Virios Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRI) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Virios Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRI) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript May 11, 2024

Virios Therapeutics, Inc. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).

Operator: Good morning, and welcome to the Virios Therapeutics Incorporated First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded at the company's request. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Angela Walsh, Senior Vice President of Finance and Treasurer for Virios Therapeutics. Please proceed, Angela.

Angela Walsh: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's conference call. We are pleased to be with you today to discuss Virios Therapeutics' first quarter financial results, and to provide a corporate update. Please note that our financial results press release is now available on our website. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during this conference call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For more information regarding such risks and uncertainties, please see the risk factors outlined in the company's filings with the SEC.

Any forward-looking statements are made only as of today, and we disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements other than as required by law. Please see the forward-looking statements section in our financial results press release issued this morning for more information. Now it is my pleasure to turn the call over to our CEO, Greg Duncan.

Greg Duncan: Thank you very much, Angela. The team and I are excited to convey a few key progress highlights from the first three months of this year as the first part of today's update. First, let's start with the ongoing investigator-initiated Bateman Horne Center Long-COVID Phase 2 study. Clearly, this ongoing study is important to Virios Therapeutics shareholders. However, we can't forget it's also important to the millions of patients who are suffering from the symptoms of Long-COVID illness. It seems each week new research highlights the growing burden of Long-COVID illness. Recently published scientific literature demonstrate a growing belief that reactivation of previously dormant herpesviruses, the target of our therapies, notably an Epstein-Barr virus and Herpes simplex 1 may be triggering Long-COVID illness in at least a portion of those suffering from Long-COVID sequelae.

The Center For Disease Control or CDC, as you may know it, estimates that approximately 7% of the U.S. population representing approximately 23 million U.S. citizens have suffered from Long-COVID symptoms at some point, since the beginning of the pandemic. The CDC further estimates that 3.4% of U.S. adults are presently right now suffering from active Long-COVID sequelae, representing 11.2 million potential patient targets. That's patient targets here just in the U.S. Unfortunately, there are no FDA approved Long-COVID treatments. We believe valacyclovir and celecoxib or IMC-2 as we call it has the potential to be a market leading option to address this major need for millions of patients worldwide. The ongoing BHC-202 study is a 3-arm study comparing two dose levels of the valacyclovir/celecoxib combination versus placebo over 12 weeks to treat their symptoms of Long-COVID illness.

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