Readouts for key clinical trials remain on track
Minor impact from the Covid-19 pandemic seen to-date
STRASBOURG, France–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#Transgene–Regulatory News:
Transgene (Euronext Paris: TNG) (Paris:TNG), a biotech company that designs and develops virus-based immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, today announces its business update for the quarter ending March 31, 2020, and provides an update on its progress of clinical trial portfolio taking into account the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Operating revenue
During the first quarter of 2020, revenue from collaborative and licensing agreements was mainly composed of the revenue under the collaboration with AstraZeneca.
As of March 31, 2020, government financing for research expenditures mainly consisted of 25% of the research tax credit expected for 2020 (€1.5 million in the first quarter of 2020, as in 2019).
Cash, cash equivalents and other financial assets
In the first quarter of 2020, Transgene’s cash burn was €8.0 million, compared to €7.8 million for the same period in 2019. Cash, cash equivalents and other financial assets stood at €35.3 million as of March 31, 2020, compared to €43.3 million as of December 31, 2019.
This cash position does not include the €20 million credit facility available for the Company until June 2022.
Summary of key ongoing clinical trials and expected milestones
Transgene continues to monitor the development of the of Covid-19 pandemic and its potential consequences on its activities. To-date the pandemic has had limited impact.
- Transgene’s teams have been mostly working from home to ensure business continuity. The commitment of our employees and the measures taken to provide a safe environment have allowed Transgene to maintain activity in the labs in order to ensure the progress of our strategic research projects and to operate our pilot manufacturing unit. Encouragingly, we expect our labs to be operating at close to normal levels starting next week.
- As of today, we do not anticipate significant delays to our clinical readouts.
- Some key congresses, such as AACR, have been rescheduled as virtual events. Transgene and its partners intend to present preclinical data on myvac® and BT-001 at “virtual” AACR (Session II). The abstracts of the posters to be presented will be available on May 15, 2020.
Transgene expects its cash burn for 2020 to be around €25 million, based on its current development plan.
Post-closing events
On May 4, 2020, Transgene announced the sale of its proprietary DuckCelt®-T17 cell line to Vaxxel, a French biotech start up focused on respiratory vaccines. As a result of this transaction, Transgene has become a significant shareholder in Vaxxel. Vaxxel will use the DuckCelt®-T17 cell line to enable the production of prophylactic vaccines against respiratory viruses (Metapneumovirus and Respiratory Syncytial Virus).
On April 9, 2020, Transgene sold its entire 8.25% holding in ElsaLys Biotech in a private operation.