On March 27, 2020 Xenetic Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:XBIO) ("Xenetic" or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing XCART, a personalized CAR T platform technology engineered to target patient- and tumor-specific neoantigens, reported its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2019 and provided a corporate update (Press release, Xenetic Biosciences, MAR 27, 2020, View Source [SID1234555943]).
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!
Jeffrey Eisenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Xenetic, stated, "2019 proved to be a pivotal year for Xenetic with our completion of the acquisition of XCART, a differentiated CAR T platform technology that we believe has the potential to address a significant unmet need in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Moving forward we believe 2020 will be an important year for the Company as we plan to continue driving the development of XCART. To that end, we have made encouraging progress with additions to our team and are advancing towards securing an academic collaboration. We believe this pathway will provide many advantages, including access to manufacturing suites, established CMC and regulatory infrastructure and cost and risk mitigation."
"In the fourth quarter of last year, we received our first royalty payment under our agreement with Takeda involving our proprietary PolyXen technology in the field of coagulation disorders. While the recognized payment was modest, it is what we expected given the early stages of this product launch. Importantly, the commencement of royalties reaffirms the value of our PolyXen intellectual property and the opportunity to leverage it to prolong a drug’s circulating half-life and potentially improve other pharmacological properties. Further, in these unprecedented times, we are reviewing our portfolio of intellectual property assets to see if we can contribute in any way to the global effort to address the current health threat of COVID-19," continued Mr. Eisenberg. "As we advance into the rest of 2020, despite the current climate of financial uncertainty, we are moving our operation and development efforts forward with a strong cash balance which we believe provides us with a cash runway through mid-2021."
XCART Platform Technology Overview: Significantly differentiated, proprietary CAR T therapy designed to develop cell-based therapeutics for the treatment of multiple tumor types of B-cell Non-Hodgkin lymphomas, an area of significant unmet need, with the potential to address an initial global market opportunity of over $5 billion annually.[1] Xenetic believes XCART has the potential to transform CAR T therapy.
The Company has recently bolstered its cell therapy manufacturing and CMC expertise and capabilities with the appointments of Greg MacMichael, Ph.D. and Maksim Mamonkin, Ph.D., to its Scientific Advisory Board. Both Dr. MacMichael and Dr. Mamonkin are actively engaged with the Company to advance the development of the XCART technology platform.
Expected 2020 Milestones
INTERACT meeting with the United States Food and Drug Administration ("FDA")
Enter into an academic site collaboration
Advance IND-enabling studies
Explore opportunities for Orphan Drug designation
PolyXen Platform Technology: Patent-protected platform technology designed for protein or peptide therapeutics, enabling next-generation biological drugs by prolonging a drug’s circulating half-life and potentially improving other pharmacological properties.
Program Highlights:
Exclusive License Agreement with Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. ("Takeda") in the field of coagulation disorders. Takeda currently has one active development program underway utilizing the PolyXen platform technology.
The Company received $17,000 in royalty revenue during the fourth quarter of 2019 representing its first payment under the Company’s license agreement with Takeda. This payment and expected future payments relate to a sublicense of Xenetic’s PolyXen intellectual property, entered into by Takeda with a third party in 2017. The Company expects this quarterly royalty payment to increase as the relevant product launch continues to be rolled out by the sublicensee.
Mr. Eisenberg concluded, "We are closely monitoring the evolving COVID-19 situation. While the situation is very fluid, to date we have not experienced any significant impact or delays on our projected timelines. The safety and wellness of our employees, partners and the community are of the upmost importance to us and we have implemented risk mitigation strategies to ensure the least amount of disruption to our operations as possible."
Summary of Financial Results for Fiscal Year 2019
Net cash used in operating activities for the year was $6.4 million. During 2019, our working capital increased by $10.1 million primarily due to our March 2019 registered direct offering and our July 2019 public offering that resulted in $16.1 million in combined net proceeds. This increase in working capital was partially offset by the Company’s reported net loss for the year ended December 31, 2019. The Company ended the year with approximately $10.4 million of cash.