Compugen Reports Fourth Quarter and Calendar 2013 Results
Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.
Compugen Ltd. has reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2013 and disclosed key corporate objectives for 2014.
Anat Cohen-Dayag, PhD, President and CEO of Compugen, stated, “This past year was very important for Compugen with respect to demonstrating our competitive advantages in predictive drug discovery. During 2013, among other achievements, we began to license product candidates from our first focused discovery program for immune checkpoints, to advance additional immune checkpoint candidates in our Pipeline Program, and to harness the power of our predictive infrastructure to initiate a second focused discovery program of targets for antibody drug conjugate (ADC) cancer therapy, for which we announced initial target candidate discoveries before year-end. During the year, we also began to receive greater recognition within the industry for both our Pipeline Program candidates and discovery capabilities.”
Dr. Cohen-Dayag continued, “With a significantly increased R&D budget for 2014, we look forward to further achievements in our areas of focus, with a primary emphasis on immune checkpoint related product opportunities. This emphasis includes advancing multiple candidates towards additional future early stage collaborations and expanding our internal research and development activities for future human clinical trials in the field of cancer immunotherapy.”
With respect to calendar 2014, included in our corporate objectives are the following:
• achieve work plan goals and milestones for existing collaborations
• enter into one or more additional Pipeline Program collaborations
• aggressively advance in parallel additional target research and therapeutic antibody discovery programs for multiple immune checkpoints for cancer immunotherapy, including one or more to be taken towards future clinical trials in oncology by the company
• establish a biomarker discovery program for selected checkpoint candidates
• achieve experimental validation for our recently discovered ADC target candidates
• utilize the Company's predictive discovery infrastructure to further enhance the intellectual property position of selected product candidates
Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2013 and the year ended December 31, 2013 were $1.8 million and $3.5 million, respectively, compared with $134,000 and $242,000 for the comparable periods in 2012. Revenues reported for the most recent periods consisted primarily of the portions of the non-refundable $10 million upfront payment received under the August 2013 collaboration and license agreement with Bayer Pharma AG (“Bayer Agreement”), that were recognizable during such periods in accordance with U.S. GAAP revenue recognition accounting.
Cost of revenues for the fourth quarter of 2013 and year ended December 31, 2013 were $810,000 and $2.5 million respectively, compared with $168,000 and $201,000 for the comparable periods in 2012. These increases reflect, in large part, research and development expenses and certain payments that occurred in the third quarter of 2013, in both cases attributed to the Bayer Agreement.
Research and development expenses, net, for the fourth quarter of 2013 and the year ended December 31, 2013 were $3.3 million and $12.3 million, respectively, compared with $2.6 million and $9.4 million for the comparable periods in 2012, and remained the Company’s largest expense. The growth in research and development expenses, net, for the fourth quarter and full year, reflects increasing levels of activities in support of the Company’s Pipeline Program, including a substantial increase in activities relating to the research and development of monoclonal antibody therapeutic candidates at Compugen's wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary.
Compugen’s net loss for calendar 2013 was $14.1 million (after reflecting non-cash stock-based compensation of $3.5 million), or $0.36 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $13.6 million (after reflecting non-cash stock-based compensation of $2.5 million), or $0.38 per basic and diluted share, for 2012. The increase in net loss for calendar 2013, compared with the same period in 2012, resulted from increased corporate activities primarily relating to research and development, partially offset by an increase in revenues.
As of December 31, 2013 and 2012, the liability related to the "Research and development funding arrangements and others" amounted to $13.2 million and $7.9 million, respectively, resulting from the accounting for the Baize research and development funding arrangements signed in December 2011 and December 2010, as amended.
The liability balances are primarily related to the estimated fair values of the embedded derivative instruments resulting from the right of the investor, under the amended agreement, to waive its right to receive potential future payments in exchange for Compugen ordinary shares.
As of December 31, 2013, available resources totaled $51.3 million (consisting of cash related accounts totaling $46.8 million and $4.5 million market value of Evogene shares owned by the Company at such time) compared with $24.8 million (consisting of cash related accounts totaling $19.6 million and $5.2 million market value of Evogene shares) at December 31, 2012, representing a net increase of $26.5 million for calendar year 2013.
Compugen has budgeted for calendar 2014 total cash uses of approximately $24 million. Compugen does not include in its budget any cash anticipated to be received during the year from revenues, financing activities or other sources. For calendar year 2013, such cash actually received totaled approximately $42 million.
