On February 15, 2017 Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN), a leading predictive drug discovery company, reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2016 (Press release, Compugen, FEB 15, 2017, View Source [SID1234517721]).Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
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Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., CEO and President of Compugen, stated, "During the past year the Company has made important achievements and tremendous progress. For the first time in the history of the Company, we now have an internal preclinical development stage immuno-oncology pipeline that is being aggressively advanced towards a clinical stage pipeline. In addition, we have programs in the target validation stage, which are queued for incorporation into our therapeutic development pipeline. With these assets in hand, we firmly believe that we are positioned to take a transformational step forward that will establish Compugen’s position in the industry as a leading product discovery and development company with a portfolio of potential first-in-class products for cancer immunotherapy, and a promising immune-tolerizing therapy for autoimmune diseases, all based on our unique predictive discovery infrastructure."
Martin Gerstel, Chairman of Compugen, stated, "The largest portion of my long-term chairmanship at Compugen has been devoted to establishing a world leading, broadly applicable predictive discovery capability, and then, based on the initial use of this unique capability, developing an extremely promising early stage immuno-oncology pipeline. I believe that based on our past achievements, and in particular, the progress made last year as mentioned by Anat, we have now clearly accomplished these very impressive objectives. Furthermore, in my opinion, following the entrance of a potential first-in-class product candidate from our Pipeline Program into human clinical testing, and the signing of an additional high-value collaboration agreement, these past achievements will be more broadly recognized, and I have no doubt that we will then be seen as, and in fact be, a very different company with both new opportunities and new challenges. Accordingly, I believe it would be appropriate for Compugen to have a new chairperson on board at that time to guide the next chapter of our corporate growth as the Company leverages its unique capabilities to expand and enhance our medical and commercial value."
Mr. Gerstel continued, "Therefore, I have requested the Board to initiate a process to identify and recruit an appropriate person with the required capabilities and experience to replace me as chairperson. A recruitment process for a chairperson of a publicly owned company typically takes six months or more from initiation until the new chairperson is in place. We are announcing this now so that we can begin a careful and open search without undo time pressure. Based on current estimates, a new chairperson may be selected before we have achieved both an IND filing on a Pipeline Product candidate and the signing of an additional industry collaboration. In any case, it is my intention to both continue with the Company, but of course in a different capacity in the event of a new chairperson, and to also maintain in total my equity ownership position until at least both of these key objectives are achieved."
Dr. Cohen-Dayag commented, "Martin’s leadership and vision have been a driving force for the Company for two decades, however, I fully understand his belief that we are rapidly nearing a time when a new chairperson would be appropriate to guide the next chapter of our corporate growth."
Financial Results
Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2016 were $0.1 million, compared with $8.3 million in the comparable period of 2015. The decrease in revenues is primarily attributable to achievement of the third preclinical Bayer collaboration milestone for CGEN-15001T in the amount of $7.8 million in the comparable quarter of 2015. Revenues for the year ended December 31, 2016 were $0.7 million, compared with $9.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2015. The decrease in revenues is attributed to the lower amount of Bayer milestones achieved in 2016 and the amortization of the $10 million upfront payment received in 2013 at the time the collaboration was signed.
R&D expenses for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2016 were $6.3 million and $24.5 million, respectively, compared with $5.8 million and $21.2 million for the comparable periods in 2015. The increase reflects a substantial increase in our preclinical activities involving our Pipeline Program candidates, primarily COM701 and our anti-TIGIT antibody.
Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2016 was $8.5 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $0.5 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, in the comparable period of 2015. Net loss for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $31.5 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $20.2 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, for the year ended December 31, 2015.
As of December 31, 2016, cash, cash related accounts, short-term and long-term bank deposits totaled $61.5 million, compared with $81.4 million at December 31, 2015. The Company has no debt.