On April 30, 2019 Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNCA), a biopharmaceutical company developing personalized cancer immunotherapies, reported its operating and financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019 (Press release, Genocea Biosciences, APR 30, 2019, View Source [SID1234535659]).

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"As we say at Genocea, "targets matter," and we are advancing two programs to demonstrate that target – or antigen – selection plays a large, and underappreciated, role in driving immunotherapy efficacy," said Chip Clark, Genocea president & CEO. "We expect to present the first immunogenicity data from our ongoing GEN-009 neoantigen vaccine clinical trial at this year’s ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) meeting in early June, and, assuming positive results, plan to explore the safety and efficacy of GEN-009 in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in patients with a variety of solid tumor cancers. Meanwhile, we are rapidly advancing our GEN-011 neoantigen adoptive T cell therapy, for which we intend to file an Investigational New Drug Application in the first half of 2020."

Recent Operational Highlights

Announced a clinical milestone in early January, dosing the first patients and completing enrollment in Part A of the Phase 1/2a clinical trial for GEN-009. The first immunogenicity data from this study are expected to be presented at this year’s meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) (ASCO 2019) in early June.

Completed a private placement financing in mid-February, the first closing of which resulted in gross proceeds of $15.0 million (before deal-related expenses).

Strengthened senior management team, appointing Diantha Duvall as Chief Financial Officer in early March.
Presented additional ATLAS data at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) (AACR 2019) in early April. The poster highlighted the potential use of ATLAS as a tool to predict the advanced melanoma patients for whom checkpoint therapy might prove successful.

First-Quarter 2019 Financial Results

Cash position: As of March 31, 2019, cash and cash equivalents were $29.0 million versus $26.4 million as of December 31, 2018.

Research and Development (R&D) expenses: R&D expenses were $6.5 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, compared to $7.3 million for the same period in 2018.

General and Administrative (G&A) expenses: G&A expenses were $3.0 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, compared to $3.1 million for the same period in 2018.

Net loss: Net loss was $15.6 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, compared to a net loss of $15.9 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.

Guidance
Genocea expects that its existing cash and cash equivalents are sufficient to support its operations into the first quarter of 2020.

Conference Call
Genocea will host a conference call and webcast today at 9:00 am ET. Interested participants may access the conference call by dialing (844) 826-0619 (domestic) or (315) 625-6883 (international) and referring to conference ID number 4864999. To join the live webcast, please visit the presentation page of the investor relations section of the Genocea website at View Source A webcast replay of the conference call will be available on the Genocea website beginning approximately two hours after the event and will be archived for 90 days.