AVEO Oncology Announces Restructuring of Existing Term Loan with Closing of New Tranched, $35 Million Debt Facility

On August 10, 2020 AVEO Oncology (Nasdaq: AVEO) reported the closing of a tranched, $35 million debt facility with Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE: HTGC) and its affiliates (Press release, AVEO, AUG 10, 2020, View Source [SID1234563364]). The new facility has a maturity of 36 months, extendable up to 48 months, and an interest-only period of 12 months, extendable up to 30 months upon the achievement of performance milestones related to the approval and commercialization of tivozanib.

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Under the terms of the agreement, the initial tranche of $15 million fully refinanced AVEO’s existing Hercules term loan facility, which had an outstanding principal amount of approximately $9.7 million, providing net new proceeds of $5.3 million. A second $10 million tranche is contingent upon the approval of the tivozanib New Drug Application (NDA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and certain other terms and conditions. An additional two $5 million tranches will become available after that time – one if product revenues from net sales of tivozanib reach $20.0 million within a specified time frame, and the other at the lender’s consent. As previously announced, the FDA has assigned AVEO’s NDA a Prescription Drug User Fee Act target action date of March 31, 2021.

"The refinancing of our debt facility with Hercules Capital is expected to provide us with access to capital that funds planned operations well into the anticipated launch of tivozanib," said Michael Bailey, president and chief executive officer of AVEO. "We continue to work closely with the FDA in their review of our NDA, as we build out our commercial organization, explore potentially pivotal immunotherapy-combination studies for tivozanib, and advance our pipeline."

"We are excited and pleased to be extending and expanding our financing partnership with AVEO as they prepare for the potential approval and launch of tivozanib. Our relationship with AVEO spans nearly 15 years and this most recent financing is another example of our ability to support innovative life sciences companies at all stages of development and through multiple value inflection points," said Bryan Jadot, Senior Managing Director and Life Sciences Group Head for Hercules.

NanoString Technologies Releases Operating Results for Second Quarter of 2020

On August 10, 2020 NanoString Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:NSTG), a leading provider of life science tools for discovery and translational research, reported financial results for the second quarter of 2020 (Press release, NanoString Technologies, AUG 10, 2020, View Source [SID1234563363]).

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Second Quarter Financial Highlights

Product and service revenue of $21.1 million, 5% year-over-year decline. On a pro forma basis, reflecting the impact of the Veracyte transaction on revenue recorded for Prosigna IVD kits, product and service revenue increased by 2%
Instrument revenue of $9.8 million, including $6.3 million of GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) instrument revenue, 98% year-over-year growth
Consumables revenue of $8.4 million, 42% year-over-year decline. Pro forma decline was 34%
Service revenue of $3.0 million, 2% year-over-year decline
"We extended our spatial genomics market leadership in the second quarter, generating orders for 20 new GeoMx DSP systems. We recently enabled GeoMx DSP with read-out on next generation sequencers, which significantly expands our market opportunity in the large discovery research community," said Brad Gray, President and CEO of NanoString. "In addition, despite COVID-19 headwinds we had better than expected nCounter instrument placements and consumable pull-through in the second quarter."

GeoMx DSP Platform

GeoMx Orders: Received orders for 20 GeoMx DSP instruments in the second quarter, bringing cumulative orders received to more than 125 instruments since launch
GeoMx Shipments and Installs: Shipped 24 and installed 11 GeoMx DSP instruments in the second quarter, bringing cumulative shipments to 93 and cumulative installs to 69 instruments since launch
Launch of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Read-out and Cancer Transcriptome Atlas (CTA): Announced the launch of GeoMx DSP compatibility with Illumina’s next generation sequencers, as well as the commercial availability of the CTA, the first in a portfolio of GeoMx DSP products that will utilize NGS read-out
NGS Read-Out Collaboration with Illumina: Announced collaboration with Illumina to co-develop software solutions for GeoMx DSP data readout using NGS technology to be processed using Illumina’s powerful DRAGEN Bio-IT platform, providing a compute engine for rapid, turnkey spatial biology
Expanded Bio-Techne/Advanced Cell Diagnostics (ACD) Partnership: Announced an expanded menu of RNAscope probes that are validated for off-the-shelf use with NGS read-out of GeoMx to enable seamless selection of molecularly guided regions-of-interest
Publications: Sharp acceleration of peer-reviewed publications utilizing GeoMx DSP technology, with 6 new publications in the second quarter, bringing the cumulative total to 23 peer-reviewed publications. A majority of the publications highlight the use of spatial biology, demonstrating our continued and growing leadership in the translational and discovery research markets
COVID-19 Research Assays: Announced a new GeoMx COVID-19 Immune Response Atlas to offer novel insights into the pathology of the SARS-CoV-2 virus
nCounter Platform

nCounter Installed Base: Grew installed base to approximately 890 nCounter Analysis Systems at June 30, 2020, as compared to approximately 790 systems at June 30, 2019
nCounter Publications: Surpassed 3,500 cumulative peer-reviewed publications utilizing nCounter technology
nCounter Software: Announced collaboration with OnRamp Bioinformatics, a provider of cloud-based genomic analysis tools, for the development of new analysis tools for data generated on nCounter Analysis Systems
Financial

Balance Sheet Position: Concluded the quarter with approximately $250 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments
Second Quarter Financial Results

The Company has elected to present selected non-GAAP, or adjusted, financial measures, including Adjusted EBITDA. These adjusted financial measures are calculated excluding certain items that may make it more challenging to compare the Company’s GAAP operating results across periods. Such items may include collaboration revenue, stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization, or one-time charges such as transaction related fees and expenses or restructuring charges and severance costs. A reconciliation of adjusted financial measures to the nearest comparable GAAP financial measure can be found in the notes and table at the end of this press release.

Fiscal Year 2020

On April 6, 2020, as a result of ongoing disruption relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty as to the timing with which we expect customer order activity to normalize, the Company announced it was withdrawing its financial guidance for fiscal year 2020. As of the date of this release, management cannot predict the extent or the duration of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the Company’s full year operating results.

Supplemental Information

As a supplement to the table above, the Company has posted to the investor relations section of the Company’s website, at www.nanostring.com, supplemental financial data that includes our adjusted financial measures as compared to the nearest comparable GAAP financial measures, for the second quarter of 2020 and for each quarter of and the full year of 2019.

Conference Call

Management will host a conference call today beginning at 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss these results and answer questions. Individuals interested in listening to the conference call may do so by dialing (866) 211-0364 for domestic callers, or (647) 689-6861 for international callers. Please reference Conference ID 2329249. To listen to a live webcast, please visit the investor relations section of the Company’s website at www.nanostring.com. A replay of the call will be available beginning August 10, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. ET through midnight ET on August 17, 2020. To access the replay, dial (800) 585-8367 or (416) 621-4642 and reference Conference ID: 2329249. The webcast will also be available on the Company’s website for one year following the completion of the call.

McKesson Canada Names Rebecca McKillican Chief Executive Officer

On August 10, 2020 McKesson Corporation reported the appointment of Rebecca McKillican as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), McKesson Canada effective immediately (Press release, McKesson, AUG 10, 2020, View Source [SID1234563362]). McKillican succeeds Domenic Pilla, who announced his plans to retire from the company in late 2019.

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As CEO, McKillican is responsible for leading McKesson’s portfolio of businesses in Canada including pharmaceutical distribution operations, McKesson Canada Specialty Health, McKesson’s network of independent pharmacies comprised of I.D.A., Guardian, Remedy’sRx, The Medicine Shoppe, Uniprix, and Proxim, e-commerce retailer Well.ca, and Rexall Pharmacy Group.

"Rebecca’s deep knowledge of retail will be a tremendous asset to McKesson," said Brian Tyler, CEO, McKesson Corporation. "This, together with her strong financial and operational background, positions her well to drive the company’s strategic growth initiatives in Canada and continue delivering solutions centered on the customer across all our offerings."

McKillican joined McKesson three years ago with the acquisition of Well.ca. As President of Well.ca, she grew the online health and wellness retailer to become recognized as Canada’s Number 1 online retailer. McKillican’s background also includes senior roles at New York City-based Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts (KKR), and strategy consulting with McKinsey & Company.

"I’m tremendously excited about this opportunity," McKillican said. "McKesson Canada is uniquely positioned to drive meaningful value across the healthcare ecosystem while improving access to affordable healthcare. I’m honored to be in a position to lead our dynamic, values driven team in Canada dedicated to operational excellence, working with integrity and accountability and meeting our customers’ needs."

McKillican earned her MBA at the Harvard Business School where she was a Baker Scholar. She also holds an HBA, and a B.ESc in software engineering from Western University. Rebecca is a board member of the National Bank of Canada, and, in 2018, Rebecca was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.

"I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Domenic for his many contributions to our company," said Tyler. "Having served almost two decades with McKesson, Domenic has been a visionary leader and a driving force in building and executing a growth strategy for the Canadian business that delivers better patient care. Working collaboratively with governments and industry partners, Domenic’s work has cemented McKesson’s lasting impact on health care in Canada. His legacy is marked by the team of high-performing leaders he’s helped recruit and develop; they share our commitment to improving care in every setting."

PharmaCyte Biotech Appoints Dr. José Iglesias as Consulting Chief Medical Officer for Clinical Trial in Pancreatic Cancer

On August 10, 2020 PharmaCyte Biotech, Inc. (OTCQB: PMCB), a biotechnology company focused on developing targeted cellular therapies for cancer and diabetes using its signature live-cell encapsulation technology, Cell-in-a-Box, reported that it has appointed José L. Iglesias M.D. as Consulting Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for its planned Phase 2b clinical trial in locally advanced, inoperable pancreatic cancer (LAPC) (Press release, PharmaCyte Biotech, AUG 10, 2020, View Source [SID1234563361]).

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Dr. Iglesias brings a wealth of experience in developing and testing a variety of cancer chemotherapeutic agents to PharmaCyte, including key positions with many prominent biotechnology firms including Eli Lilly, Amgen, Abraxis and Celgene. Dr. Iglesias’s body of work is ideally suited to guide PharmaCyte through its planned Phase 2b clinical trial in LAPC. As the global Vice-President of Clinical Development at Celgene, Dr. Iglesias was the lead physician on the team that obtained FDA approval for Abraxane (the nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine combination), which is a first-line therapy in pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Iglesias is also familiar and experienced with the treatment of various abdominal cancers and the use of gemcitabine in patients. He was instrumental in the design of the Phase 3 clinical trial for the development of nab-paclitaxel for use against metastatic pancreatic cancer while at Celgene.

PharmaCyte’s Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth L. Waggoner, stated, "We are extremely fortunate to have Dr. Iglesias join PharmaCyte for our planned Phase 2b clinical trial in LAPC. We interviewed a number of impressive candidates, but his experience in dealing with various cancer chemotherapeutic agents and, more importantly, his direct knowledge in treating pancreatic cancer make him the obvious choice for the position of Consulting CMO for our clinical trial.

I would be remiss in not saying that Dr. Manuel Hidalgo, who will be the Principal Investigator for our planned clinical trial in LAPC, personally recommended Dr. Iglesias to us for consideration. Dr. Hidalgo considers Dr. Iglesias to be one of the most brilliant physicians in the field."

Dr. Iglesias has been awarded numerous prestigious fellowships, and he is the co-author of 68 publications in scientific journals.

To learn more about PharmaCyte’s pancreatic cancer treatment and how it works inside the body to treat locally advanced inoperable pancreatic cancer, we encourage you to watch the company’s To learn more about PharmaCyte’s pancreatic cancer treatment and how it works inside the body to treat locally advanced inoperable pancreatic cancer, we encourage you to watch the company’s documentary video complete with medical animations at: View Source

Humanigen to Present at the BTIG Virtual Biotechnology Conference 2020

On August 10, 2020 Humanigen, Inc., (HGEN) ("Humanigen"), reported that Cameron Durrant, MD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer and Dale Chappell, MD, MBA, Chief Scientific Officer of Humanigen will present a company overview and business update at the BTIG Virtual Biotechnology Conference 2020 today, August 10, 2020 at 2:00 pm Eastern Time (Press release, Humanigen, AUG 10, 2020, View Source [SID1234563360]). The conference is being held in a virtual format.

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A live webcast of the event can be accessed at View Source An archived replay of the event will be available on the Company website for 30 days following the event.