On May 9, 2017 Sierra Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRRA), a clinical stage drug development company focused on advancing next generation DNA Damage Response (DDR) therapeutics for the treatment of patients with cancer, today reported its financial and operational results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017 (Press release, Sierra Oncology, MAY 9, 2017, View Source [SID1234519049]).

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!

"During the quarter, we continued to advance our lead DDR-targeting drug candidate, SRA737, in two ongoing Phase 1 clinical trials, while concurrently proposing design amendments to these studies that we believe could augment their potential for success," said Dr. Nick Glover, President and CEO of Sierra Oncology. "As we prepare to implement these enhancements, we also remain focused on driving patient enrollment with the objective of providing an initial update from these trials in early 2018."

During the first quarter, Sierra successfully transferred sponsorship of the two ongoing Phase 1 clinical trials for its checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) inhibitor, SRA737, to the company. This transfer positioned Sierra to submit protocol amendments seeking to incorporate the prospective enrollment of patients with genetically-defined tumors, determined using Next-Generation Sequencing, that harbor genomic alterations hypothesized to confer sensitivity to Chk1 inhibition via synthetic lethality.

First Quarter 2017 Financial Results (all amounts reported in U.S. currency)
Research and development expenses were $8.0 million for the first quarter of 2017, compared to $6.6 million for the first quarter of 2016. The increase was primarily due to an increase in third-party manufacturing and research costs related to SRA737 and SRA141. These costs were partially offset by a decrease in clinical trial and personnel-related costs due to the discontinuation of PNT2258. Research and development expenses included non-cash stock based compensation of $1.0 million for both the first quarter of 2017 and of 2016.

General and administrative expenses were $3.1 million for the first quarter of 2017, compared to $4.0 million for the first quarter of 2016. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in professional fees, business development expenses and personnel-related costs. General and administrative expenses included non-cash stock based compensation of $0.5 million for the first quarter 2017, compared to $0.4 million for the first quarter 2016.
Net loss was $11.1 million for the first quarter of 2017, compared with a net loss of $10.5 million for the first quarter of 2016.

Cash and cash equivalents totaled $125.0 million as of March 31, 2017, compared to $109.0 million as of December 31, 2016. This increase was due to an underwritten public offering of 21,847,636 shares of common stock in February 2017, pursuant to which the company raised net proceeds of $27.4 million, net of underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses. The company believes that its existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund current operating plans through approximately mid-2019. At March 31, 2017, there were 52,268,443 shares of common stock issued and outstanding, and stock options to purchase 7,615,052 shares of common stock issued and outstanding.