Aprea Therapeutics Inc. (APRE) stock declined by 2.81% at the last trading close whereas the APRE stock price surges by 9.3% in the pre-market trading. As of now, there is no recent news available regarding this rise in APRE stock during the pre-market session. APRE is focused on the development and commercialization of novel cancer therapeutics that reactivate mutant p53, a tumor suppressor protein. Eprenetapopt (APR-246), a small molecule in clinical trials for hematologic malignancies such as myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia, is the company’s lead product candidate.
Recent Past Developments
APRE has recently released its financial results 2020 and business highlights. Given below is the summary:
- For the quarter ended December 31, 2020, R&D expenditures of APRE were $9.3 million, compared to $8.0 million for the same duration in 2019. The rise in R&D expenses was largely due to the Company’s lead product candidate, eprenetapopt, continuing to be developed.
- For the quarter ended December 31, 2020, G&A expenditures of APRE were $4.9 million, compared to $3.9 million for the same time in 2019. Boosts in non-cash stock-based compensation, insurance expense, and commercial production expense accounted for the majority of the rise in G&A expenses.
- The net loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2020, was $15.4 million, or $0.73 per share, compared to a net loss of $13.1 million, or $0.64 per share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2019. As of December 31, 2020, the Company had 21,186,827 shares of common stock outstanding.
- APRE had $89.0 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of December 2020, relative to $130.1 million at the end of December 2019. APRE anticipates a cash burn of $30.0 million to $35.0 million for the full year of 2021. APRE expects that as of December 31, 2020, its cash and cash equivalents will be adequate to meet its current estimated operating requirements into 2023.
Business Updates
Given below are few of the important business related updates:
APRE disclosed in December 2020 that its pivotal Phase 3 randomized, clinical experiment evaluating eprenetapopt with azacitidine as proactive treatment in HMA-naive TP53 mutant myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients had failed to reach its predefined primary endpoint of full remission (CR). At this data cut, the experimental arm receiving eprenetapopt with azacitidine had a 53 percent higher rate of patients achieving a CR than the control arm receiving azacitidine alone, but the difference was not statistically significant. APRE is currently analyzing the results of this Phase 3 clinical trial and plans to release more details in the second quarter of 2021.
In a singular, open-label Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating eprenetapopt with azacitidine as post-transplant maintenance therapy in TP53 mutant MDS and AML patients who have undergone an allogeneic stem cell transplant, the group has done enrollment of 33 patients. Early findings from the primary endpoint of relapse-free survival at 12 months are expected in the second quarter of 2021, according to APRE.
