On March 9, 2018 Trillium Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ/TSX: TRIL), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer, reported financial and operating results for the year ended December 31, 2017 (Press release, Trillium Therapeutics, MAR 9, 2018, View Source [SID1234524605]).
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"In 2017 we achieved a marked increase in patient enrollment in both our intravenous and intratumoral trials with TTI-621, which has allowed us to gain further insight into the safety and activity of this novel innate immune checkpoint inhibitor," said Dr. Niclas Stiernholm, President and CEO of Trillium Therapeutics. "We were especially gratified to see single-agent activity, as it may provide us with a relatively direct route to more advanced trials, while still having opportunities to pursue combination therapies in the future. In 2018 we plan to transition from signal-seeking mode to focusing on the most promising indications. We will also be introducing our second clinical CD47 program, TTI-622, leveraging the knowledge gained with TTI-621."
2017 Highlights:
Presented data at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) (Free ASH Whitepaper) Annual Meeting showing locoregional tumor regression in 9/10 cutaneous T cell lymphoma patients receiving intratumoral TTI-621 monotherapy, often after a single injection.
Presented data at the 2017 ASH (Free ASH Whitepaper) Annual Meeting demonstrating that heavily pre- treated patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma can achieve objective responses and/or prolonged progression-free intervals, following intravenous administration of TTI-621 either as monotherapy or in combination with rituximab.
ASH data indicate that TTI-621 is well tolerated by both routes of administration; notably, the transient thrombocytopenia observed after intravenous dosing was shown to be attenuated after the first dose.
Received a "Study May Proceed" letter from the FDA to enable a Phase 1a/b clinical trial of TTI-622 (SIRPa-IgG4 Fc) in cancer patients. This study will consist of a 3+3 intrapatient dose-escalation phase followed by an expansion phase with combination therapy cohorts.
Annual 2017 Financial Results
As of December 31, 2017, Trillium had cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities, and working capital of $81.8 million and $68.9 million, respectively, compared to $50.5 million and $45.5 million, respectively at December 31, 2016. The increase in cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities, and working capital was due mainly to the June and December 2017 financings raising net proceeds of $62.5 million partially offset by cash used in operations of approximately $27.0 million and an unrealized foreign exchange loss of $3.7 million.
Net loss for the year ended December 31, 2017 of $45.1 million was higher than the loss of $31.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. The net loss was higher due mainly to higher research and development expenses of $7.3 million in 2017 from two active TTI-621 phase I trials and manufacturing expenses for TTI-622, the recognition of a deferred tax recovery in the year ended December 31, 2016 related to the acquisition of Fluorinov of $3.7 million, and a higher net foreign currency loss of $2.7 million in 2017.