On May 15, 2020 Heat Biologics, Inc. ("Heat") (NASDAQ:HTBX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development of novel therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines, including one for coronavirus COVID-19, reported that financial, clinical and operational updates for the first quarter ended March 31, 2020 (Press release, Heat Biologics, MAY 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234558125]).

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Jeff Wolf, Chief Executive Officer of Heat Biologics, commented, "We continue to make progress advancing our unique COVID-19 vaccine utilizing our robust gp-96 vaccine platform in collaboration with researchers at University of Miami. We plan to commence preclinical testing for the COVID-19 vaccine this quarter and are finalizing our manufacturing plans, which we believe will help shorten the clinical timeline. Additionally, we are applying for grants to support clinical development of this program and are advancing collaboration discussions. Earlier this year we also announced a collaboration with the University of Miami to develop a proprietary COVID-19 point-of-care diagnostic test. We suspended this program due to the progress made by other diagnostic manufacturers utilizing a similar approach, and our desire to focus resources on our highly-differentiated COVID-19 vaccine. Nevertheless, in the process, we developed our own unique diagnostic intellectual property, and plan to opportunistically explore partnership opportunities around this technology."

"We also continue to achieve key milestones related to HS-110 in combination with Opdivo (nivolumab) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We recently announced that an abstract has been posted on The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper)’s (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) website. We look forward to presenting additional data at the upcoming ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Conference on May 29. Importantly, given the strength of the data, we plan to initiate an end of Phase 2 Type B meeting with the FDA to discuss our registrational strategy.

"We ended the quarter with over $26 million of cash and short-term investments as of March 31, 2020, which we believe provides us significant resources to advance each of our programs," concluded Mr. Wolf.

Q1 2020 Financial Results

Research and development expenses decreased approximately 12.5% to $2.8 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 compared to $3.2 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2019.
General and administrative expense was $3.3 million for the quarters ending March 31, 2020 and 2019.
Net loss attributable to Heat Biologics was approximately $6.3 million, or ($0.11) per basic and diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 compared to a net loss of $5.7 million, or ($0.17) per basic and diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, 2019.
As of March 31, 2020, the Company had approximately $26.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.