On February 28, 2022 Inhibrx, Inc. (Nasdaq: INBX), a biotechnology company with four clinical programs in development and a strong emerging pipeline, reported financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021 and provided an update on recent corporate highlights (Press release, Inhibrx, FEB 28, 2022, View Source [SID1234609131]).
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Recent Corporate Highlights
On December 1, 2021, Inhibrx announced that the FDA has granted orphan-drug designation for INBRX-109 for the treatment of conventional chondrosarcoma.
On January 4, 2022, Inhibrx announced initial Phase 1 dose escalation results for INBRX-106, a novel hexavalent OX40 agonist, in combination with Keytruda (Pembrolizumab), which was observed to be well tolerated with predominantly mild or moderate immune-related toxicities noted. Inhibrx expects to announce initial data from the dose expansion cohorts in combination with Keytruda during the second half of 2022.
On February 22, 2022, Inhibrx announced that it had entered into an amendment to its Loan and Security Agreement with Oxford Finance LLC. The amendment provides for the funding of an additional $130.0 million in gross proceeds, $40.0 million of which was funded upon execution of the amendment on February 18, 2022, with the remaining $90.0 million to be funded in three separate tranches upon future milestone events.
Financial Results
Cash and Cash Equivalents. As of December 31, 2021, Inhibrx had cash and cash equivalents of $131.3 million, compared to $128.7 million as of December 31, 2020. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $152.8 million as of February 21, 2022.
R&D Expense. Research and development expenses were $18.6 million during the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to $17.7 million during the fourth quarter of 2020. Research and development expenses were $71.4 million during the fiscal year 2021, compared to $73.5 million during the fiscal year 2020. During the fiscal year 2021, Inhibrx incurred increased clinical trial expenses following the initiation of a Phase 2 trial in conventional chondrosarcoma and the progression of ongoing Phase 1 trials, while contract development and manufacturing expenses decreased due to the timing of work performed by Inhibrx’s partners during 2020 in relation to the formulation and manufacturing of certain of its therapeutic candidates. Personnel-related costs increased during fiscal year 2021 as a result of the continued expansion of the organization.
G&A Expense. General and administrative expenses were $3.6 million during the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to $2.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2020. General and administrative expenses were $12.4 million during the fiscal year 2021, compared to $6.8 million during the fiscal year 2020. These increases were primarily driven by increases in personnel-related costs, as well as increases in professional service fees related to Inhibrx’s expanding intellectual property portfolio and other expenses associated with operating as a public company following its initial public offering in August 2020.
Net Loss. Net loss was $21.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2021, or $0.55 per share, compared to $17.6 million during the fourth quarter of 2020, or $0.47 per share. Net loss was $81.8 million during the fiscal year 2021, or $2.15 per share, compared to $76.1 million during the fiscal year 2020, or $3.01 per share.
About the Inhibrx sdAb Platform
Inhibrx utilizes diverse methods of protein engineering in the construction of therapeutic candidates that can address the specific requirements of complex target and disease biology. A key tool for this effort is the Inhibrx proprietary sdAb platform, which enables the development of therapeutic candidates with attributes superior to other monoclonal antibody and fusion protein approaches. This platform allows the combination of multiple binding units in a single molecule, enabling the creation of therapeutic candidates with defined valency or multiple specificities that can achieve enhanced cell signaling or conditional activation. An additional benefit of this platform is that these optimized, multi-functional entities can be manufactured using the established processes that are commonly used to produce therapeutic proteins.