Shelton-based Nanoviricides Inc. met Wall Street expectations during its third quarter, posting a net loss that was unchanged from a year ago as it prepares to advance its first shingles drug into clinical trials.
For the period ended March 31, the anti-viral developer posted a net loss of $2.14 million, or 3 cents a share, virtually unchanged from the third quarter in 2018. Nanoviricides reports its earnings on a non-calendar basis.
The company reported operating expenses of $2.08 million, down slightly from $2.42 million a year ago. Research and development spending rose slightly to $1.31 million from $1.29 million a year ago, but general and administrative expenses dipped to $772,561 from $1.13 million.
It reported no revenue, as is common with pre-clinical biotechs that have yet to develop a commercial product.
The company said it ended the quarter with $4.63 million in cash, cash equivalents and prepaid expenses, and $1.08 million in cash liabilities.
The company is using nanotechnology to develop treatments for viral diseases such as influenza, swine flu, bird flu, HIV, Hepatitis C, viral eye diseases, dengue viruses, Ebola, rabies and others.
The drugs use tiny particles, called nanoviricides, to attack and dismantle the viruses.
Its lead candidate is a topical cream for shingles, which is caused by the same virus as chickenpox. It also is working on skin creams for cold sores and genital herpes.
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New Haven biopharma Cybrexa Therapeutics said multiple preclinical studies show its alphalex tumor-targeting platform can successfully deliver anti-cancer drugs to tumor cells while almost completely sparing healthy bone marrow.
Significant bone marrow toxicity is typical when PARP inhibitors, which stop cancer cells from repairing themselves, are combined with chemotherapy to treat homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-negative cancers, the company said.
“Cybrexa’s unique alphalex platform enables multiple PARP inhibitor combinations with clinically-relevant chemotherapies, providing a new way to target HRD-negative cancers without significant bone marrow toxicity,” Chief Scientific Officer Vishwas Paralkar said in a statement.
Based on the successful proof-of-concept data from lab and animal studies, the company said it is preparing to start human trials on its first anti-cancer drug using the alphalex platform during the first quarter of 2020.
The data was published in an online-only abstract titled “Unlocking PARP inhibitor efficacy for HRD-negative cancers using the alphalex tumor targeting platform,” accepted by the American Society for Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting 2019.
Connecticut serial biotech entrepreneur Per Hellsund founded Cybrexa in 2017. It is based in Science Park.
Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com
