On March 9, 2023 Histogen Inc. (NASDAQ: HSTO), a clinical-stage therapeutics company on developing potential first-in-class clinical and preclinical small molecule pan-caspase and caspase selective inhibitors that protect the body’s natural process to restore immune function, reported financial results for the year ended December 31, 2022, and provided an update on its pipeline and other corporate developments (Press release, Conatus Pharmaceuticals, MAR 9, 2023, View Source [SID1234628412]).

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"Our team is very excited about the new direction of the company. We remain focused on the development of emricasan as a potential treatment for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI), including those related to methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus ("MRSA") and our pre-clinical evaluations of our caspase-1 inhibitors that impact the inflammasome pathway," said Steven J. Mento, Ph.D., Interim President and Chief Executive Officer.

Highlights from Year Ended 2022 and Business Updates

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Emricasan ABSSSI – Emricasan is an orally available pan-caspase inhibitor designed to reduce the activities of human caspases, which are enzymes that mediate inflammation and apoptosis. Emricasan has completed extensive toxicology testing including chronic toxicology and clean carcinogenicity testing. This drug candidate has previously been shown to be well tolerated in multiple clinical studies involving approximately 1,000 subjects employing multiple doses ranging from 1 mg to 500 mg orally with treatment for up to two years, including a Phase 1 study in mild symptomatic COVID-19 patients to assess safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy. In the fourth quarter of 2021, we completed our pre-clinical evaluation of emricasan for the potential treatment of acute bacterial skin infections, including those related to MRSA, and anticipate initiating clinical development activities for the treatment of ABSSSI in the first half of 2023.

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Amerimmune Collaboration – In November 2022, in accordance with an arbitration award, we terminated the Amerimmune Collaboration Agreement and all rights to emricasan, CTS-2090, and CTS-2096 were returned to us.

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Appointed Alfred P. Spada, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer – In January 2023, Dr. Spada joined Histogen as its Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Spada is a seasoned veteran of pharmaceutical discovery and development with over 35 years of combined experience in large Pharma and Biotech. He most recently served as President and CEO of Aya Biosciences. Prior to joining Aya Biosciences, Dr. Spada was co-founder, EVP of R&D and CSO of Conatus Pharmaceuticals until its merger with Histogen in May 2020. At Conatus, Dr. Spada was responsible for the management of all preclinical and early-stage development activities employed to support the company’s clinical assets. Prior to Conatus, Dr. Spada was the VP of Preclinical and Pharmaceutical Development at Idun Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Pfizer in 2005.
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HST 003 and HST 004 – In December 2022, we announced the termination of our Phase 1/2 clinical study of HST 003 to evaluate the safety and efficacy of human extracellular matrix (hECM) to repair cartilage defects in the knee in combination with a microfracture procedure for futility related to patient recruitment. In the third quarter of 2022, we announced suspending all IND enabling activities on our HST 004 program focused on spinal disc repair due to pipeline reprioritization.

Full-Year 2022 Financial Highlights

Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2022 and 2021

Revenues

For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we recognized license revenues of $3.8 million and $27 thousand, respectively. The increase in the current period is due to a one-time payment of $3.75 million received in March 2022 as consideration for execution of the Allergan Letter Agreement.

For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we recognized product revenues of $0 and $0.9 million, respectively. The product revenue for the year ended December 31, 2021 was due to a one-time unanticipated sale of CCM to Allergan, unrelated to the Allergan Agreements. As of March 31, 2021, all obligations of the Company related to the additional supply of CCM to Allergan under the Allergan Agreements had been completed.

For the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we recognized grant revenue of $0 and $0.1 million, respectively. The grant revenue for 2021 is associated with a research and development grant awarded to the Company from the NSF. As of March 31, 2021, all work required by the Company under the grant has been completed.

Cost of product revenues for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we recognized $0 and $0.2 million, respectively, for cost of product sold to Allergan under the Allergan Agreements.

Research and development expenses for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 were $5.0 million and $8.5 million, respectively. The decrease of $3.5 million was primarily due to decreases in personnel related expenses, the number of clinical and preclinical candidates in development and corresponding reduction of costs, partially offset by facility rent increases.

General and administrative expenses for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 were $9.4 million and $7.8 million, respectively. The increase of $1.6 million was primarily due to increases in royalty expenses, legal fees, outside services, rent expenses and personnel expenses, partially offset by reductions in insurance and other administrative expenses.

Cash and cash equivalents as of December 31, 2022 were $12.1 million. Histogen believes that its existing cash and cash equivalents and cash inflow from operations will be sufficient to meet Histogen’s anticipated cash needs into January of 2024.