Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 14, 2024

Key Takeaways

  • Cyclacel raised $8 million in a private placement, resulting in $9.9 million pro forma cash, expected to fund operations into Q4 2024.
  • The company initiated dosing of first patients in the Phase 2 proof-of-concept part of the 65-101 study of oral fadraciclib (FADRA) in cohorts with CDKN2A/CDKN2B abnormalities and T-cell lymphoma, with initial activity data due in H2 2024.
  • In the completed Phase 1 dose escalation, FADRA achieved a recommended Phase 2 dose of 100 mg BID orally for five days per week in four-week cycles, with no dose-limiting toxicities observed.
  • Retrospective Phase 1 analyses showed clinical benefit in all eight patients with CDKN2A/B alterations, including 22% tumor shrinkage in refractory squamous NSCLC and a complete response in an endometrial cancer patient.
  • Q1 2024 R&D expenses decreased to $2.8 million (from $5.7 million in Q1 2023), and net loss narrowed to $2.9 million (from $5.8 million), aided by UK R&D tax credits.
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Earnings Conference Call
Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Q1 2024
00:00 / 00:00

There are 6 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals First Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After today's call, members of the financial community will have an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to the company.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today's conference call to discuss Cyclacel's financial results and business highlights for the Q1 ending March 31, 2024. Before turning the call over to management, I would like to remind everyone that during this conference call, forward looking statements made by management are intended to fall within the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. As set forth in our press release, forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the company's business and prospects, including those discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which include, among other things, our Forms 10Q and 10 ks. All of our projections and other forward looking statements represent our judgment as of today, and Cyclacel does not take any responsibility to update such information. With us today are Spiro Rumbadis, President and Chief Executive Officer Paul MacBaron, Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Operating Officer and Doctor.

Speaker 1

Brian Schwartz, Chief Medical Officer. Vera will begin with an overview of our business strategy and progress. Brian will provide details on Cyclacel's clinical programs, and then Paul will provide financial highlights for the Q1 of 2024, which will be followed by a Q and A session. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Spiro.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Grace, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today for our Q1 2024 business update. As previously reported, we have closed the financing for $8,000,000 in gross proceeds in a private placement priced at the market per NASDAQ rules. With additional resources in place, we have begun dosing patients in the Phase 2 proof of concept part of our 65-one hundred and one study evaluating fadraciclib or Fadra for short in patients with 1 or more chromosomal abnormalities, including CDKN2A and or CDKN2B deep deletions or loss of function. You will recall that we are pursuing a potential precision medicine approach for Fadra, oral CDK2nine inhibitor following findings in our clinical and preclinical data, which suggest the hypothesis that patients with 1 or more of these chromosomal abnormalities may be sensitive to FADRA. In the Phase 2 part, we are evaluating patients selected for their mutational profile and or Phase 1 activity in various solid tumors and lymphoma.

Speaker 2

We're initially enrolling 2 patient cohorts, those with CDKN2A and or CDKN2B abnormalities and also T cell lymphoma based on observation of anticancer activity, including responses in multiple Phase I patients. We believe that there is great unmet medical need and industry interest in the cancer patient populations identified by these abnormalities, which are closely located on chromosome 9 and are often co deleted. CDKN2A gene deletions occur in several solid tumors, including bladder, breast, endometrial, esophageal, glioma, head and neck, hepatobiliary, lung, including squamous, melanoma, ovarian, pancreatic and also in certain T cell lymphomas. CDKN2b lesions occur in several solid tumors including bladder, breast, cholangiocarcinoma, endometrial, esophageal, glioma, head and neck, hepatobiliary, lung, including squamous and mesothelioma, melanoma, pancreatic and others. There are no approved drugs to treat patients with CDKN2A or B abnormalities.

Speaker 2

We expect 2 key data readouts for FADRA this year. Final data for the dose escalation part of the 65-1 hundred and one study to be presented at the ASCO 2024 Annual Meeting in a few weeks and report on initial clinical activity from the Phase 2 proof of concept part of the study in the second half of this year. I will now turn the call over to Brian to review our progress and discuss some of our clinical results in the FADRO study. Brian?

Speaker 3

Thank you, Spiro. In our recently completed 65,101 study, we determined the recommended Phase 2 dose for FODRA. As a reminder, this is 100 milligrams BID dosed orally 5 days per week in a 4 week cycle. No dose limiting toxicities were observed on the schedule. We have now dosed the 1st patient in the Phase 2 proof of concept part of the study with the initial focus of the cohort in patients with CDK2NA or B alterations.

Speaker 3

In order to speed up enrollment, we have opened additional sites with up to 7 participating in the Phase 2. We expect to deliver initial results by the second half of twenty twenty four. As we progress through the Phase 2 study, let me summarize the rationale for our clinical strategy. We have observed CDK N2A or B alterations including loss of function in multiple pre treated Phase 1 patients with various cancers. These included gynecological, hepatobiliary, lung, pancreatic and recently testicular who benefited from Fardrocyclib monotherapy.

Speaker 3

These patient groups are associated with a high unmet need and often have poor clinical outcomes. As an illustration, we were excited to see shrinkage of 22% in the sum of all target lesions after one cycle of oral FODMAP monotherapy in a squamous non small cell lung cancer patients with CDKN2b deletions refractory to standard of care chemo and immunotherapy. A recently enrolled patient with advanced testicular cancer patient post surgery achieved a 12% reduction in the sum of all target lesions in the first cycle and continues on therapy now at cycle 3. After retrospectively analyzing a subset of previously treated Phase 1 patients, we found a total of 8 patients with CDKN2A or 2B alterations, all of whom experienced clinical benefit of the FODRA monotherapy. These included an endometrial cancer patient who achieved a CR and over 3 years of treatment on for the previous IV FODR monotherapy study and was found to have CDKN2A and CDKN2B loss.

Speaker 3

We are also encouraged by Phase 1 anticancer activity observed in T cell lymphoma patients, including PRs in 2 out of 3 patients treated, one of whom who had loss of CDKN2A. Literature suggests that a large percentage of T cell lymphoma patients have loss of CDKN2A. Although the Phase 1 hypothesis generating data are limited and cannot be generalized. We believe that the data supports evaluating patients with these cancer types in Phase 2 proof of concept part of the study. I will now turn the call over to Paul to review our Q1 results.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Brian. As of March 31, 2024, pro form a cash and cash equivalents totaled $9,900,000 which includes proceeds from this month's private placement and $800,000 cash received for the 2nd and final part of the United Kingdom Research and Development Tax Credit claim for 2023. Cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, 2024, totaled $2,800,000 dollars compared to $3,400,000 as of December 31, 2023. Net cash used in operating activities was $500,000 for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024, which includes $2,900,000 received in March in respect to the 1st part of the 2023 R and D tax credit claim compared to $6,900,000 for the same period of 2023. Research and development or R and D expenses were $2,800,000 for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024, as compared to $5,700,000 for the same period in 2023.

Speaker 4

R and D expenses relating to FALDRA were $1,800,000 for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024, as compared to $4,100,000 for the same period in 2023 due to a decrease in clinical trial and other nonclinical expenditures. R and D expenses related to Plogo were $1,000,000 for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024, as compared to $1,400,000 for the same period in 2023 due to a decrease in manufacturing and other nonclinical expenditures. Expenses related to PLOGO will be greatly reduced in 2024 as we have paused the 140-one hundred and one study while a new salt formulation becomes available. General and administrative expenses remain relatively flat at approximately $1,600,000 for each of the 3 months ended March 31, 2024, 2023. Total other expenses net for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024, were $100,000 compared to $200,000 for the same period of the previous year.

Speaker 4

United Kingdom research and development tax credits for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024, were $1,400,000 which includes $800,000 related to the 2023 claim, which as I mentioned previously, we have now received payment compared to $1,300,000 for the same period of the previous year and are directly correlated to qualifying research and development expenditure. Net loss for the 3 months ended March 31, 2024, were $2,900,000 which includes stock based compensation expense of $200,000 compared to $5,800,000 including stock based compensation expense of $400,000 for the same period in 2023. As we concentrate our resources on recruiting patients in the specific cohorts in the FIDRIA Phase II study, we anticipate that our expenditures in 2024 will continue to decrease. The company estimates that its current cash resources will fund currently planned programs into the Q4 of 2024. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

Operator

Our first question comes from Ahu Kamir with Ladenburg Thalmann.

Speaker 5

Thank you very much for taking my questions. 2 from us. First one is, what are we expecting to see at ASCO from the padrecyclib101 study?

Speaker 2

Could you

Speaker 5

provide more color? How many patients are we going to see? Subset analysis and any additional information would be very helpful.

Speaker 2

Thank you for your question, Ahu. I will turn over to Brian to answer the question on the ASCO content.

Speaker 3

Yes. Ahu, we're basically planning to present almost the totality of the dose escalation portion of the study. The data cut was a couple of weeks ago, but we should have full data set around the Phase 1 dose escalation portion, including both the safety and efficacy seen so far. There will also be PK and PD included.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Brian. And nice to chat with you again. Another question I have is on the proof of concept Phase 2 portion of the same study. We are expecting to see data later this year. Curious what is the timeline?

Speaker 5

What are you going to present? And currently, how many sites are open? And what are your thoughts on the enrollment? How fast that might move forward? Brian?

Speaker 3

We've just opened the T cell lymphoma site. They're starting to open slightly different from the Phase 1 solid tumor sites. The solid tumor sites, we had already 4 sites enrolling. So it's just opening an additional 3. In terms of timing, these known mutations are sometimes difficult to determine the frequency, but we're quite encouraged at the moment of patients being identified.

Speaker 3

We anticipate most probably by the end of the year, we've enrolled both cohorts.

Speaker 4

Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Let me also add to Brian's color, Ahu, that these mutations are readily available as part of standard panels. We do not need a companion diagnostic to identify the patients, although the company is collecting data for future regulatory discussions. But the the to treat these patients once they identify with Evomelody.

Speaker 5

Very helpful. Thank you, Sapiro. Thanks, Brian.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Ajo.

Operator

We have no further questions in the queue at this time. I'd now like to turn the call back over to today's speakers for any additional or closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, operator. And thanks to all of you for joining Cyclacel's Q1 2024 earnings call. Fibrocyclib has achieved a key milestone with the first patients dosed in the Phase 2 proof of concept stage with important catalysts anticipated in 2024 and a strong competitive profile in its therapeutic class. As a reminder, our upcoming key milestones are report data from the dose escalation stage of the 65-one hundred and one study of oral FODRA in patients with advanced solid tumors and lymphoma at the ASCO 2024 Annual Meeting. Report interim data from initial cohorts in Phase 2 open label proof of concept part of OX55-1 hundred and one study with oral fundercyclib in patients with advanced solid tumors and lymphoma.

Speaker 2

We look forward to providing you with further updates and hope to meet some of you at upcoming conferences. Operator, at this time, you may end the call.

Operator

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

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