OmniAb NASDAQ: OABI used its investor and analyst day to outline its strategy for expanding royalty-bearing partnerships, commercializing its xPloration screening platform and entering the peptide-discovery market through its newly introduced OmniTides platform.
Management said the company has built its business around durable revenue streams from pharmaceutical milestones and royalties, as well as proprietary consumables associated with its technology platforms. OmniAb reported more than 110 active partners, over 125 active programs, more than $3 billion in contracted potential milestones and an average royalty rate of approximately 3.4% across its portfolio.
The company said its technologies span engineered transgenic animals, high-throughput screening systems and computational tools. Its portfolio includes antibody discovery platforms based on transgenic chickens, the xPloration single-B-cell screening system and OmniDeep, a suite of in-silico tools.
Partner Pipeline and Royalty Strategy
OmniAb executives emphasized the maturation of programs developed by partners using its technologies. The company said 34 active clinical programs and approved products had approximately $340 million in remaining potential contracted milestones as of June 30. It also said partners have committed or are spending more than $2.4 billion to advance clinical programs derived from OmniAb technology.
Management highlighted several later-stage partner programs, including Johnson & Johnson’s ramantamig program in multiple myeloma, Merck KGaA’s precemtabart tocentecan antibody-drug conjugate program, and IMVT-1402 and TEV-408. OmniAb said it expects about 19 clinical-trial readouts across partner programs during the final months of 2026 and throughout 2027.
Matt Foehr, OmniAb’s chief executive officer, said the company expects its portfolio to continue maturing over the next several years, potentially including a launch of IMVT-1402 in initial indications. He said the company’s longer-term objective is to add product launches and expand recurring revenue while maintaining a controlled expense structure.
During the question-and-answer session, Foehr said the company has received approaches from royalty buyers interested in purchasing portions of specific royalties, but OmniAb has not pursued those transactions. He said management believes the company is well capitalized and views royalties as a significant source of future upside.
Licensing Model and Chicken-Based Discovery Platforms
Todd Pettingill, vice president of business development, said biologics’ historical success rates, demand for new therapeutic targets and growing adoption of computational discovery approaches are creating favorable conditions for OmniAb’s licensing business. He also cited an improving biotech funding environment.
Pettingill said OmniAb uses several partnership structures, including standard technology licenses, ion-channel screening agreements, entrepreneur enablement arrangements that can include equity consideration, and asset-based transactions. The company aims to tailor financial terms to partners while retaining milestone and royalty participation.
Bill Harriman, senior vice president of discovery partnership management and technology development, described the company’s transgenic chicken platforms. He said chickens can offer an advantage in generating antibodies against human targets because the evolutionary distance between birds and humans may produce more robust immune responses.
Harriman highlighted OmniDAb, a platform designed to generate human single-domain antibodies, as well as OmniUltra, a platform based on ultralong antibody binding domains inspired by cattle antibodies. He said OmniDAb can reduce downstream engineering needs compared with conventional camelid-derived single-domain antibody workflows.
OmniAb also discussed its ion-channel discovery capabilities, including a previously announced agreement with Eli Lilly for an undisclosed ion-channel target and modality. The company said ion-channel agreements generally include larger license and service fees, along with potential milestones and royalties.
OmniTides Expands Into Peptide Discovery
Yas Abdiche, senior vice president of exploratory research and advanced characterization, introduced OmniTides, which applies OmniUltra chicken technology to peptide discovery. The platform is intended to generate peptides that have been optimized through an animal immune response before downstream selection and development.
Abdiche said OmniTides-derived peptides can be chemically synthesized and may offer high affinity, stability and resistance to conditions relevant to radiolabeling, including heat and low pH. Management identified radiopharmaceutical applications, peptide conjugates and other precision-targeting formats as potential areas of interest.
Brian McGinnis, senior director of business development, said peptides represented 10% of FDA approvals between 2020 and 2024. He said OmniAb estimates the peptide therapeutics market could grow from approximately $117 billion in 2026 to more than $300 billion by the mid-2030s, driven partly by metabolic medicines and opportunities in oncology and neurological diseases.
xPloration Commercialization and Financial Outlook
Amechi Nwachuku, OmniAb’s chief operating officer, said xPloration is now being made available to all customers after an earlier Partner Access program involving OmniAb’s existing partners. The benchtop system uses proprietary microcapillary arrays and AI-based image analysis to identify and recover individual B cells.
Nwachuku said OmniAb estimates the annual B-cell screening market exceeds $500 million and is growing at a double-digit rate. Based on market research commissioned by the company, 63% of respondents expect to need a new screening platform within three years, while more than 80% said they would definitely or probably purchase the preferred xPloration configuration.
The company expects xPloration to generate $2 million to $3 million in revenue in 2026, followed by a doubling of revenue in both 2027 and 2028. Management said the business model combines instrument sales with recurring revenue from consumables, software and service contracts.
Chief Financial Officer Kurt Gustafson reaffirmed OmniAb’s 2026 guidance for revenue of $32 million to $36 million and cash operating expenses of $51 million to $55 million. He said the company expects to be close to cash-flow breakeven for the year and plans to provide 2027 guidance when it reports fourth-quarter results in late February or early March.
About OmniAb (NASDAQ:OABI)
OmniAb, Inc is a biotechnology company that develops antibody discovery technologies for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Its platform is designed to help partners identify fully human and humanized monoclonal antibodies and other antibody-based therapeutics for potential use in treating diseases.
The company's technology portfolio includes genetically engineered animal platforms, such as OmniRat, OmniFlic and OmniChicken, which are designed to generate diverse antibody repertoires.
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
Before you consider OmniAb, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and OmniAb wasn't on the list.
While OmniAb currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
The AI boom extends far beyond the biggest tech names. Discover 10 companies supplying the memory, storage, networking, semiconductor manufacturing, and power infrastructure that make AI possible. Learn where the next wave of AI investment opportunities may emerge—and the key risks investors should watch as the global AI buildout accelerates.
Get This Free Report
Continue following MarketBeat
Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.