On May 6, 2021 XOMA Corporation (Nasdaq: XOMA) reported its first quarter 2021 financial results and provided a recent operations update (Press release, Xoma, MAY 6, 2021, View Source [SID1234579382]).

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"Our team continues to identify exciting assets to add to our milestone and royalty portfolio. Their efforts resulted in our acquisition of two economic licenses from Viracta during the first quarter. We were delighted to add Day One Biopharmaceuticals’ DAY101 (pan-RAF kinase inhibitor) and Denovo Biopharma’s vosaroxin (topoisomerase II inhibitor) to our growing list of partner-funded assets," stated Jim Neal, Chief Executive Officer of XOMA. "I am proud that our team continues to be productive in this COVID-impacted environment.

"In addition, since the close of the first quarter, we added three clinical-stage assets to our portfolio, AFM13, AFM24, and an undisclosed asset, each of which resulted from a research and discovery license agreement we established with Affimed fifteen years ago. These are three interesting oncology assets as they are designed to activate the body’s innate immune system to kill cancer cells. We believe the initial data from the AFM13 Phase 1 study in patients with relapsed/refractory CD30+ lymphomas, recently presented at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Virtual Annual Meeting, are encouraging. This week, we received notification from Janssen that the first patient has been dosed in the inaugural cetrelimab Phase 3 clinical study, making it the second molecule in our portfolio to advance to the final stage of clinical development.

"To continue to support our strategy to expand our potential milestone and royalty portfolio via acquisition transactions, in April we completed a $40 million offering of Series B Perpetual Preferred Stock, which pays an 8.375% dividend, bringing our cash and restricted cash to over $100 million. And finally, we paid our first dividend on the Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock. Today, we have one of the strongest financial positions in our recent history, particularly when coupled with our very lean expense structure."

Financial Results

XOMA recorded total revenues of $0.4 million for the first quarter of 2021, compared to $0.8 million for the first quarter of 2020. The decrease for the three months ended March 31, 2021, as compared to the same period in 2020, was primarily due to $0.5 million in revenue recognized in the first quarter of 2020 related to a milestone event under XOMA’s license agreement with Compugen.

Research and development expenses were $0.1 million for the first quarter of 2021, compared to $0.1 million for the first quarter of 2020.

General and administrative ("G&A") expenses were $6.7 million for the first quarter of 2021, compared to $6.4 million for the first quarter of 2020. The increase of $0.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021, as compared to the same period of 2020, was primarily due to a $1.4 million increase in salary and related expenses (including an increase of $1.1 million in non-cash stock compensation expense) and $0.3 million increase in consulting and deal costs, partially offset by a $1.4 million decrease in bad debt expense.

In the first quarter of 2021, G&A expenses included $2.9 million in stock-based compensation expense compared with $1.8 million in the corresponding quarter of 2020. The increase in expense was primarily due to an increase in the fair value of options granted driven by an increase in our stock price. In the first quarter of 2020, non-cash G&A expenses also included $1.4 million in bad debt expense. The Company’s net cash used in operations in the first quarter of 2021 was $0.9 million, as compared with $2.3 million during the first quarter of 2020.

In the first quarter of 2021, XOMA recorded $0.3 million in total interest expense, as compared to $0.5 million in the corresponding period of 2020, both of which reflect the Company’s outstanding loan balances with Silicon Valley Bank and Novartis.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2021, XOMA recorded total other expense of $0.7 million, which included a $0.7 million change in the fair value of equity securities. For the quarter ended March 31, 2020, XOMA reported total other expense of $0.1 million, which included a $0.3 million change in the fair value of equity securities offset by $0.1 million in investment income.

In the first quarter of 2020, XOMA recorded an income tax benefit of $1.5 million as a result of a provision regarding net operating loss carrybacks within the CARES Act.

Net loss for the first quarter of 2021 was $7.4 million, compared to net loss of $4.8 million for the first quarter of 2020.

On March 31, 2021, XOMA had cash of $67.8 million. The Company ended December 31, 2020, with cash of $84.2 million. On April 12, 2021, XOMA announced the closing of its Depositary Shares Offering and the exercise of the underwriters’ option, which resulted in approximately $38.0 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, but before expenses. On April 15, 2021, the Company paid its first dividend on Series A Cumulative Perpetual Preferred (Nasdaq: XOMAP) in the amount of $0.71875 per share. The Company continues to believe its current cash position will be sufficient to fund XOMA’s operations for multiple years.