On May 14, 2020 Xenetic Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:XBIO) ("Xenetic" or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing XCART, a personalized CAR T platform technology engineered to target patient- and tumor-specific neoantigens, reported its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 and provided a corporate update (Press release, Xenetic Biosciences, MAY 14, 2020, View Source [SID1234558049]).
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"Over the course of the first quarter, we continued to make encouraging progress towards securing academic collaborations, the next major milestone for us in advancing the XCART platform," commented Jeffrey Eisenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Xenetic. "Additionally, despite the fact that the COVID-19 health pandemic carries on, we have been fortunate to not have experienced any significant operational impacts and have maintained a cash runway expected to fund our projected operational and development efforts through mid-2021. We are excited for the year ahead and to further unlock the value that the XCART technology platform holds."
XCART Platform Technology Overview: Significantly differentiated, proprietary approach to personalized CAR T therapy for the treatment of multiple tumor types of B-cell Non-Hodgkin lymphomas, an area of significant unmet need, with the potential to address an initial global market opportunity of over $5 billion annually.1 Xenetic believes XCART has the potential to transform CAR T therapy.
The Company announced in February 2020 the appointments of Greg MacMichael, Ph.D. and Maksim Mamonkin, Ph.D. to its Scientific Advisory Board, each of whom brings with them extensive knowledge in cell therapy engineering and design, cell therapy manufacturing, and CMC expertise and capabilities. Both Dr. MacMichael and Dr. Mamonkin are actively engaged with the Company to advance the development of the XCART technology platform.
Xenetic is actively engaged in ongoing discussions to advance the development of XCART through one or more collaborations with academic or development partners.
Expected 2020 Milestones
Enter into academic site collaborations
INTERACT meeting with the United States Food and Drug Administration ("FDA")
Advance IND-enabling studies
Explore opportunities for Orphan Drug designation
PolyXen Platform Technology: Patent-protected platform technology designed for protein or peptide therapeutics, enabling next-generation biological drugs by prolonging a drug’s circulating half-life and potentially improving other pharmacological properties.
Program Highlights:
Exclusive License Agreement with Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. ("Takeda") in the field of coagulation disorders. Takeda currently has one active development program underway utilizing the PolyXen platform technology.
Royalty payments expected to continue to grow as the relevant product launch continues to be rolled out by the sublicensee.
Summary of Financial Results for First Quarter 2020
Net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2020 was approximately $1.2 million compared to a net loss of approximately $1.3 million for the same period in 2019. As of March 31, 2020, working capital was $9.2 million compared to $9.7 million as of December 31, 2019. The decrease in working capital was primarily due to the Company’s net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The Company ended the quarter with approximately $9.4 million of cash.