On May 15, 2020 Trillium Therapeutics Inc. ("Trillium" or the "Company") (NASDAQ/TSX: TRIL), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer, reported financial and operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2020 (Press release, Trillium Therapeutics, MAY 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234558205]).
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"We had another strong quarter and are off to a great start in 2020," said Jan Skvarka, Trillium’s President and Chief Executive Officer. "We reported encouraging data for our novel CD47 checkpoint inhibitors TTI-621 and TTI-622, raised $117 million in funding from leading healthcare investors, and made substantial progress by advancing our ongoing TTI-621 and TTI-622 dose escalation studies. At the same time, the first quarter presented its own unique challenges as we navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of these challenges, we continue to execute on our key strategic objectives, and all employees remain healthy and safe. We continue to benefit from the restructuring of the Company’s footprint and resetting of our strategy in 2019."
First Quarter 2020 Business Highlights:
COVID-19 Pandemic and Business Continuity
In March, Trillium instituted a no-travel and work-from-home policy for all employees, with certain exceptions for lab personnel who analyze perishable patient samples from ongoing clinical studies.
Clinical development studies are ongoing and all active patients are continuing on treatment. Enrollment remains open, although the pace of enrollment is expected to be slower for an uncertain period due to COVID-19 related restrictions and patient risks.
Trillium has sufficient drug supply inventory to complete its ongoing dose escalation studies. The Company has not experienced any disruptions in its drug supply chain to date, but is monitoring closely.
Clinical Development
On January 7, Trillium provided a data update on the ongoing dose escalation studies. The data confirmed TTI-621’s unique monotherapy activity, as well as TTI-622’s strong safety profile.
Dose escalation for TTI-621 is ongoing and the study is currently enrolling patients in the 1.4 mg/kg cohort. This dosing level represents seven times the dose level (0.2 mg/kg) at which initial signal of single agent activity was observed.
The TTI-622 dose escalation study is currently dosing at 8.0 mg/kg. An update of this study will be presented by Dr. Krish Patel of Swedish Cancer Institute on behalf of the study investigators at the "Developmental Therapeutics-Immunotherapy" session of the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper)20 Virtual Scientific Program being held on May 29-31.
Fundraising and Cash Available
On January 28, Trillium closed a public offering for gross proceeds of $117 million.
As of March 31, 2020, the Company had $135 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, which provides a cash runway into 2022.
First Quarter 2020 Financial Results:
As of March 31, 2020, Trillium had cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities, and working capital of $135.1 million and $115.2 million, respectively, compared to $22.7 million and $9.8 million, respectively at December 31, 2019. The increase in cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities, and the increase in working capital were due mainly to proceeds from the underwritten public offering completed in January 2020 and exercise of warrants.
Net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2020 of $70.1 million was higher than the loss of $8.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019, due mainly to revaluation losses recorded on the warrant liability and deferred share unit ("DSU") liability of $55.2 million and $9.3 million respectively, as a result of a higher common share price at March 31, 2020 than at December 31, 2019. In the prior year period, recoveries of $0.5 million and $0.4 million were recorded relating to the fair valuation of the warrant liability and DSU liability, respectively. The revaluation losses in the current period were partially offset by lower clinical trial, manufacturing, intangible assets amortization, share-based compensation, and salary expenses, as well as a lower net foreign currency loss.
Trillium’s outstanding warrants are a non-cash liability, and revaluation losses on the Company’s warrant liability balance are of a non-cash nature. The current DSU plan allows for only cash-settlement of DSUs that are redeemed by directors when their service ends with the Company. To conserve the use of cash for operations, the board of directors has approved the 2020 Omnibus Incentive Plan that provides for equity settlement of DSUs and all directors have agreed to have their existing DSUs administered under the terms of the new plan. Accordingly, all outstanding DSUs issued for director compensation will become equity-settled and classified as equity instead of as a liability, subject to shareholder approval of the 2020 Omnibus Incentive Plan at the Annual General and Special Meeting to be held on June 30, 2020.