On August 13, 2021 Kiromic BioPharma (NASDAQ: KRBP), a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company using its proprietary DIAMOND artificial intelligence ("A.I.") platform to improve drug discovery and development with a therapeutic focus on immune-oncology, reported its quarterly results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, and provided an update on its corporate developments (Press release, Kiromic, AUG 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234586548]).
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!
"Kiromic achieved important scientific and operational milestones during the first half of the year that we believe have us well positioned for preparing our staff and our facilities for the first in-human dosing during the first quarter of 2022," said Dr. Maurizio Chiriva-Internati, PhD, CEO and President of Kiromic BioPharma.
"We are thankful to our employees and collaborators who have maintained this high level of execution this year. From their efforts, we submitted two investigational new drug applications to the United States Food and Drug Administration in May 2021."
Our approach and goal are to defeat cancer by developing immunotherapies by improving target discovery and validation. With better targets, we believe our therapies will be more effective than the current array of immunotherapies using older targets.
Corporate and Scientific Highlights
Events that occurred during the three months ended June 30, 2021
Re-Submission of Two IND Applications – On May 17, 2021 and May 24, 2021, we announced re-submission of two investigational new drug ("IND") applications to the United States Food and Drug Administration. These INDs were for our ALEXIS-PRO-1 and ALEXIS-ISO-1 product candidates, respectively. ALEXIS-PRO-1 is our allogeneic gamma delta chimeric T cell therapy product candidate targeting PD-L1. ALEXIS-ISO-1 is our allogenic gamma delta CAR-T cell therapy product candidate targeting Isomesothelin (the isoform of Mesothelin).
Since re-submitting the INDs, the FDA returned with comments on our allogeneic CAR-T products with respect to:
Tracing of all reagents used in manufacturing
Flow chart of manufacturing processes
Certificate of Analysis (COA) for the Company’s CAR-T products (allogeneic CAR-T)
We have an FDA response taskforce, staffed with sufficient and appropriate personnel to prepare the response to the FDA. The company’s plans to submit the prepared response by the first half of September 2021. The commencement of the dosing of its first in human clinical trial is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022.
Appointment of Chief Operating and Manufacturing Officer – On June 7, 2021, we entered into an Executive Agreement with Mr. Ignacio Nunez to be our Chief Operating and Manufacturing Officer ("COMO"). The COMO will lead and manage the Company’s functions/departments assigned by the CEO. The COMO will be responsible for the manufacturing function and will provide vision, leadership, and management to ensure we effectively and efficiently deliver research, clinical and commercial cell therapies. This position involves direct oversight and management of the manufacturing function to ensure the successful establishment of a new GMP facility and the commencement of manufacturing operations.
Membership Purchase Agreement with InSilico Solutions, LLC – On June 14, 2021, we entered into a Membership Interest Purchase Agreement (the "Purchase Agreement") with InSilico Solutions, LLC ("InSilico") and Michael Ryan (the "Seller") pursuant to which the Company acquired all of the outstanding membership interests of In Silico from the Seller for an aggregate purchase price of $540,000 (the "Purchase Price"). The Purchase Price is payable in full through (i) the delivery to the Seller of a number of shares of the Company’s stock that is equal to $400,000 and (i) the delivery to the employees of In Silico of the Company’s restricted stock units under the Company’s 2021 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan that is equal to $140,000.
InSilico is a bioinformatics services company that performs data analysis and software tool development for genome-wide research projects. Their headquarters is located in Fairfax, VA. InSilico performs contract research and collaborate on grant funded research with academic, government, and commercial organizations located throughout the United States.
With this acquisition, Kiromic will bring in-house a team of experts in bioinformatics and AI in order to lengthen its lead in the race for an AI technology with the capability to select the optimal bio-markers needed for cutting edge immunotherapeutics such as CAR-T cell therapy.
Events occurring after June 30, 2021 until August 13, 2021
Closing of Public Offering – On July 2, 2021, we received net proceeds of $37,121,200 from a public offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions of $2,399,900 and other offering expenses of $478,900 incurred. The Company issued and sold 8,000,000 shares of common stock in the public offering at a price of $5.00 per share. In connection with the public offering, 400,000 representative warrants were issued with a price of $6.25 per share.
This public offering significantly strengthens the Company’s balance sheet to support clinical trials for our ALEXIS-ISO-1 and ALEXIS-PRO-1 product candidates, GMP facility expansion, intellectual property protection and reinforcement, IND applications and IND enabling trials and working capital and general corporate purposes.
Completion of InSilico Acquisition – On July 26, 2021, we announced the completion of the InSilico acquisition.
Communications with the FDA – Supported by IQVIA, instead of simply addressing the FDA’s questions with a written response only (WRO), we took the decision to apply for a Type A meeting with the FDA. The Type A meeting will address the clinical hold issues and will allow us to discuss path toward our first-in-human dosing.
Q2 2021 Financial Highlights
Cash Position: Cash and cash equivalents were $3,070,400 as of June 30, 2021, compared to $10,150,500 as of December 31, 2020. The difference is attributable to cash outflows of $6,344,100, $590,600, and $145,400 for operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities respectively.
R&D Expenses: Our research and development expenses increased by $1,385,800, or 108.92%, to $2,658,100 for the three months ended June 30, 2021, from $1,272,300 for the three months ended June 30, 2020. Our research and development expenses increased by $2,243,300, or 97.52%, to $4,543,700 for the six months ended June 30, 2021, from $2,300,400 for the six months ended June 30, 2020. The increase was attributable to increased headcount, manufacturing, and experimentation costs for our ALEXIS-ISO-1 product candidate.
G&A Expenses: Our general and administrative expenses decreased by $7,780,500, or 77.08%, to $2,314,100 for the three months ended June 30, 2021 from $10,094,600 for the three months ended June 30, 2020. Our general and administrative expenses decreased by $6,534,100, or 59.54%, to $4,385,100 for the six months ended June 30, 2021 from $10,919,200 for the six months ended June 30, 2020. This decrease was primarily due to reduced stock compensation expenses.
Net Loss: Our net loss decreased to $8,928,800 during the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to $13,219,600 during the six months ended June 30, 2020.