Biostage's funding provides runway to Q3
Courtesy/Biostage
Biostage CEO Jim McGorry
Holliston biotech Biostage ended 2017 with about $4 million in cash on hand, and that will carry the company only partially through this year’s third quarter.
The company, which struggled with funding issues until late last year, announced its funding runway in an earnings report Monday.
Biostage, which is developing treatments for esophageal conditions via implants intended to regenerate a patient's’ throat organs, reported a net loss of $11.9 million in 2017, a per share loss of $6.63. The full year loss is about $300,000 larger than the company’s loss in 2016.
Those losses were attributed to increased research and development spending on outsourced preclinical studies, scientific conferences and employee-related costs during the first half of the year.
The company was, however, able to mitigate some of those losses by laying off more than 70 percent of its workforce in October after being delisted from NASDAQ and having an investment agreement fall through.
The company has since secured $5.2 million in private investments as it continues to transition to focus on esophageal conditions affecting children.
Last week, the company landed a $1.7 million federal grant for a preclinical study and appointed renowned children’s hospital executive James Shmerling to its board of directors.
Biostage’s Cellframe technology was implanted into the first human last May, and after the man died due to unrelated circumstances, an autopsy showed the device worked as intended and prompted regeneration of the man's’ esophagus.
“We believe this is a clear demonstration of our technology's potential for improving human care,” CEO Jim McGorry said in a statement. “We are also excited about the operational runway our new investors have provided us and the progress we are making in moving our esophageal implant product candidates toward Investigational New Drug applications, which we anticipate to occur in 2019."
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments