Editas Medicine Announces First Quarter 2016 Results and Update
Advancing pipeline and platform demonstrated by data presented at medical and scientific conferences as well as achievement of
Strengthened effort to develop medicines for cystic fibrosis through agreement with Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics
Robust foundation of intellectual, financial, and human capital positions Editas for long-term success
“We have made significant progress this year in building Editas as a company and in advancing both our pipeline and platform,” said
Recent Highlights
- Announced a three-year agreement with
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, Inc. (CFFT), the nonprofit affiliate of theCystic Fibrosis Foundation , pursuant to which CFFT will pay up to$5 million toEditas Medicine to support the discovery and development of CRISPR/Cas9-based medicines for the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF). In addition, Editas will access CFFT’s extensive network of CF scientific advisors and clinical researchers.
- Presented data on Editas’ cancer, hematology, ophthalmology, and neuromuscular disease programs at two scientific conferences, the
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2016 Annual Meeting and the 19th Annual Meeting of theAmerican Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), including:- Leber congenital amaurosis 10 (LCA10) program: Demonstration of Cas9-mediated editing of primary fibroblasts derived from LCA10 patients resulted in elimination of the target CEP290 gene mutation as well as restoration of full-length protein expression. Evidence of guide RNAs with no detectable off-targets was also presented.
- Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) program: The first data from the Company’s program to discover medicines to treat the underlying genetic cause of DMD showing that pairs of guide RNAs have the ability to remove exon 51 of the dystrophin gene with greater than 30% efficiency. These data demonstrated the potential for a genome editing approach to address the genetic changes responsible for causing the disease in approximately 10-15% of patients.
- Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs): New data demonstrating long-term, robust engraftment in vivo after Cas9-mediated genome editing. Importantly, the data also show that editing did not alter hematopoietic reconstitution or differentiation properties in comparison to untreated control HSPCs.
- Announced that the Company has achieved a
$2.5 million milestone under its collaboration withJuno Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: JUNO) for technical progress in a research program to create engineered T cells with chimeric antigen receptors and T cell receptors to treat cancer.
Upcoming Events
- Editas management will present a company overview and host meetings with investors at the
Jefferies Healthcare Conference to be heldJune 7-10 and the JMP Securities Life Sciences Conference to be heldJune 21-22 .
First Quarter 2016 Financial Results
Cash and cash equivalents at
For the first quarter 2016, net loss attributable to common stockholders was
- Collaboration revenue for the first quarter 2016 was approximately
$0.8 million , resulting from reimbursement for research and development expenses under our collaboration withJuno Therapeutics entered into in May 2015. No collaboration revenue was recognized in the first quarter of 2015.
- Research and development expenses for the first quarter 2016 were approximately
$8.9 million , compared to$1.9 million for the same period in 2015. The increase was largely due to employee and non-employee related expenses, as well as process and platform development expenses.
- General and administrative expenses were
$9.8 million for the first quarter 2016, compared to$3.3 million for the same period in 2015. The increase was largely due to legal fees to support our patents and patent applications, as well as employee compensation.
Conference Call
The Editas management team will host a conference call and webcast today at
About
Editas Medicine is a leading genome editing company dedicated to treating patients with genetically-defined diseases by correcting their disease-causing genes. The Company was founded by world leaders in genome editing, and its mission is to translate the promise of genome editing science into a broad class of transformative genomic medicines to benefit the greatest number of patients.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words ‘‘anticipate,’’ ‘‘believe,’’ ‘‘continue,’’ ‘‘could,’’ ‘‘estimate,’’ ‘‘expect,’’ ‘‘intend,’’ ‘‘may,’’ ‘‘plan,’’ ‘‘potential,’’ ‘‘predict,’’ ‘‘project,’’ ‘‘target,’’ ‘‘should,’’ ‘‘would,’’ and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. The Company may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including: uncertainties inherent in the initiation and completion of preclinical studies and clinical trials and clinical development of the Company’s product candidates; availability and timing of results from preclinical studies and clinical trials; whether interim results from a clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of the trial or the results of future trials; expectations for regulatory approvals to conduct trials or to market products and availability of funding sufficient for the Company’s foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements. These and other risks are described in greater detail under the caption “Risk Factors” included in the Company’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which is on file with the
EDITAS MEDICINE, INC. | ||||||||||||
Consolidated Statement of Operations | ||||||||||||
(amounts in thousands, except per share and share data) | ||||||||||||
(Unaudited) | ||||||||||||
Three Months Ended | ||||||||||||
March 31, | ||||||||||||
2016 | 2015 | |||||||||||
Collaboration revenue | $ | 805 | $ | - | ||||||||
Operating expenses: | ||||||||||||
Research and development | 8,882 | 1,888 | ||||||||||
General and administrative | 9,762 | 3,273 | ||||||||||
Total operating expenses | 18,644 | 5,161 | ||||||||||
Operating loss | (17,839 | ) | (5,161 | ) | ||||||||
Other income (expense), net: | ||||||||||||
Other expense, net | (30 | ) | (99 | ) | ||||||||
Interest income (expense), net | 124 | (31 | ) | |||||||||
Total other income (expense), net | 94 | (130 | ) | |||||||||
Net loss and comprehensive loss | $ | (17,745 | ) | $ | (5,291 | ) | ||||||
Accretion of redeemable convertible | ||||||||||||
preferred stock to redemption value | (47 | ) | (95 | ) | ||||||||
Net loss attributable to common | $ | (17,792 | ) | $ | (5,386 | ) | ||||||
Stockholders | ||||||||||||
Net loss per share attributable to common | ||||||||||||
stockholders, basic and diluted | $ | (0.80 | ) | $ | (2.75 | ) | ||||||
Weighted-average common shares | ||||||||||||
outstanding, basic and diluted | 22,280,797 | 1,957,378 |
EDITAS MEDICINE, INC. | |||||||||
Selected Consolidated Balance Sheet Items | |||||||||
(amounts in thousands) | |||||||||
(Unaudited) | |||||||||
March 31, | December 31, | ||||||||
2016 | 2015 | ||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 229,204 | $ | 143,180 | |||||
Working capital | 221,964 | 138,060 | |||||||
Total assets | 248,808 | 149,363 | |||||||
Deferred revenue | 25,479 | 25,321 | |||||||
Redeemable convertible preferred stock | - | 199,915 | |||||||
Total stockholders' equity (deficit) | 201,363 | (83,114 | ) | ||||||
Media ContactDan Budwick Pure Communications, Inc. (973) 271-6085 dan@purecommunicationsinc.com Investor ContactJesse Baumgartner Stern Investor Relations, Inc. (212) 362-1200 jesse@sternir.com