NEW YORK (360Dx) – Cell-based diagnostics firm Celcuity reported after the close of the market on Thursday that its fourth quarter net losses widened year over year.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, 2017 Celcuity posted a net loss of $1.7 million, or $.17 per share, compared to a net loss of $902,434, or $.14 per share, in the year-ago period. The firm's adjusted loss per share for Q4 2017 was $.14.
For the recently completed quarter, the firm — which went public in September — used 10.1 million shares to calculate its per-share loss figure, compared to 6.4 million shares in Q4 2016.
Celcuity's Q4 R&D expenses rose 67 percent to $1.4 million from $839,903 in Q4 2016. Its SG&A costs grew more than sixfold year over year to $420,963 from $67,509.
Celcuity Chairman and CEO Brian Sullivan said in a statement that during Q4, the firm continued laying the groundwork to "activate the clinical trial" that will assess the efficacy of two Genentech HER2 drugs, Herceptin and Perjeta, in HER2-negative breast cancer patients selected by Celcuity's CELx HER2 Signaling Function test. Interim results from the trial are expected in late 2018, with final results to follow six to nine months later.
Celcuity is collaborating with Genentech and the NSABP Foundation on the clinical trial.
"Our strategy is to develop diagnostics that identify new cancer subtypes and to seek collaborations with pharmaceutical companies, which can vary in scope," he added.
For full-year 2017, the Minneapolis-based firm's net loss widened to $6.3 million, or $.84 per share, from $3.3 million, or $.52 per share, in 2016. On an adjusted basis, Celcuity had a net loss of $.66 per share in 2017.
The firm used 7.5 million shares to calculate its 2017 per-share loss figure, compared to 6.3 million shares for its 2016 figure.
Celcuity's 2017 R&D expenses rose 61 percent to $5.0 million from $3.1 million in 2016. Its SG&A costs grew nearly 300 percent year over year to $972,518 from $263,664.
It did not report any revenue figures for the quarter or the year.
Celcuity ended the year with $2.6 million in cash and cash equivalents.
"[A]s we look ahead to the end of 2018, we anticipate completing development of new cell-signaling function tests for breast cancer and two additional tumor types," Sullivan said. "We anticipate these new tests will create opportunities for pharmaceutical companies to obtain new drug indications to treat patients who have the cancer subtypes our tests diagnose."
Celcuity also aims to initiate an additional clinical collaboration with a pharma firm by the end of the year, he added.
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