capability is becoming increasingly important across our industry, and NovaBridge is well positioned at the intersection of innovation and translation. Next slide please. NovaBridge has three key strengths. First, access: through our relationships, networks, and experience, we believe we can identify promising opportunities, including therapies that others may overlook.

Second, development expertise: we have the experience to advance programs through clinical development, generate meaningful proof-of-concept data, and make informed decisions about the best path forward. And third, capital allocation discipline: we do not believe that every potential new therapy should follow the same path. The right development, financing, or partnering strategy should be determined by the needs of the program. Structure should follow the asset and not the other way around.

For us, this is not just a theoretical framework. Our two lead programs already demonstrate different aspects of this approach. Gvostomig reflects our ability to advance a promising program towards registrational development. VIS101 reflects our ability to identify an attractive opportunity, acquire it, and build a focused organization around it.

Next slide, please. Let me make this more concrete through our lead oncology program, Gvostomig. Beyond the promise of the medicine itself, I believe Gvostomig demonstrates what disciplined execution can accomplish. Since the initial Phase 1b data presentation in July 2025, we have rapidly advanced the program towards a potential registrational path.

Next slide please. What stands out to me is the pace of progress over the past year. During the first half of 2026, we reported updated Phase 1b results, initiated our global randomized Phase 2 study, and made important regulatory progress. 2—positive, PD-L1—positive gastroesophageal cancer, and in June, the FDA granted Fast Track designation for Gvostomig in combination with nivolumab and chemotherapy.

Taken together, these milestones have increased our confidence in the development pathway for the program. Looking ahead, we expect to present the updated Phase 1b dose expansion data at ESMO in October and, subject to ongoing planning and financing activities, continue to target initiation of a Phase 3 study as early as the fourth quarter of this year. Next slide please. Let me now turn to why we're excited about Gvostomig as we look at the competitive landscape.

2—positive gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer. Three characteristics really stand out. First is the strong activity when added to standard immunochemotherapy. In the Phase 1b study we observed encouraging response rates, disease control, and progression-free survival across the combination cohorts.

2 expression levels. Responses were observed across both higher and lower expression groups, which could support applicability across a broader patient population. And third, we believe practical adoption matters. Gvostomig is being developed as a conventional antibody therapy that can be integrated into existing treatment practice across a broad range of care settings.

Taken together, we believe these attributes support the potential for Gvostomig to become a differentiated first-line treatment option and reinforce our continued focus on advancing the program towards registrational development. Next slide please. I would like to turn to our ophthalmology program. VIS101 is being advanced through VSARA, NovaBridge's majority-owned ophthalmology subsidiary.

We identified ophthalmology as an area with significant unmet need, particularly for therapies that can improve durability and reduce treatment burden. VIS101 became the foundation of that effort. We acquired what we believe was a differentiated asset and assembled an experienced ophthalmology leadership team, including the appointment of Dr. Jeff as Chief Executive Officer of VSARA, to lead the next phase of development.

Today, VIS101 remains our lead ophthalmology program, and we continue to evaluate additional opportunities within the field over time. Next slide please. We were initially attracted to VIS101 because of a simple observation. In retinal vascular disease, outcomes have improved dramatically over the last decade, but treatment burden remains a significant challenge for patients and physicians.

We believe durability remains one of the most important opportunities for innovation in ophthalmology. VIS101 was purpose-designed to address that challenge. It is the only tetravalent VEGFA and Ang2 peptide-body with two binding sites for each target and a molecular design intended to provide both robust inhibition and extended durability. That differentiated profile is what initially attracted us to this therapy.

Positive Phase 2a top-line results from earlier this year demonstrated improvements in visual acuity, reductions in retinal thickness, durable treatment responses, and a favorable safety profile. Based on those results, we're preparing to initiate a Phase 2b study in the second half of this year with the goal of further defining the optimal dose and advancing the program towards global Phase 3 development. Together, Gvostomig and VIS101 illustrate two aspects of NovaBridge's approach. One reflects our ability to advance a promising medicine through development.

The other reflects our ability to identify attractive opportunities, acquire differentiated assets, and build focused organizations around them. These are the programs on which we're primarily focused today, and we believe both have important milestones ahead. With that, I'll turn the call over to Kyler to review our first half financial results. Kyler Lei, Chief Financial Officer Thank you, Srishti, and good morning, good evening, everyone.

As of June 30, 2026, NovaBridge had approximately $216 million in cash and investments, consisting of approximately $191 million in cash and cash equivalents and approximately $25 million in equity investments at fair value. Notably, this is a debt-free balance sheet, continuing to be strong, which provides us with meaningful financial flexibility as we execute our strategic priorities. As you can see on this slide, our current financial resources are expected to support NovaBridge through a number of important clinical and strategic inflection points across the portfolio.

For Gvostomig, this includes updated Phase 1b dose expansion data at ESMO 2026, completion of enrollment in the Phase 2 first-line gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma combination study, and the potential initiation of the Phase 3 registrational program as early as year-end 2026. Looking forward, our current runway extends through the anticipated Phase 3 interim data readout in 2028 for Gvostomig. Our financial position also supports continued development of VIS101, including initiation and interim data readout of the Phase 2b neovascular AMD study and the planned Phase 3 initiation, as well as additional clinical milestones across the broader portfolio.

As Srishti discussed, disciplined capital allocation is a fundamental strength of the NovaBridge strategy, and we intend to deploy capital thoughtfully around programs and opportunities where we believe we can create meaningful value while maintaining the flexibility to pursue the financing, partnering, or corporate structure best suited to each asset. We believe our current balance sheet puts us in a strong position to execute that strategy while advancing the portfolio through multiple important value inflection points. With that, I'll turn the call back to Srishti for closing remarks. Srishti, back to you.

Srishti Gupta, Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Kyler. Next slide please. I want to highlight the catalysts we expect investors to be watching over the coming quarters. For Gvostomig, our near-term focus remains execution across the broader development program.

Key milestones include updated Phase 1b dose expansion data at ESMO, continued advancement of our randomized Phase 2 study in first-line gastric cancer, and initiation of a Phase 3 study as early as— the fourth quarter of this year, subject to ongoing planning and financing activities and continued enrollment of our biliary tract cancer and pancreatic cancer cohorts for VIS101. We're preparing to initiate the Phase IIb program in the second half of 2026 and continue advancing the program towards global Phase 3 development. As I reflect on the first half of 2026, what excites me the most is not only the progress of Jiva Stomig and VIS101, but what those programs represent.

GBA Stobig and VIS101 followed very different paths, but both reflect the same underlying objective, identifying promising medicines and helping them reach their full potential. They represent two aspects of the NovaBridge Biosciences approach. In one case, we are advancing a promising oncology program towards potential registration. In the other, we identified an opportunity in ophthalmology, acquired a differentiated asset and built a focused and talented organization around it.

Beyond Jiva Stomig and VIS101, our portfolio also includes programs such as Rajistomig and Ululitamab, where development programs are currently being led by our partners. While our primary focus remains on Jiva Stomig and VIS101, we continue to monitor the progress of these programs and look forward to future data readouts. Looking ahead, our priorities are straightforward. Advance Jiva Stomig and VIS101, deliver on the milestones in front of us, and continue strengthening the organization to support future growth.

Ultimately, I joined NovaBridge Biosciences because it was built to identify promising medicines, advance them thoughtfully, and give them the best opportunity to reach patients who may benefit from them. We are still early in that journey, but I'm encouraged by the progress we have made so far. Next slide please. With that Tara, we'd be happy to take questions.

Bill Begien, Vice President of Investor Relations Great. Thank you, Srishti. So yes, at this time we'll be conducting a question and answer session with our speakers. To our analysts who have joined us live, please use the raise hand feature to indicate you have a question.

Please hold for a brief moment while we poll for questions. So our first question comes from Dana Graybosch at Lyric Partners. Please go ahead. Dana Graybosch, Analyst at Lyric Partners Hi.

Thank you. Thanks for the question. I wonder if you could talk a bit more about the future growth platforms and why we should have confidence that NovaBridge is particularly differentiated or well suited to take advantage of European gaps. And maybe you could give us some examples of what you mean by that.

And also women's health, I guess they're both very different from Jiva, a highly innovated IO asset. And Vasara. Thank you. Srishti Gupta, Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Dana, for the question.

I just wanted to let everyone know that in addition to Kyler and myself, I'm joined by Mark Hagler, our Chief Commercial Officer, Dr. Philip Dennis, our Chief Medical Officer, and Jeff, now the CEO of Vasara. In case there's questions, we have our executive team here today.

Dana, on your question, I'll start and I'd love to turn it over to Mark as well, but I think as we think about our future growth platforms, for us it's really the combination of the capabilities of having both the business development as well as the internal clinical development and not to be able to do either one of those things one off, but to repeatedly do those things over and over again to combine strong function with a strong internal clinical development function so that we can take assets to their next value inflection point on their journey to become medicines.

You asked specifically about European gaps, so we're in early days on our strategy on Europe, but we have been in conversations with several European commercial organizations on how to combine the strengths of a BD team which is looking at a broad range of innovation, which especially is innovation that is differentiated at the clinic level and can be differentiated in comparison to comparators, how to combine our functions, potentially even our clinical development, for early regulatory milestones with their strong commercial capabilities and their market access. We haven't quite identified which parts of the therapeutic area we would like to combine our efforts on.