On November 15, 2019 Heat Biologics, Inc. (Nasdaq:HTBX), a biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics designed to activate a patient’s immune system against cancer, reported financial and clinical updates for the third quarter ended September 30, 2019 (Press release, Heat Biologics, NOV 15, 2019, View Source [SID1234551377]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

Jeff Wolf, Heat’s CEO, commented, "We remain encouraged by the positive top line data from our Phase 2 trial for HS-110 in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, Opdivo (nivolumab) and with Merck’s anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab), which completed enrollment in July 2019. We recently presented a subset of this data in a poster presentation at The Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper)’s (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) 34th Annual Meeting, in which we reported that 61% of patients in our Phase 2 Cohort B achieved disease stabilization per iRECIST, a patient population whose disease had progressed following prior checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Based on this data, we look forward to advancing our clinical trials and intend to aggressively explore all options for the future development of HS-110, including possible collaboration and licensing opportunities."

"We ended the quarter with approximately $15.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. We believe we are well funded to advance our clinical activities though additional major milestones and continue to manage expenses accordingly."

Third Quarter 2019 Financial Results

Research and development expenses decreased to $3.1 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2019 compared to $4.4 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2018. The decrease of approximately $1.3 million is due to the lower PTX-35 expense for 2019, primarily reflecting decreased manufacturing costs, offset by increased Phase 2 trial expenses, including outsourced clinical trial support services and payments to investigator sites.
General and administrative expense increased to $2.0 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2019 compared to $1.6 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2018. The $0.4 million increase is primarily attributable to increased personnel costs, including stock-based compensation expense.
Net loss attributable to Heat Biologics was approximately $6.2 million, or ($0.18) per basic and diluted share for the quarter ended September 30, 2019 compared to a net loss of approximately $3.7 million, or ($0.16) per basic and diluted share for the quarter ended September 30, 2018.
As of September 30, 2019, the Company had approximately $15.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments with an additional $6.9 million in grant funds from Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) that it expects to receive after filing an IND for PTX-35.