Avalon Pharmaceuticals Reports Third Quarter 2007 Financial Results
Wednesday November 7, 4:05 pm ET
GERMANTOWN, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVRX - News) today announced results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2007. The Company reported no revenues in the third quarter of 2007 and a net loss of $5.4 million, or $0.32 per share. For the first nine months of 2007, revenues were $0.8 million and net loss was $16.6 million, or $1.13 per share. As of September 30, 2007, the Company had $33.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.
“We are pleased with the progress we made this quarter in our clinical, pre-clinical and collaboration programs,” stated Kenneth C. Carter, Ph.D., President and CEO of Avalon. “Our lead candidate, AVN944, continues to progress through Phase I and II clinical trials, we reported exciting progress in our pre-clinical programs at the recent AACR-NCI-EORTC Conference in San Francisco, and our collaborations continue to go well.”
Recent Highlights
* Patient enrollment continued in both the AVN944 Phase I clinical trial for hematological patients and the AVN944 Phase II (Part A) clinical trial for pancreatic patients.
* Posters presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics showed that AvalonRx®, the Company’s core technology, identified potent selective small molecule inhibitors for the Beta-catenin pathway that demonstrate significant tumor inhibition in multiple animal models.
* The Company reported in a poster presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics that the Company used AvalonRx® to identify and characterize small molecule inhibitors for the c-Myc pathway.
* Collaborations with Merck, Novartis and ChemDiv continue to progress.
* Bradley Lorimier appointed Chairman of Board of Directors in August 2007. Lorimier is a co-founder of Avalon and has served as a member of the Board of Directors since December 1999.
Financial Results
No revenues were reported for the third quarter of 2007, compared to $1.1 million in the third quarter of 2006. Revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2007 were $0.8 million, compared with $2.1 million in the first nine months of 2006. Revenues in 2007 were from collaboration with Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. Revenues in 2006 were from collaborations with Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, MedImmune and the University of Louisville.
Total costs and expenses from operations were $5.7 million in the third quarter of 2007, an increase of $0.6 million compared with the $5.1 million reported for the third quarter of 2006. Total costs and expenses were $18.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2007, compared with $15.6 million in the comparable period of 2006. The increases in 2007 were principally due to clinical trial costs related to AVN944, compensation expenses, consulting costs and laboratory supplies expenses.
Net loss was $5.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2007 compared with $3.7 million in the comparable three months of 2006. For the first nine months of 2007, net loss was $16.6 million, compared with $12.7 million in the first nine months of 2006. Lower revenues and higher costs in the 2007 periods resulted in the higher losses in 2007.
As of September 30, 2007, the company had $33.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. Of that amount, $4.9 million was held in a restricted account to serve as collateral for long-term debt.
surf's up......crikey
