Strong capital base with PureTech level cash and cash equivalents of $418.9 million1 and consolidated cash and cash equivalents of $465.7 million2 as of December 31, 2021
Rapidly progressing pipeline of 27 therapeutics and therapeutic candidates, across Wholly Owned and Founded Entity programs, with 11 clinical trials initiated and 6 clinical trial readouts in 2021
Founded Entities continuing to mature and generate value for PureTech, with three now publicly traded and a fourth soon expected to go public
Reviewing capital allocation strategy to drive additional value to shareholders with potential returns of capital through various mechanisms
Company to host a webcast and conference call today at 9:00am EDT / 2:00pm BST
BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–PureTech Health plc (Nasdaq: PRTC, LSE: PRTC) (“PureTech” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to discovering, developing and commercializing highly differentiated medicines for devastating diseases, today announced its results for the year ended December 31, 2021 as well as its cash balance as of the first quarter ended March 31, 2022. The following information represents select highlights from the full UK annual report and accounts, except as noted herein, a portion of which will be filed as an exhibit to PureTech’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2021 to be filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and is also available at https://investors.puretechhealth.com/financials-filings/reports.
Webcast and conference call details
Members of the PureTech Management Team will host a conference call at 9:00am EDT / 2:00pm BST today, April 26, to discuss these results. A live webcast and presentation slides will be available on the investors section of PureTech’s website under the Events and Presentations tab. To join by phone, please dial:
United Kingdom: 0800 640 6441
United Kingdom (Local): 020 3936 2999
United States: 1 855 9796 654
United States (Local): 1 646 664 1960
All other locations: +44 20 3936 2999
Access code: 942895
For those unable to listen to the call live, a replay will be available on the PureTech website.
Commenting on the annual results, Daphne Zohar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PureTech said:
“I’m very proud of what our team has achieved in 2021. The collaboration and commitment to discovering and developing highly differentiated medicines for devastating diseases where novel treatment options are greatly needed, has resulted in another year full of important accomplishments for PureTech.
“Across our Wholly Owned and Founded Entity programs, we now have 27 therapeutics and therapeutic candidates advancing towards clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones. Twenty of these sit within our Founded Entities where we already have two products that have been cleared for marketing by the United States Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”) and granted marketing authorization in the European Economic Area – Gelesis’ Plenity®3 and Akili’s EndeavorRx®4. Thirteen of these therapeutic candidates are clinical stage and we look forward to multiple data readouts in the coming year, including data from Karuna’s Phase 3 EMERGENT-2 trial expected in mid-2022 as well data from Vor Bio’s Phase 1/2a clinical trial of VOR33, which is expected in the second half of 2022.
“The other seven therapeutic candidates are being developed within our rapidly advancing and growing Wholly Owned Pipeline, which is curated around our focus on immunological, fibrotic and lymphatic system disorders and builds upon pharmacology that has been validated in humans where our key innovations enable potential unlocking of the broad potential of these therapies. Across our Wholly Owned Programs, we generated significant fundamental value and achieved a number of clinical and business milestones towards our mission of developing transformational medicines for millions of people who have long struggled to find effective treatments. In 2021 alone, we initiated five clinical studies, with four readouts thus far and one that is ongoing.
“Importantly, we are in the fortunate position to be growing our business that is generating non-dilutive capital and we do not currently have to look at public equity markets to raise capital. As such, we have a strong financial position that will allow us to build on the momentum of 2021 and deliver on value driving milestones. In 2021, our consolidated business ended the year with a capital base of $465.7 million, helped by generating non-dilutive cash from the Founded Entities, whilst maintaining significant equity positions, royalty streams and milestones that position us to capture future value. Furthermore, our self-sustaining Founded Entities are set to continue an exciting period of strategic execution, having collectively raised an aggregate of $1.9 billion in recent years, 94% of which came from outside parties.
“Based on the strong foundation we have built to support PureTech’s future growth, our Board and senior leadership team have been considering various approaches to drive additional value for our shareholders, including reviewing a capital allocation strategy that balances investment in the continued growth of our business with potential returns of capital to shareholders. As we evaluate our capital allocation strategy, we intend to engage with shareholders to understand preferences and market perspectives with respect to certain potential near term activities related to the implementation of this strategy.
“We look to the coming months and years with excitement and optimism as we continue to create significant value from innovative science and develop therapeutics that we sincerely believe have the potential to significantly improve treatment outcomes for patients all over the world.”
Continued advancement and growth of our Wholly Owned Programs5
Our team, network and insights and expertise in immunology and therapeutic development have enabled the rapid advancement and growth of our Wholly Owned Programs. Focused on immunological, fibrotic and lymphatic system disorders, our Wholly Owned Pipeline builds upon validated biologic pathways and proven pharmacology, and currently consists of seven therapeutic candidates, including LYT-100 (deupirfenidone), a clinical therapeutic candidate that we are pursuing for the potential treatment of a range of conditions involving inflammation and fibrosis and disorders of lymphatic flow, LYT-200, a clinical immuno-oncology fully human monoclonal antibody candidate targeting a foundational immunosuppressive protein, galectin-9, that we are developing for the potential treatment of difficult‑to‑treat solid tumors, LYT-210, a preclinical immuno-oncology therapeutic candidate targeting immunomodulatory gamma delta-1 T cells that we are developing for a range of cancer indications, LYT‑300 (oral allopregnanolone), a clinical therapeutic candidate that we are developing for a range of neurological and neuropsychological conditions, which was generated from our Glyph™ lymphatic targeting platform, and three therapeutic candidates generated from Alivio™, our technology platform that enables targeting of therapeutics locally to the sites of inflammation while minimizing systemic exposure, for the potential treatment of a range of chronic and acute inflammatory disorders: LYT-510 (oral immunosuppressant molecule), in development for the potential treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and chronic pouchitis, LYT-500 (oral combination of two therapeutic agents), in development for IBD, and LYT-503/IMB-150, which is being advanced as a partnered program as a potential non-opioid treatment for interstitial cystitis or bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). In addition to these programs, we are advancing Orasome™ and other Technology Platforms for the oral administration of therapeutics. Finally, we are pursuing our meningeal lymphatics research program to develop potential treatments for neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases. In addition to programs originating from these innovative platforms to fuel our pipeline, we also continually identify external clinical-stage programs that are highly differentiated and complementary to the immuno‑modulation focus of our Wholly Owned Pipeline. Key developments and progress include the following:
Program Highlights
LYT-100
- In the January 2022 post-period, we were pleased to announce results from a randomized, double-blind crossover study in healthy older adults demonstrating that approximately 50% fewer subjects treated with LYT-100 experienced gastrointestinal (GI)-related adverse events (AE) compared to subjects treated with pirfenidone (17.4% vs. 34.0%). Based on these results, additional data generated from our robust LYT-100 clinical program and recent regulatory feedback, we intend to advance LYT-100 into late-stage clinical development for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), beginning with a dose-ranging study evaluating six months of treatment with LYT-100 with topline results expected by the end of 2023.
- In 2021, we progressed two Phase 2 clinical trials of LYT-100 including 1) a global, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of LYT-100-COV in adults with Long COVID6 respiratory complications and related sequelae and 2) a Phase 2a proof-of-concept study of LYT-100-LYMPH in patients with breast cancer-related, upper limb secondary lymphedema. Topline results from the LYT-100-COV trial are expected in the first half of 2022, and topline results from the LYT-100-LYMPH trial are expected in 2022.
- In 2021, we also initiated a three-month, open-label extension of the LYT-100-COV Phase 2 trial in adults with Long COVID respiratory complications and related sequelae who completed the first portion of the trial. The primary endpoint of the extension trial will measure change in distance walked on the six-minute walk test (6MWT), with secondary endpoints to assess the longer-term safety and tolerability of LYT-100- COV up to 182 days of treatment.
- In 2021, we initiated additional clinical studies to further evaluate the pharmacokinetic (PK), dosing and tolerability of LYT-100 in healthy volunteers and healthy older adults to inform the clinical development of LYT-100 across multiple indications. Results from these studies demonstrated that LYT-100 was well-tolerated at 824mg TID dosing with low rates of GI AEs that were comparable to placebo. These results will further inform our dose-ranging study design in treatment-naïve IPF patients.
- In 2021, we formed a Clinical Advisory Board for IPF and other progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases (PF-ILDs). These physicians and researchers with deep expertise in the clinical development of novel therapies in PF-ILDs include Bill Bradford, M.D., Ph.D., biopharma advisor with broad expertise in drug development; Vincent Cottin, M.D., Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Université Claude Bernard Lyon and Coordinator of the National Coordinating Reference Center for Rare Pulmonary Diseases at Louis Pradel Hospital, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France; Kevin Flaherty, M.D., Professor at the University of Michigan specializing in IPF and other ILDs; Toby Maher, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of Interstitial Lung Disease at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California; Paul Noble, M.D., Chair of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a noted researcher in lung inflammation and fibrosis; and Marlies Wijsenbeek, M.D., Ph.D., pulmonary physician at the Erasmus Medical Center.
- In August 2021, we presented the results of the Phase 1 multiple ascending dose and food effect study of LYT-100 at the virtual European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress. The results from the study were subsequently published in the journal Clinical Pharmacology in Drug Development in November 2021.
LYT-200
- In 2021, we progressed the first stage of an adaptive Phase 1/2 clinical trial evaluating LYT-200 (anti-galectin-9 fully human monoclonal antibody) as a single agent for the potential treatment of difficult-to-treat solid tumors. In November 2021, we presented a scientific poster describing the trial at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 36th annual meeting. Topline results from the Phase 1 portion of the study are expected in the first half of 2022. Pending these results, we intend to initiate the Phase 2 expansion cohort portion of the trial, which is designed to evaluate LYT-200 both as a single agent and/or in combination with BeiGene’s tislelizumab, an anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, or chemotherapy. The Phase 2 portion of the study is currently planned to enroll patients with a range of solid tumor types, including pancreatic cancer and other GI solid tumors. Under the terms of the clinical trial and supply agreement we entered into with an affiliate of BeiGene, Ltd. in July 2021, we will maintain control of the LYT-200 program, including global R&D and commercial rights, and BeiGene has agreed to supply tislelizumab for use in combination with LYT-200 for the planned Phase 2 study cohorts.
- In November 2021, the FDA granted orphan drug designation to LYT-200 for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The FDA grants orphan drug designation to novel drug and biologic products for the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of conditions affecting fewer than 200,000 persons in the U.S. Orphan drug designation qualifies PureTech for incentives under the Orphan Drug Act, including tax credits for some clinical trials and eligibility for seven years of market exclusivity in the U.S. if the drug is approved, in addition to our broad intellectual property coverage which can extend the exclusivity into 2038.
LYT-210
- In April 2021, we presented a scientific poster detailing promising preclinical results for LYT-210 (anti-gamma-delta-1 fully human monoclonal antibody) at the 2021 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Virtual Meeting. The research demonstrated that LYT-210 is both highly specific and highly potent, rapidly inducing cell death of immunomodulatory gamma delta-1 cells, while sparing other T cells, such as cytotoxic gamma delta T cells, that play important roles in a healthy immune response.
LYT-300
- In December 2021, we initiated a Phase 1 clinical study of LYT-300 (oral allopregnanolone), the first therapeutic candidate generated from our Glyph platform, for the potential treatment of neurological and neuropsychological conditions. Results from the study are expected in the second half of 2022 and will be used to inform the design of possible future studies evaluating LYT-300 in indications that could include depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, fragile X tremor-associated syndrome, essential tremor and epileptic disorders, among others.
Alivio Technology Platform
- In June 2021, we announced the acquisition of the remaining 22% of outstanding shares in our Founded Entity, Alivio Therapeutics (“Alivio”). Alivio’s therapeutic candidates, in development for inflammatory disorders including IBD, have been integrated into our Wholly Owned Pipeline, and the underlying Alivio technology platform has been added to our lymphatic and inflammation platforms.
- The Alivio technology platform has generated three therapeutic candidates:
- In the 2022 post-period, we nominated a new therapeutic candidate, LYT-510, to our pipeline. LYT-510 is an orally-administered therapeutic candidate for the potential treatment of IBD and chronic pouchitis, which is a rare orphan disease. We intend to file for regulatory approval to initiate first-in-human studies at year end 2022 and initiate a clinical study evaluating LYT-510 as a single agent for the potential treatment of IBD and chronic pouchitis in early 2023.
- LYT-500 is an orally administered combination of therapeutic agents in development for IBD. We expect preclinical proof-of-concept data for LYT-500 in the first half of 2022.
- LYT-503/ IMB-150 is a non-opioid pain candidate being developed as a partnered program for the potential treatment of IC/BPS. An Investigational New Drug (“IND”) application is expected to be filed for LYT-503/IMB-150 in 2022.
Glyph Technology Platform
- In September 2021, preclinical proof-of-concept research supporting the Glyph technology platform, which showed for the first time that restoring normal function of the mesenteric lymphatics may reverse insulin resistance and modify obesity-associated metabolic disease, was published in Nature Metabolism. Preclinical proof-of-concept work published in the Journal of Controlled Release in February 2021 also supported the platform’s ability to directly target the lymphatic system.
Orasome and Other Technology Platforms for Oral Administration of Therapeutics
- In 2021, we also progressed versatile and programmable oral biotherapeutics approaches, such as our Orasome platform, which is a novel programmable and scalable approach for the oral administration of nucleic acids and other biologics. We established preclinical proof-of-concept supporting the platform’s potential to achieve therapeutic levels of proteins in circulation following the oral administration of therapeutic protein expression systems. We expect to generate additional preclinical data, with Orasomes and other technologies, in 2022.
Meningeal Lymphatics Research Program
- In April 2021, preclinical work supporting our meningeal lymphatics research program was published in Nature. The research suggests that restoring lymphatic flow in the brain, either alone or in combination with passive immunotherapies such as antibodies directed at amyloid beta, has the potential to address a range of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and the associated neuroinflammation. The work also uncovered a link between dysfunctional meningeal lymphatics and damaging microglia activation in Alzheimer’s disease, which potentially impairs the efficacy of passive immunotherapies such as amyloid-beta-targeting antibodies. This suggests another route by which restoring healthy drainage patterns could improve clinical outcomes.
Corporate Highlights
- In 2021, we continued to build our clinical development team by bringing together seasoned experts focused on tackling diseases with significant unmet medical needs. Julie Krop, M.D., was appointed as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Krop oversees all clinical development, regulatory, CMC and medical affairs for advancing our Wholly Owned Pipeline. Other additions to our team included Paul Ford, M.D., Ph.D., SVP of Clinical Development who is primarily overseeing the overall LYT-100 development program, including for IPF.
- In the March 2022 post-period, we appointed Sharon Barber‑Lui to our board of directors as a non‑executive director and as a member of the Audit Committee. She previously led U.S. Oncology Portfolio Strategy, Operations and Business Analytics at Merck & Co. Inc. Ms. Barber-Lui brings extensive experience in finance, operations, portfolio management and commercialization to our board of industry, business, and academic leaders.
- In 2021, we remained deeply committed to making progress in our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) program. The second edition of our ESG report has been published as part of the annual report and a new ESG webpage has been launched which can be accessed at investors.puretechhealth.com.
Capital Allocation Strategy
- Based on the strong foundation we have built to support PureTech’s future growth, our Board and senior leadership team have been considering various approaches to drive additional value for our shareholders, including reviewing a capital allocation strategy that balances investment in the continued growth of our business with potential returns of capital to shareholders. Our strategy includes the maintenance of a minimum of three years of cash on hand to fund the continued development and expansion of our Wholly Owned Pipeline and strategic investment in our Founded Entities. Our cash runway is expected into the first quarter of 2025.
- In the future, when appropriate to do so, we will also aim to return a portion of the proceeds we may generate from either (1) the monetization of equity interests in our Founded Entities, (2) the receipt of potential royalty and sublicense income, and/or (3) other sources of proceeds such as strategic partnerships, to shareholders through various mechanisms, including share buybacks or special dividends.
- We may augment this approach should opportunities arise to use available funds for strategic growth opportunities, such as in-licensing of therapeutic candidates or intellectual property, asset purchases, or strategic M&A, to the extent such opportunities are aligned with our long-term strategic vision.
- As we evaluate our capital allocation strategy, we intend to engage with shareholders to understand preferences and market perspectives with respect to certain potential near-term activities related to the implementation of this capital allocation strategy. Any plan to return capital to shareholders will be subject to market and industry conditions at the time, the approval of our Board of Directors, restrictions under the law and other corporate considerations.
Financial Highlights
- In 2021, PureTech sold 1,750,000 shares of Karuna common stock for cash consideration of approximately $218 million in two separate transactions in February and November.
- PureTech Level Cash and Cash Equivalents were $418.9 million as of December 31, 20211. We reiterated our cash runway guidance into the first quarter of 2025.
- Consolidated cash and cash equivalents, which includes cash held at the PureTech level and at Controlled Founded Entities, were $465.7 million as of December 31, 20212.
- PureTech’s Founded Entities raised $731.9 million in 20217 and approximately an additional $105 million in the 2022 post-period, almost all of which came from third parties.
- PureTech Level Cash and Cash Equivalents were $377.9 million, based on consolidated cash and cash equivalents of $413.2 million as of March 31, 20228, with spend largely attributed to the successful progression of Wholly Owned Programs into more advanced stages of development.
PureTech’s Founded Entities matured over the year, with significant clinical and financial momentum9
PureTech’s Founded Entities have made significant progress advancing 20 therapeutics and therapeutic candidates, of which two have been cleared for marketing by the FDA and granted marketing authorization in the European Economic Area and 13 are clinical stage. Key developments included the following:
- Karuna Therapeutics, Inc. (PureTech ownership as of February 15, 2022: 5.6%; We also are eligible to receive payments under our license agreement, including sublicense payments and royalties on net sales)
- In November 2021, Karuna announced further updates to the EMERGENT program’s four ongoing Phase 3 trials, including that topline data from EMERGENT-2, a five-week inpatient trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of KarXT compared to placebo in 246 adults with schizophrenia in the U.S., are expected in mid-2022. EMERGENT-3, a five-week inpatient trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of KarXT compared to placebo in 246 adults with schizophrenia in the U.
Contacts
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