Okay, thank you, everyone. Good afternoon, and welcome to this next session from the fireside chats. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Dr. James Orsborne. I am an analyst here at Stifel, based in London, and I am delighted to have alongside me today Dr. Lucinda Crabtree, CFO of Oxford Biomedica OXB. OXB has been one of our top picks for this year. The business has grown very nicely and we think is maturing into a global leading CDMO business within the cell and gene therapy space. Lucinda, thank you for joining us today. Maybe to start, just a brief overview of yourself and your background, and then we can get stuck into the business as well. Sure, yeah. So Lucinda Crabtree, I joined OXB just over a year or so ago, so I can't keep talking about being new to the business. I think I'm now well entrenched. You know, obviously delighted and excited to be the CFO of OXB. Prior to OXB, I was the CFO of MorphoSys, prior to that at Autolus Therapeutics, so have some knowledge and background in the cell and gene therapy space. I'm a pharmacologist actually by background, and yeah, a history in the pharmaceutical and biotech space. Great, thank you very much. Yeah, perhaps as a bit of a leveler, I guess, you know, U.K. company coming over to the U.S., you know, those who are less familiar with the OXB story and what you guys do, maybe a bit of an overview of the business and then how your role sits within the broader sort of cell and gene therapy space in the ecosystem that you work in. Sure. OXB is a leading global viral vector CDMO. We serve a nice diversified range of clients across large pharma and biotech and all stages of cell and gene therapy development. We have been operating since 1995, so you know, 30 years of history. We were spun out from Oxford University. We actually listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996. We have end-to-end capabilities from process and analytical development to GMP manufacturing, and we specialize across viral vectors, not least lentiviral vector, AAV, and other vector types. We believe we're uniquely positioned as the only independent end-to-end cell and gene therapy CDMO capable of serving clients across geographies, the U.K., U.S., and the EU. You know, as I said, we have a track record, more than 30 years of experience. We've produced circa 1,000 GMP batches. We have a regulatory track record, regulatory experience with more than 30 regulatory applications. You know, our origins are a lentiviral vector specialist, but we now, as we've transitioned, and it has been a real period of transition, we have a global footprint with operations, like I say, across U.K., Europe, and the U.S. Yeah, great. Maybe we're just touching on, as you say, the origins from Oxford in the U.K., but you've grown both organically and inorganically, actually, across both in Europe, but also in the U.S. Maybe, as you say, you've kind of moved towards that vector-agnostic approach. Maybe give us a feel for where you are today in terms of capabilities across both Europe and more recently the U.S. Yeah, so I mean, in terms of global footprint, we have a number of sites now. You know, like I say, we had the origins in Oxford in the U.K. We have a facility and site in Bedford in the U.S., Lyon and Strasbourg in France, and recently we acquired a site in Durham, North Carolina, which brings with it a commercial-ready AAV manufacturing capability and, you know, capacity and also a fill-finish facility. You know, Oxford remains the core of our lentiviral operations. You know, our France site supports process and analytical development through to clinical GMP manufacturing. Bedford is our AAV center of excellence for process and analytical development with a focus on early-stage activities. And as I say, Durham now brings with it a commercial-scale AAV manufacturing and drug product capability. So, you know, we have an integrated network with those various sites and the capabilities. We can run projects in parallel. We offer flexibility for our clients, and it speaks to our one OXB model. You know, as you quite rightly pointed out, we can cater for several vector types, lentiviral vectors, increasingly AAV viral vector, as well as adenoviral and MVA vectors as well. Yeah, brilliant. I think you've done a great job of expanding that and first moving into the markets that have been growing the fastest with AAV, but also, you know, using that lent expertise that you've got built over, as you say, over 30 years. You mentioned clients. You know, we know that you've got relationships with Novartis, with Kymriah, which we know is in the market, but also some kind of, I guess, mid-sized exciting biotechs like Arcellx, Cabaletta. Maybe give us a bit of a feel for how your typical client profile looks like, how that's maybe changed over time, and maybe sort of, I guess, between how it's split between maybe larger pharma versus biotech. Sure. So, I mean, look, we have dozens of clients, multiple programs, and we believe we have built and continue to build a balanced and resilient portfolio. You know, in terms of our active client portfolio, you know, approximately 25% of our clients are emerging biotech clients, I think is fair to say. You know, probably, you know, a little more, 30-40% mature biotechs, 25-30% big pharma. You know, we are diversified by client type, by geography, by vector type. You know, in terms of the geographic mix over recent years, I mean, historically, you know, North America was probably 80-90% of our client orders. You know, that mix shift has changed slightly. In H1 2025, we were probably closer to 60% of new client wins being from North America. You know, we're seeing a growing share from the EU and Asia-Pacific. But, you know, I think it's fair to say we're seeing strong demand across all locations. U.S. is still a key growth market for us. You know, lentiviral manufacture continues to be the core for OXB. That said, AAV is a major growth area for us. You know, hence, you know, our expansion with the commercial-scale AAV and drug product capacity through the acquisition of the FDA-approved site in Durham, which obviously sort of strengthens our ability to serve clients locally in the U.S., you know, which is arguably the world's largest gene therapy market. You know, that doesn't mean we don't continue to selectively invest, obviously, in the EU and U.K. sites as well. Yeah, I mean, I think we're pretty happy with the mix of clients. Yeah, no, definitely agree. I think we've seen, you know, as the market's matured, I think your pipeline has matured as well, which is always good to see. I think, I guess, one question we always get from investors is around, you know, you've obviously built out a very strong infrastructure, and you've put out some quite ambitious growth targets that we can touch on a little bit later. In terms of that current infrastructure, you feel like that can support your growth ambitions going forward? Absolutely. I mean, our current footprint, you know, provides more than sufficient capacity for us to support our medium-term growth plans. You know, and to reiterate, I know we'll come to sort of guidance later, but we did update our financial guidance into the medium term. You know, when I talk about the medium-term growth plans, we talk about the 25%-30% year-on-year growth in 2027 and 2028. You know, and I think we are deploying a capital-efficient model. You know, the recent acquisition in Durham did provide us with, you know, a faster and less risky route to expansion, arguably, than sort of building new sites. You know, we have given a steer on our expectations on steady-state CapEx beyond 2026 and 2027. And, you know, in short, I strongly believe that, you know, we've got sufficient capacity. We've got the right sort of level of investment plans to support the medium-term growth plans. That's great. Thank you. You know, we've obviously seen OXB kind of establish those core capabilities over a number of years. Maybe we can kind of touch on the broader market a little bit more. I would argue we've seen some kind of positives more in the probably in the cell space, maybe some more negatives in the gene space. You know, CAR-T, I think, seems to be finding its feet again. You know, we've seen some good results there. REMS programs reducing perhaps the opportunity outside of oncology as well. You know, from OXB's perspective, perhaps an update on how you're seeing the market and what your opportunities are there. Yeah, so I mean, I think we're seeing continued growth in global pipeline projects. I mean, I think you can see that reflected in our contracted orders. It's a metric that we give and our pipeline as well. You know, we were looking at some stats recently. You know, the global gene therapy product pipeline stood at 2,129 live programs in Q3 2025. That's a statistic you'll see in the ASGCT quarterly report. That's up from 2,068 in Q3 2024. You know, we are seeing an increased number of programs in the clinic. And also, I think it's fair to say more programs moving into the later stages and, you know, commercial supply stages, which, you know, we believe we're well positioned to serve. You know, I think just more broadly, companies have exited the space. I think this largely reflects consolidation rather than declining demand in our view. You know, the market is increasingly dominated by a smaller number of players capable of meeting the complex manufacturing requirements. You know, OXB is one of those. You know, we get asked a lot about the funding environment and, you know, the challenges for early-stage biotechs. You know, it's not something that we're feeling. We continue to see strong demand. You know, I think the other important thing is, you know, again, to reiterate, we have a balanced portfolio of early to late-stage programs. You know, it shows us that CGT remains an area of active investment. You know, in terms of us as a CDMO and our ability to serve those clients, you know, and the competitive landscape, you know, the barriers to entry, given the high level of capital intensity for CDMOs, the technical complexity and the regulatory demands, you know, are high. You know, in short, I think we're very excited about our positioning and our ability to serve this market. You know, again, I'll reiterate the strong and growing demand for AAV manufacturing. You know, it's an exciting area, we believe. Yeah, I was in a talk earlier today, actually, around we're seeing sort of clients maybe just rationalizing their portfolio, taking, you know, having five programs, maybe taking two or three through, but that seems to be opening up a little bit more recently as well. There seems to be maybe a few more tailwinds coming through, which is good to see. I think, you know, we mentioned about, you know, improvements increasing, patient populations growing, larger indications, more of a mature sector in its entirety. I think that kind of takes us nicely onto your kind of growth profile over the last few years. We've seen some pretty impressive growth, 44% last year, on track to deliver 30% growth for this year. Maybe firstly, you can just remind us of what your financial guidance is and, you know, what I guess is underpinning that. Sure. I think this is where my, like, I've been confusing years. I've been sort of leaping forward one year. For 2025, we expect revenues of between GBP 160 million and GBP 170 million and low single-digit million pounds operating EBITDA profitability. This will be a pivot to operating EBITDA profitability for us, and that's on a constant currency basis. In the medium term, in terms of revenues, we expect revenues of GBP 220 million-GBP 240 million for 2026, which represents a greater than 35% CAGR for 2023 to 2026. Longer term, we expect to outperform the broader market with revenue growth of between 25%-30% year- on- year for 2027 and 2028. You know, we have a real drive to maintain cost discipline, and therefore we expect margin expansion as our capacity utilisation builds. Including strategic investments, we're targeting operating EBITDA margins of more than 10% in 2026 and at least 20% in 2027, with a long-term potential to approach around 30% within five to six years. You know, there's a number of factors that underpin, you know, our confidence in the outlook, including not least revenue visibility. You know, for 2025, when we reported the half year, we disclosed GBP 171 million of revenues covered by gross orders for 2025. So we've got good visibility for the near term. You know, longer term, you know, the strong revenue trajectory is underpinned by what we see as growth in our preclinical and early-stage clinical programs, as well as obviously continued advancement of late-stage programs among our clients. All in all, these factors combined, you know, mean that we expect to deliver above-market growth, stronger profitability, and, you know, that will come with an increased share of the viral vector market. Thank you very much. I guess the question we always get from investors is, you know, what are the key kind of sensitivities around that guidance? Is that, say, client concentration, or I'm sure there's always some sort of regulatory risk? You know, how are you managing kind of forecasting this business? I guess at quite an important time around maturing pipelines and those kind of things. Yeah, so I mean, look, our guidance is underpinned, you know, by several factors. You know, one being the visibility and the contracted, you know, gross orders, order visibility, and also the pipeline, right? But, you know, as with any CDMO, you know, there are obviously sort of factors that can impact that. Client timelines changing, for example, you know, regulatory events being another piece, macro factors, for example, that can affect phasing. You know, we obviously strive to manage these sensitivities, you know, in part via the diversification that I've spoken to, you know, across dozens of client programs, spanning multiple vectors, therapeutic areas, geographies, etc. That's sort of, that's one part of managing that risk. You know, a significant proportion of our client or signed orders are backed by binding client forecasts. That also gives us confidence. I'd say, you know, there's a real transition in the business. You know, our forecasting accuracy is managed by continuous monitoring of client activity and obviously a very strong collaboration between, you know, the commercial BD teams, the operational teams, and obviously, you know, the finance teams as well. You know, all in all, you know, we have that confidence. I guess with a more maturing pipeline, that's kind of helpful as well in terms of, you know, larger batches, more predictability, less dropout of the pipeline as well, which is also, you know, very helpful and enables you to forecast into the future a little more. Maybe on sort of a similar question around margins as well, you know, that's quite an ambitious margin profile, obviously trending towards that kind of industry level in the more mid to longer term. What would be, you know, in your view, the kind of key driver behind that? Is that just strong operational leverage, you know, and those kind of things? I mean, you know, very importantly, obviously the margins is a product of the continued revenue growth. I mean, that's the kind of one part. You know, I think the mix shift towards later stage in commercial manufacturing will be another sort of sensitivity. You know, really that margin comes also from, you know, increased capacity utilization, which is something that we're very focused on, you know, ongoing process efficiencies and, you know, a continued strive for cost discipline across the organization as well. You know, I think the other thing I would just point to is, you know, on the innovation side, platform investments are also important because, you know, platform investments, you know, should help us deliver further productivity improvements as well. Yeah, I think those are the key factors, yeah. Great. Maybe we can move on kind of to just discussing actually balance sheet, which, you know, you've been pretty busy in the last few months, you were just saying around, you know, refinancing your debt facility with Oaktree. Actually maybe you kind of want to focus more on the equity raise that you did back in August, GBP 60 million. Maybe you can kind of, you know, detail the rationale behind that, perhaps give us a bit of flavor around what appetite was like in the market, you know, and what that kind of capital has been earmarked for going forward. Yeah, so I mean, obviously when we did the financing, we did update our financial guidance, you know, as well as, you know, increase our CapEx guidance. We'd spoken historically to maintenance CapEx, and we gave an updated view of what we're planning on the CapEx side. You know, the raise was really driven by strong client demand, you know, growing client demand, particularly for late-stage and commercial programs. That really was the instigator, ensuring that we can invest and strengthen our global CDMO network, especially in the U.S., to be able to invest in process and analytical enhancements across the network. You know, I think that kind of led into our ability to give some more visibility in the long term and our financial forecast as well, which we did, you know, beyond 2026. You know, that investment and, you know, investing in CapEx and obviously subsequent to that, we acquired the site in Durham, you know, is all contributing to, you know, our confidence in being able to accelerate revenues and, you know, margin growth, as I described earlier. Maybe we can touch on actually the site in Durham as well in terms of, you know, maybe give us a bit of a feel for how that came around. I think you got it for a very good price by the sounds of things and what that kind of operationally has allowed you to do in the U.S. particularly. Yeah, so I mean, that was a site we acquired from Resilience. We paid $4.5 million for that site. It was an asset purchase. You know, the opportunity was there. You know, when we were, you know, getting feedback from clients and, you know, I've spoken to what we believe is growth in AAV. It was important to us to be able to have a commercial GMP facility, an FDA-approved facility that we can offer to our clients. It's also allowed us to look at ensuring, you know, Bedford remains a center of excellence. I think, you know, all those factors combined meant that we were very pleased to find that opportunity and to announce that a couple of months ago. You know, obviously now we're really focused on operational execution integration, you know, bringing that facility. You know, I think, you know, also it's important to note that that facility came with, you know, equipment, people, specialized people, and, you know, we spoke to that being sort of up and running in Q1 2026. You know, that's all going very well. You know, it's really kind of adding to our confidence to be able to serve our clients. You allude to sort of, you know, the importance of acquisition of, you know, people and products. I guess maybe a question, you say you've been here just over a year now, you know, from an OXB perspective, is it the people, is it the science, is it everything, you know, what have you seen in the year that you've been in the job that's really sort of taken you back, I guess, or surprised you? You know, I mean, Frank always speaks to this, not just externally, but internally. He speaks of the flywheel. And, you know, at the heart of everything is people. You know, he will say, you know, you can have a state-of-the-art facility, you can have, you know, great equipment. It's not equipment that we have in isolation. Other CDMOs have that equipment, but it's really the people that drive that, you know, capability. You know, at the core of what we do is, you know, the resilience, responsiveness, you know, these are kind of factors that only people can drive. And it's that core expertise. It's that agility. It's, you know, the ability to react and respond to our clients. I think that's a really important element and, you know, a real strength of OXB. Brilliant. Maybe I'll just take a moment if there are any questions in the room before some sort of closing remarks. If there are any, then feel free to ask. No? Okay. Question smiling. I mean, maybe I'll finish with one more question then. You know, I think, what do you think some investors need to perhaps better understand about Oxford Biomedica? I think from our perspective, there's a clear investment case here for a, you know, a CDMO. It's very specialized in an area. It's got, you know, 30 years of experience that, you know, isn't going to be easily surpassed if ever. You know, maybe from your perspective, what do you think investors are missing at the moment or could learn more from? Yeah, I do not think it is a case of missing, but it is learning more from. I mean, you know, we are a transformed business, right? We are not the business we were 30 years ago. I think we have undergone a real period of transformation. As I said, you know, being that focused pure play viral vector CDMO, we are now a global company. We are diversified and we are scaling and scalable. I think, you know, really what I want investors to really understand is the breadth of our client base, the cross-vector capabilities, you know, that, you know, that come with also that strong track record. You know, I truly believe we are well positioned to deliver sustainable and profitable growth. We have a clear strategy for growth. I think that is the, you know, another important element. We are really starting to deliver impressive results. I mean, you said it earlier, full year 2024, I'll talk about organic revenue growth, organic revenue growth of more than 80%. H1 2025, we reported revenue growth of more than 40%. You know, we've got the technology, we've got the infrastructure, we've got the people and the partnerships in place to really sort of, you know, bring OXB to the next phase. And like I say, very, very excited to be a part of it. One question from the audience. Christian, go ahead. Maybe one thing around sort of, yeah, just a bit on sort of competitive dynamic in terms of winning contracts. What are the, what do you ultimately, what makes OXB win in that process versus other peers that you obviously beat going up again? Then related to that, I guess, is the sort of pricing dynamic in terms of how, you know, pricing these contracts? Is there a bit of pressure there or not? Maybe in the context you said, there's no real seeming sort of biotech funding necessary pressure, but how is pricing generally for you? In terms of our USP, I mean, I think that's multifactorial. You know, again, I'm going to sort of re-emphasize the track record, the experience, the regulatory experience, you know, but also the agility. You know, we are a pure play cell and gene therapy viral vector CDMO. I mean, and I can't emphasize that enough because that just brings with it, you know, the agility and responsiveness to sort of react and to deliver for our clients. You know, the other piece that's unique or, you know, I believe is unique to OXB is our innovation. That track record, that, you know, long, long track record of investing in innovation, you know, means that, you know, our sort of, you know, our vector design, for example, you know, all that speaks to our ability to sort of serve our clients and do it well. You know, we haven't really touched on innovation, but, you know, that is really the core of what we do and a real strength. You know, pricing dynamics, I mean, that's probably a question for Sébastien, but, you know, I don't, I certainly don't think we're feeling any pressure from a pricing perspective. I mean, we have a fixed model that we review on an ongoing basis to ensure that we're sort of pricing appropriately, that we're sort of, you know, our margins are appropriate for us. You know, that kind of speaks to the business model. That's something that we review on an ongoing basis. Obviously we want to build in the flexibility, you know, as we sort of work with clients over the long term. I don't believe that's a pressure point. I mean, you know, Sébastien will always say we're not trying to be the cheapest, we're trying to deliver the quality. Thank you very much. I think if there's one more, after you, Dylan. Maybe from my side, you're talking about the next leg of growth. I think if we look at CDMOs more broadly, you know, you're seeing that there's these massive CDMOs doing these massive CapEx projects. You're kind of in the middle where you're not a small CDMO in cell and gene, but you're not really Lonza or Fuji or Thermo to some degree either. You know, how do you think about the growth path from here? Do you think that's, you know, feasible to think about it organic as a modality-based CDMO, or do you think you need to add inorganic into this or maybe capitalize from weakness from some of your smaller peers and also join the big guys in consolidating? Yeah, gosh, good question. I mean, look, you know, as I said earlier, you know, a lot of these larger players do not necessarily just focus on the viral vector piece, right? It is kind of difficult to compare like for like, especially when you talk about CapEx investments. I think we have done a good job, you know, again, for example, the Durham site, case in point in, you know, fast tracking an investment into that capability. You know, look, we have done a lot in a year. Really the sort of, you know, the near term is focused on integration, operational excellence, really driving that top line as well, and looking for the sort of efficiencies. You know, over the long term, it's not to say that we don't monitor and track the market beyond viral vectors, you know, and, you know, look beyond in terms of non-viral vectors. You know, Asia Pacific is another area, you know, over the long term that we are tracking and, you know, I think will be important to us. I think there will always be opportunities. Obviously we, you know, it's remiss of us not to review and forward look to ensure that we're not missing any next leg of growth. I think near term we need to hunker down, bed down, and, you know, drive what we've said we're going to drive in terms of our financial guidance. Brilliant. We are up at time. Lucinda, really appreciate your time and coming today. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you everyone for attending. Thank you very much. Yeah, appreciate it.