Share Search
Visit the Share Search
Silence Therapeutics losses widen as it progresses programmes
12th Aug 2021 09:37
(Sharecast News) - Silence Therapeutics reported revenues from collaborations of £5.8m in its first half on Thursday, up from £1.1m year-on-year, which it put down to its work with AstraZeneca and Mallinckrodt.
The AIM-traded firm noted that it raised £30.8m net from an oversubscribed private placement in the six months ended 30 June, which was led by "top-tier" United States institutional healthcare funds.
Research and development expenses increased to £15.6m, from £10.2m a year earlier, which the company said was primarily a result of investment in experienced personnel and clinical trial expenses related to the advancement of its proprietary programmes, 'SLN360' and 'SLN124'.
Administrative expenses increased to £9.1m from £5.2m year-on-year, primarily due to increased investment in support activities for pipeline growth, as well as requirements of being a public company dual-listed on AIM and Nasdaq.
The firm's loss before tax came in at £22.57m for the six month period, widening from £13.33m, with basic and diluted losses per ordinary share coming in at 22.8p, compared to a comparative 13.7p.
At period end on 30 June, Silence said it had cash, cash equivalents and term deposits of £81.2m, compared to £37.4m at the end of December.
"During the first half of 2021, we were successful in completing an oversubscribed £30.8m private placement led by top-tier US institutional healthcare funds," said chief financial officer Craig Tooman.
"We further improved our cash position with the receipt of approximately £33.7m of non-dilutive capital from our collaboration partners.
"The £81.2m in cash, cash equivalents, and term deposits as at 30 June positions us well to advance our proprietary technology platform."
Commenting on its operations in the first half, president and chief executive officer Mark Rothera said the first half was marked by "strong execution", highlighted by the first clinical data from the company's proprietary 'mRNAi GOLD' platform, which translated results from preclinical models into humans.
"In addition to achieving positive clinical data from our platform, we started dosing patients in two wholly owned programs and added two new targets to our partnered pipeline," Rothera explained.
"The progress we made across both our proprietary and partnered pipelines underscores our firm commitment to maximize the substantial opportunity of our mRNAi GOLD platform and enable two to three investigational new drugs per year beginning in 2023."
Looking ahead, Mark Rothera said the company had now fully enrolled four cohorts of the 'APOLLO' study of SLN360 in healthy individuals living with high levels of Lp(a), with it expecting topline data in the first quarter of 2022.
"We look forward to discussing the progress of our SLN360 and SLN124 programs as well as our broader pipeline in more detail during our research and development day on 21 October."
At 1050 BST, shares in Silence Therapeutics were down 0.99% in London, at 602p.
The AIM-traded firm noted that it raised £30.8m net from an oversubscribed private placement in the six months ended 30 June, which was led by "top-tier" United States institutional healthcare funds.
Research and development expenses increased to £15.6m, from £10.2m a year earlier, which the company said was primarily a result of investment in experienced personnel and clinical trial expenses related to the advancement of its proprietary programmes, 'SLN360' and 'SLN124'.
Administrative expenses increased to £9.1m from £5.2m year-on-year, primarily due to increased investment in support activities for pipeline growth, as well as requirements of being a public company dual-listed on AIM and Nasdaq.
The firm's loss before tax came in at £22.57m for the six month period, widening from £13.33m, with basic and diluted losses per ordinary share coming in at 22.8p, compared to a comparative 13.7p.
At period end on 30 June, Silence said it had cash, cash equivalents and term deposits of £81.2m, compared to £37.4m at the end of December.
"During the first half of 2021, we were successful in completing an oversubscribed £30.8m private placement led by top-tier US institutional healthcare funds," said chief financial officer Craig Tooman.
"We further improved our cash position with the receipt of approximately £33.7m of non-dilutive capital from our collaboration partners.
"The £81.2m in cash, cash equivalents, and term deposits as at 30 June positions us well to advance our proprietary technology platform."
Commenting on its operations in the first half, president and chief executive officer Mark Rothera said the first half was marked by "strong execution", highlighted by the first clinical data from the company's proprietary 'mRNAi GOLD' platform, which translated results from preclinical models into humans.
"In addition to achieving positive clinical data from our platform, we started dosing patients in two wholly owned programs and added two new targets to our partnered pipeline," Rothera explained.
"The progress we made across both our proprietary and partnered pipelines underscores our firm commitment to maximize the substantial opportunity of our mRNAi GOLD platform and enable two to three investigational new drugs per year beginning in 2023."
Looking ahead, Mark Rothera said the company had now fully enrolled four cohorts of the 'APOLLO' study of SLN360 in healthy individuals living with high levels of Lp(a), with it expecting topline data in the first quarter of 2022.
"We look forward to discussing the progress of our SLN360 and SLN124 programs as well as our broader pipeline in more detail during our research and development day on 21 October."
At 1050 BST, shares in Silence Therapeutics were down 0.99% in London, at 602p.