Liminal BioSciences Reports Q1 2022 - Bagel, Nada, Crapola Liminal BioSciences Reports First Quarter 2022 Financial Results and Business Highlights
- Planned Phase 1a Single Ascending Dose ("SAD") clinical trial of fezagepras expected to commence in Q2 2022
- Completion of analysis of safety and pharmacokinetic ("PK") data from Phase 1 Multiple Ascending Dose ("MAD") clinical trial of fezagepras
- Repayment in full of the $39.1M secured loans and release of security on the Company's assets
- Net loss of $11.2 million during the quarter ended March 31, 2022 compared to $20.8 million during the quarter ended March 31, 2021
LAVAL, QC and CAMBRIDGE, England, May 10, 2022 /CNW/ - Liminal BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ: LMNL) ("Liminal BioSciences" or the "Company"), today reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.
"We have already made significant progress in the first quarter of 2022 having eliminated the Company's debt and refined our data-driven development plan for our pipeline," stated Bruce Pritchard, Chief Executive Officer of Liminal BioSciences. "We look forward to providing more information on the outcome of the planned Phase 1a SAD clinical trial of fezagepras designed as a head-to-head comparison with sodium phenylbutyrate, in the third quarter of 2022. In addition, we have also made significant progress in the identification of high potency, small molecule antagonists of GPR84, including potential selective candidates for development from different structural classes to those GPR84 antagonists for which data has already been published. We expect to continue building on this momentum for the remainder of 2022. We will also continue to seek opportunities to streamline our corporate structure and monetize non-core assets as we work to deliver on our objective to build value for our shareholders."
First Quarter 2022 Financial Results
All figures presented in this section are in Canadian dollars.
- Cash was $61.2 million at March 31, 2022 while our working capital, i.e., the current assets net of current liabilities, was $42.7 million. During the first quarter of 2022, we repaid our secured loans for an aggregate amount of $39.1 million, thereby terminating the consolidated loan agreement with Structure Alpha LP ("SALP"), releasing the security granted in favor of SALP over the Company's assets, including intellectual property, cancelling the warrants issued pursuant to the restructuring agreement and terminating the royalty stream agreement entered into between us and SALP.
- Research and development expenses were $4.4 million for the first quarter of 2022 compared to $4.9 million for the first quarter of 2021. The decrease in R&D expenses is mainly due to a decrease in third party clinical trial expense of $1.3 million which was partially offset by an increase in third party preclinical studies costs of $0.3 million, the absence of government grant credits recorded in the current period compared to $0.4 million in the comparative period and the recognition of an expense related to an upfront payment made under a royalty stream agreement of $0.4 million.
- Administration expenses were $4.9 million for the first quarter of 2022 compared to $8.1 million for the first quarter of 2021, representing a decrease of 40%. The decrease in administration expenses is primarily due to a decrease of $2.5 million in expense as a result of reduced directors' and officers' insurance premiums resulting from the change in the Company's registered office from Quebec to Ontario in the later part of 2021 and a reduction in share-based payment expense of $0.6 million.
- Net loss from continuing operations, net of taxes was $11.4 million for the first quarter of 2022 compared to $14.0 million for the first quarter of 2021. The decrease in loss was mainly due to the reduction in administration expenses.
- Total Income (Loss) from discontinued operations was an income of $0.2 million for the first quarter of 2022 compared to a loss of $6.8 million in the first quarter of 2021. This decrease was mainly due to the fact that we had the full quarter impact of operations of the plasma-derived therapeutics segment during the quarter ended March 31, 2021, where during the quarter ended March 31, 2022, our discontinued operations income or losses were mainly affected by changes in the contract and development manufacturing organization lease liability and provision, remnants of the plasma-derived therapeutic segment, caused by increases in the inflation rate and variations in the discount rate.
- Net loss was a loss of $11.2 million for the first quarter of 2022 compared to a loss of $20.8 million for the first quarter of 2021.