Vyant Bio Commences a Cash Preservation Plan Including a Reduction in Force Continuing to Explore Strategic Alternatives

On February 3, 2023 Vyant Bio, Inc. ("Vyant Bio" or "Company") (Nasdaq: VYNT) is an innovative biotechnology company reinventing drug discovery for complex neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders (Press release, Vyant Bio, FEB 3, 2023, View Source [SID1234626820]). The Company’s proprietary central nervous system ("CNS") drug discovery platform combines human-derived organoid models of brain disease, scaled biology, and machine learning. Vyant Bio, reported that on January 31, 2023 its Board of Directors determined it was appropriate to conduct a reduction in force as soon as practical so as to preserve cash to allow the Company, through its advisors including LifeSci Capital, to continue to pursue satisfactory strategic alternative transactions and/or execute an orderly wind down of the Company, if necessary.

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John A. Roberts, President and Chief Executive Officer and Robert T. Fremeau, Jr. Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer agreed in principle with the Company to step down from their respective positions, effective as of February 3, 2023, to preserve cash for the execution of an orderly wind down process. Mr. Roberts will remain a member of the Board of Directors of the Company.

The Company’s Board of Directors has appointed Andrew D. C. LaFrence, currently the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, to assume the position of President and Chief Executive Officer to lead the Company through this period of transition.

"The Company’s Board and Management believe that it is prudent to allow time for LifeSci Capital to continue its mandate of exploring potential strategic transactions while providing for prudent cash management in the event strategic alternatives fail to materialize and an orderly wind down of the Company’s operations becomes necessary," said Andy LaFrence, Chief Financial Officer of Vyant Bio."

The Company’s decision to potentially pursue other strategic alternatives to unlock material value is based on its belief that its stock price does not reflect the fundamental value of the business. On January 4, 2023, the Company announced it had engaged LifeSci Capital to assist the Board in evaluating potential strategic options. To arrange a time to meet with the management team, please contact Hany Awadalla at LifeSci Capital at [email protected].

Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement

On February 3, 2023 As previously disclosed by Aceragen, Inc. (formerly known as Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) ("Aceragen," the "Company," "we," "us," and "our"), reported in its Current Report on Form 8-K filed on September 30, 2022, the Company is party to that certain binding term sheet (the "Term Sheet") entered into with certain former stockholders of Arrevus, Inc. (the "Former Stockholders"), under which Aceragen and the Former Stockholders agreed to defer certain payments owed by Aceragen to the Former Stockholders (Filing, 8-K, Aceragen, FEB 3, 2023, View Source [SID1234626819]). Pursuant to the terms of the Term Sheet, on January 31, 2023, the Company issued 12% convertible unsecured promissory notes (the "Convertible Notes") to the Former Stockholders in an aggregate amount of approximately $5.896 million.

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The Convertible Notes bear annual interest at 12%. Under the terms of the Convertible Notes, at the holder’s election, any or all of the then outstanding principal and accrued interest may be converted into shares of Company’s common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the "Common Stock") using a conversion price determined by the VWAP (as defined in the Convertible Notes) on the applicable trading market for the fifteen consecutive trading days ending prior to the date the holder provides notice of their intent to convert. The terms of the Convertible Notes provide the Former Stockholders with customary registration rights covering the Common Stock issued following any conversion of the Convertible Notes.

The foregoing description of the Convertible Notes does not purport to be a complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Convertible Note, filed herewith as Exhibit 4.1, which is incorporated by reference into this Item 1.01.

Item 3.02 Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities.

The information set forth in Item 1.01 above is incorporated by reference into this Item 3.02.

The Convertible Notes were issued pursuant to an exemption from registration pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) and/or Rule 506(b) of Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The foregoing issuances did not involve a public offering and were made only to persons whom the Company believed were accredited investors.

Item 5.02. Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers

On February 3, 2023, the Company announced that Bryant D. Lim will be leaving his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Business Officer and General Counsel of the Company, effective February 17, 2023, to pursue another opportunity.

Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. to Present at the 2023 BIO CEO & Investor Conference

On February 3, 2023 Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: VVY; NL00150002Q7) (Vivoryon), a clinical stage company focused on the discovery and development of small molecule medicines to modulate the activity and stability of pathologically altered proteins, reported that Dr. Ulrich Dauer, CEO of Vivoryon Therapeutics, will present at the BIO CEO & Investor Conference, taking place February 6 -9, 2023 in New York City.

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Presentation Date: February 6, 2023

Presentation Time: 10:15 am EST

Venue: Marriott Marquis Times Square

The presentation, which is accessible to registered conference attendees, will highlight the Company’s differentiated approach in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with a focus on varoglutamstat, Vivoryon’s oral small molecule QPCT/L inhibitor in Phase 2 development for AD.

Twist Bioscience Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Financial Results

On February 3, 2023 Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ: TWST), a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, reported financial results and business highlights for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 ended December 31, 2022 (Press release, Twist Bioscience, FEB 3, 2023, View Source [SID1234626817]).

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"We had a very good start to the year with solid revenue across SynBio, NGS and biopharma as well as robust orders, setting the stage for growth and advancement across the business," said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. "We shipped our first products out of the Factory of the Future last month, expanded our customer base, entered into antibody discovery and optimization partnerships and are nearing completion of our first proof-of-concept scalable DNA data storage writer."

Dr. Leproust continued, "Executing against the plan we shared in November to achieve adjusted EBITDA breakeven for the core business and biopharma, we will increase our manufacturing capabilities in Portland, driving down our turnaround time to tap into the DNA makers market and expect to continue to expand our customer base in both SynBio and NGS. For biopharma, we are focused on capitalizing on the efficiencies between our in vitro, in vivo and in silico approaches to offer an integrated portfolio of antibody discovery and optimization services. And for DNA data storage, we plan to launch our Century Archive solution to early access customers in late calendar 2023."

FISCAL 2023 FIRST QUARTER FINANCIAL RESULTS

•Orders: Total orders received for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 were $64.7 million compared to $49.6 million for the same period of fiscal 2022.
•Revenue: Total revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 were $54.2 million compared to $42.0 million for the same period of fiscal 2022.
•Cost of Revenues: Cost of revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 was $29.4 million compared to $27.1 million for the same period of fiscal 2022.
•Research and Development Expenses: Research and development expenses for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 were $31.2 million compared to $22.6 million for the same period of fiscal 2022.
•Selling, General and Administrative Expenses: Selling, general and administrative expenses for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 were $42.3 million compared to $51.1 million for the same period of fiscal 2022.

•Net Loss: Net loss attributable to common stockholders for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 was $41.8 million, or $0.74 per share, compared to $45.6 million, or $0.91 per share, for the same period of fiscal 2022.
•Cash Position: As of December 31, 2022, the company had $438.7 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments.

Recent Highlights:

•Shipped products to 2,060 customers in the first quarter of fiscal 2023, versus approximately 1,800 customers in the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
•Shipped approximately 134,000 genes during the first quarter of fiscal 2023, compared with approximately 125,000 genes during the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
•Shipped first products out of the Wilsonville, Oregon "Factory of the Future" in January 2023.
•Launched three next-generation sequencing (NGS) target enrichment panels to support rare disease and hereditary cancer research and support diagnostics with Centogene N.V. (CNTG).
•Announced a research collaboration with Astellas Pharma Inc. to discover antibodies against multiple targets of interest to develop curative therapies for patients suffering from diseases that lack treatment options.
•Signed additional partnerships for the Biopharma organization to bring the total partners for the combined South San Francisco and Boston teams to 278, with 95 active programs, 570 completed programs and 63 programs including milestones and/or royalties.
•Continued assembling our first end-to-end DNA data storage system in anticipation of pilot production to support early access to our Century Archive product toward the end of the calendar year.

Updated Fiscal 2023 Financial Guidance

The following statements are based on Twist’s current expectations for fiscal 2023 and 2024, including the second quarter of fiscal 2023. The following statements are forward-looking, and actual results could differ materially depending on market conditions and the factors set forth under "Forward-Looking Statements" below.

For the full fiscal year 2023, Twist provided the following updated financial guidance:

•Revenue guidance is unchanged from the November 2022 guidance and is expected to be in the range of $261 million to $269 million
◦SynBio revenue is expected to be in the range of $104 million to $106 million

◦NGS revenue is expected to be in the range of $120 million to $123 million
◦Biopharma revenue is expected to be in the range of $37 million to $40 million
•Gross margin is expected to be approximately 39-40% for fiscal 2023, representing no change from the previous guidance
•Operating expenses including R&D and SG&A are now expected to be approximately $330 million for the year, a decrease compared to previous guidance of $365 million primarily driven by a decrease in expected stock-based compensation expense
◦R&D expense is expected to be approximately $130 million, a decrease compared to previous guidance of $138 million
◦SG&A expense is expected to be $204 million, a decrease compared to previous guidance of $227 million
◦Mark to market of contingent consideration and indemnity holdbacks is projected to be a credit of $4 million
•Operating loss is expected to be approximately $225 million, a decrease compared to the $260 million projection given in November 2022, and includes the following:
◦Stock-based compensation is expected to decline to approximately $50 million from previous guidance of approximately $83 million
◦Depreciation and amortization is expected to be approximately $29 million, an increase from previous guidance of $26 million
◦Operating expenses for DNA data storage is expected to be approximately $46 million, representing no change from previous guidance
◦Capital expenditure is expected to be approximately $50 million, representing no change from previous guidance
◦FY23 Year End Cash projected to be $300 million, representing no change from previous guidance

For the second quarter of fiscal year 2023, Twist provided the following financial guidance:

•Revenue is expected to be approximately $56.5 million
•SynBio revenue is expected to be approximately $24 million
•NGS revenue is expected to be approximately $25 million
•Biopharma revenue is expected to be approximately $7.5 million
•Gross margin is expected to be 30% as we bring on costs associated with the Wilsonville, Oregon manufacturing facility

Fiscal 2024 Financial Guidance

The following statements are based on Twist’s current expectations for fiscal 2024, which have not changed from the guidance provided in November 2022. The following statements are forward-looking, and actual results could differ materially depending on market conditions and the factors set forth under "Forward-Looking Statements" below.

For the full fiscal year 2024, Twist provided the following financial guidance:

•Revenue is expected to be approximately $350 million
•Gross margin is expected to be approximately 49%
•Operating expenses are expected to be approximately $386 million for the year
•Operating loss is expected to be approximately $215 million and includes:
◦Stock based compensation of approximately $90 million
◦Depreciation and amortization of approximately $35 million
◦Operating expenses for DNA data storage of approximately $57 million
•Capital expenditure is expected to be approximately $40 million
•FY24 Year End Cash projected to be $170 million

Conference Call Information

The company plans to hold a conference call and live audio webcast for analysts and investors at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time today to discuss its financial results and provide an update on the company’s business. The conference call will be webcast live through the Investor Relations section under the "Company" tab at www.twistbioscience.com. Those parties interested in participating via telephone must register on the Company’s Investor Relations website or by clicking here. Upon registration, all telephone participants will receive the dial-in number along with a unique PIN number that can be used to access the call. To avoid delays, we encourage participants to dial into the conference call fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled start time. The webcast replay will be available for two weeks.

Tvardi Therapeutics to Present at the Guggenheim Securities Oncology Conference

On February 3, 2023 Tvardi Therapeutics, Inc. ("Tvardi"), a privately held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of STAT3 inhibitors, reported that the management team will present at the Guggenheim Securities Oncology Conference on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, in New York City as well as host one-on-one meetings throughout the day (Press release, Tvardi Therapeutics, FEB 3, 2023, View Source [SID1234626816]).

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Presentation Details:
Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Time: 1:00 p.m. EST
Location: The St. Regis New York – Astor A