Earnings Labs

Celcuity Inc. (CELC)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Fri, Nov 16, 2018

$120.88

-4.02%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

-9.73%

1 Week

-0.73%

1 Month

-9.97%

vs S&P

-0.26%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone and welcome to the Celcuity Release of Third Quarter of 2018 Financial Results Call. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Brian Sullivan. Please go ahead, sir.

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Thank you and thank you all for joining our call. We announced the financial results for our third quarter ended September 30, 2018 a few minutes ago. But before I begin, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will include some forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, which are outlined in today’s press release and in our reports and filings with the SEC. Our actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. On this call, we will also refer to non-GAAP financial measures. You can find a table reconciling the non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures in our earnings release for the 3 and 9 months ended September 30, 2018 which was included in today’s press release. Today’s press release is available on our website, www.celcuity.com under the Investors section. I am pleased to also have on the call with me today, Vicky Hahne, our CFO. I would like to make some comments on our third quarter results first and then Vicky will follow with more details on a few items and then we will open the line up for questions. Well, in October, we announced the signing of a second clinical trial agreement with Puma Biotechnology and the West Cancer Center. Our approach to identifying new cancer subtypes is new and the patient populations we identified aren’t initially on the clinical roadmap for the targeted therapies of interest to us. So discussing and negotiating these arrangements with major pharmaceutical companies and other leading cancer research organizations is as you would imagine a complex and lengthy process. The arrangement with Puma and West Cancer Center marks an important milestone in our long-term strategy of building partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, research organizations and key opinion leaders. So we are…

Vicky Hahne

Analyst

Thank you, Brian. Our third quarter net loss was $1.9 million or $0.18 per share compared to $1.8 million net loss or $0.26 per share through the third quarter of 2017. Net loss for the first 9 months of the year was $5.7 million or $0.56 per share compared to $4.5 million or $0.69 per share for the same period in 2017. Because these quarter and year-to-date net losses include a significant non-cash item, stock-based compensation and non-cash interest expense, we also included in our press release non-GAAP adjusted net loss for the quarter. Our non-GAAP adjusted net loss was $1.6 million or $0.15 per share for the third quarter of 2018 compared to non-GAAP adjusted net loss of $1.4 million or $0.20 per share for the third quarter of 2017. R&D expenses increased approximately $1.1 million during the first 9 months of 2018 compared to the first 9 months of 2017 primarily due to $0.6 million increase in compensation related expenses to support development of our CELx platform. In addition, other research and development expenses increased $0.5 million due to clinical validation studies and laboratory supplies to support the CELx platform and operational and business development activities. To support our R&D projects, we also invested approximately $146,000 in capital equipment. G&A expenses increased approximately $0.7 million during the first 9 months of 2018 compared to the first 9 months of 2017 primarily due to $0.3 million increase in compensation-related expenses. Other G&A expenses increased $0.4 million due to professional fees associated with being a public company and director and officer insurance. We ended the quarter with approximately $26.7 million of cash, cash equivalents and investments.

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Thank you, Vicky. Operator, we would like to now take questions, if there are any.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we will go ahead and take our first question from Kevin. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions.

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Hi, Kevin.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst

Hey, Brian. So, I wanted to see if you could provide an updated estimate on cash utilization. It looks like cash used this quarter came in at about $1.8 million. Is that kind of a good run-rate, you guys have been doing a really nice job of managing costs?

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

It is. I think as we bring on new trials for instance, the expenses will increase as we kind of move forward with some of our R&D programs. The expenses might increase somewhat, but we are on track with the estimates we have been talking about as far as our cash consumption over the 2 to 3-year period we have described previously.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst

Got it. Great. That’s helpful. And then just going back to the Genentech trial or FACT 1 are the requisite IRBs now in place at all the targeted trial sites? And then can you talk about how many of the 54 targeted patients have been enrolled to date?

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Right. So we have nearly all the sites enrolled I mean, rather nearly all the sites, IRBs are completed. There are some sites that have some contract details to work through and so that’s ongoing I think we are on track with what our revised estimate were the revised estimate we developed to get these sites onboard we haven’t been and we aren’t going to break out enrollment numbers on an ongoing basis, part of our agreement with NSABP just doesn’t allow us to disclose information about the trial except at pre-designated periods, you’ll see an interim analysis and then the final analysis but we’re proceeding pace and progressing.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst

Okay and so still on-track for interim top line data, I guess mid next year? Does that sound right?

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Right, right.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst

Okay, great and then switching over to the Puma or FACT 2 trial now 27 patients to enroll I guess, how long does that typically take? And if we think about the 10 to 12 months to get interim data, would that put that out to the kind of first half of 2020, Brian?

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Yes, if the estimates that they’re making, the West Clinic is making are what we count on, then we would expect, based on those estimates, that data before by the end of next year, the end of ‘19.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst

Okay, that’s really good actually. And then can you talk about at all about the success measurements? Will it still be pathologic complete response?

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Yes.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst

And then it is okay, that’s great. And then what about cost to Celcuity for running the trial?

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Sure. So, our agreement with the financial arrangements with Puma are confidential and so it’s limited amount I can really describe for that but we think this trial will allow us to get pharmaceutical companies involved in funding through a particular mechanism but I can’t really go into much more detail than that just because of the confidentiality.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst

Totally understand. It’s appreciated. And then lastly, any update on development timings of CELx tests with another tumor type besides breast cancer, if you saw potential later this year or maybe early next year?

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

I think early next year, we would expect to be able to start talking about the next tumor type that we are working and we are continuing to work on additional pathways for breast cancer again, each pathway and particular tumor type that we identify as for our new subtype leads to potential drug programs and so for instance, the programs that we’re hoping to put in place for a c-Met HER2 combination significantly expand the range of alternatives for us and so we think based on some of our current research that there’s an opportunity potentially for us to increase the numbers of pathways that we study in breast cancer and so again, we we’re proceeding on a number of fronts to identify new patient populations, both within our existing tissue type as well as new tissue types.

Kevin Ellich

Analyst

Excellent. Thanks for the update and congrats on all the progress you guys have made.

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

You are welcome. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

And we will go ahead and take our next question from Yi. Please go ahead your line is open.

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Hello Yi.

Yi Chen

Analyst

Hi, thank you for taking my questions. Just wondering, if the company has a target number on average per year that you would take on new projects for companion diagnostic tests?

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Not sure I understand the question are you talking about the number of programs we might work on with a pharmaceutical company or just the programs that we’re working on internally?

Yi Chen

Analyst

No, programs with pharmaceutical companies do you, have a sort of internal target per year you need to achieve for new programs with pharmaceuticals?

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

We do we have some internal goals at the beginning of this year, we talked about our goal of signing up another collaboration with an additional for a new drug with a new pharmaceutical company and then we accomplished that when we signed the Puma agreement to study their drug and patients selected with our test and so we haven’t described and disclosed our goals for 2019 but we would do that we expect in our first quarter our year-end call rather at the beginning of next year but we do have specific goals for number of years but we’ll describe the specific goals we have for 2019 in a few months.

Yi Chen

Analyst

Okay got it thank you.

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Welcome.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And it doesn’t look like we have any further questions on the phone line at this time.

Brian Sullivan

Analyst

Well, thank you everyone for participating. Look forward to updating you in the future. Talk to you later. Bye.

Operator

Operator

This does conclude today’s program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.