Despite Loss, Endocyte Touts ‘Transformative’ Quarter
West Lafayette-based Endocyte Inc. (Nasdaq: ECYT) is reporting a third quarter net loss of $23.3 million, compared to a loss of $8.7 million a year ago. Despite the widening loss, Chief Executive Officer Mike Sherman says the three-month period has been "transformative" for Endocyte, noting progress and new developments he expects will pay off in the future.
Endocyte tallied some $16.5 million in costs during the quarter related to its October acquisition of a potential blockbuster prostate cancer therapy from a German company.
During the quarter, Sherman says, the biopharmaceutical company "accelerated our path to commercialization by obtaining worldwide rights to develop 177Lu-PSMA-617, a potentially first-in-class radioligand therapeutic (RLT) and $1 billion revenue opportunity, addressing both bone and soft tissue disease in prostate cancer patients. In the weeks since closing that transaction, we’ve made tremendous progress advancing the development of this promising therapy towards phase 3 initiation in the first half of next year." He adds "data presented at the ESMO 2017 Congress from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center-sponsored 177Lu-PSMA-617 trial in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients demonstrated promising response rates, and we expect updated results from the trial expansion to be presented in 2018. With our new focus on RLTs in prostate cancer and our collaboration with Seattle Children’s Research Institute to develop our chimeric antigen receptor t-cell (CAR T-cell) therapy in pediatric osteosarcoma, we’ve positioned Endocyte in two of the most promising fields of emerging cancer therapy, the values of which have been highlighted recently by multi-billion dollar transactions."
The company is also reporting $4.1 million on research and development expenses during the quarter, down from $6 million in the same quarter last year. You can connect to the full third quarter earnings report by clicking here.