News Release

Press Release

NuCana Reports Financial Results for the Year Ended December 31, 2017

Mar 21, 2018

EDINBURGH, United Kingdom, March 21, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NuCana plc (NASDAQ:NCNA) announced financial results for the year ended December 31, 2017 and provided an update on its extensive clinical program with its transformative ProTide therapeutics. 

As of December 31, 2017, NuCana had cash and cash equivalents of £86.7 million compared to £20.0 million as of December 31, 2016.  The increase in cash reflects the net proceeds raised from NuCana’s initial public offering completed in October 2017.  NuCana reported a loss of £23.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2017, compared to £6.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2016. Basic and diluted loss per share was £0.89 in 2017, compared to £0.25 per share in 2016.

“2017 was a year of rapid expansion for NuCana and our successful IPO has provided us with the financial resources to swiftly advance our pipeline of proprietary ProTides,” said Hugh S. Griffith, NuCana’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer.  “As we continue to build on our strong platform through 2018, we anticipate reporting interim data from our PRO-105 study of Acelarin in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, further data from the ABC-08 study of Acelarin in biliary cancer, and additional data in various solid tumors from our second ProTide, NUC-3373.  We also look forward to advancing our third ProTide, NUC-7738, into the clinic.  With such an extensive and varied range of clinical studies we believe there are exciting prospects for NuCana over the coming year.”

About NuCana plc

NuCana® is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on significantly improving treatment outcomes for cancer patients by applying our ProTide™ technology to transform some of the most widely prescribed chemotherapy agents, nucleoside analogs, into more effective and safer medicines.  While these conventional agents remain part of the standard of care for the treatment of many solid tumors, their efficacy is limited by cancer cell resistance mechanisms and they are often poorly tolerated. Utilizing our proprietary technology, we are developing new medicines, ProTides, designed to overcome key cancer resistance mechanisms and generate much higher concentrations of anti-cancer metabolites in cancer cells.

Our most advanced ProTide candidates, Acelarin® and NUC-3373, are new chemical entities derived from the nucleoside analogs gemcitabine and 5-fluorouracil, respectively, two widely used chemotherapy agents.  Acelarin is currently being evaluated in three clinical studies, including a phase 2 study for patients with ovarian cancer, a phase 1b study for patients with biliary tract cancer and a Phase 3 study for patients with pancreatic cancer. NUC-3373 is currently in a Phase 1 study for the potential treatment of a wide range of advanced solid tumors.

For more information, please visit: www.nucana.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain “forward‐looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on the beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management of NuCana plc (the “Company”). All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, including statements concerning the initiation, timing, progress and results of clinical studies of the Company’s product candidates. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.  These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of our prospectus filed pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4) under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, on September 29, 2017, and subsequent reports that we file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F.  Forward-looking statements represent the Company’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward‐looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release to conform any of the forward-looking statements to actual results or to changes in its expectations.

             
Consolidated Statements of Operations            
Year ended December 31,            
             
  2017   2016   2015  
                          (in thousands, except per share data)
  £   £   £  
Research and development expenses (17,673 ) (7,904 ) (5,655 )
Administrative expenses (4,573 ) (1,143 ) (1,251 )
Initial public offering related expenses (1,794 ) -   -  
Net foreign exchange (losses) gains (1,654 ) 599   (8 )
Operating loss (25,694 ) (8,448 ) (6,914 )
Finance income 208   283   406  
Loss before tax (25,486 ) (8,165 ) (6,508 )
Income tax credit 2,401   2,116   1,176  
Loss for the year (23,085 ) (6,049 ) (5,332 )
             
       
Basic and diluted loss per share (0.89 ) (0.25 ) (0.22 )

 

         
Consolidated Statements of Financial Position        
at December 31,         
         
  2017   2016  
                 (in thousands)
  £   £  
Assets    
Non-current assets    
Intangible assets 1,938   1,377  
Property, plant and equipment 358   18  
Deferred tax asset 81   -  
  2,377   1,395  
Current assets    
Prepayments, accrued income and other receivables 3,050   3,634  
Current income tax receivable 4,225   2,195  
Cash and cash equivalents 86,703   19,990  
  93,978   25,819  
     
Total assets 96,355   27,214  
     
Equity and liabilities    
Capital and reserves    
Share capital and share premium 80,508   43,433  
Other reserves 58,071   4,064  
Accumulated deficit (45,159 ) (22,256 )
Total equity attributable to equity holders   93,420   25,241  
     
Non-current liabilities    
Provisions 18   -  
     
     
Current liabilities    
Trade payables 1,120   728  
Payroll taxes and social security 157   61  
Accrued expenditure 1,640   1,184  
  2,917   1,973  
     
Total liabilities 2,935   1,973  
     
Total equity and liabilities 96,355   27,214  

 

               
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows              
for the year ended December 31,              
               
    2017   2016   2015  
                (in thousands)
    £   £   £  
Cash flows from operating activities        
Loss for the year   (23,085 ) (6,049 ) (5,332 )
Adjustments for:        
Income tax credit   (2,401 ) (2,116 ) (1,176 )
Amortization and depreciation   194   101   44  
Finance income   (208 ) (283 ) (406 )
Share-based payments   11,731   1,132   785  
Initial public offering (IPO) related expenses   1,794   -   -  
Net foreign exchange losses   1,584   -   -  
    (10,391 ) (7,215 ) (6,085 )
Movements in working capital:        
Decrease (increase) in prepayments, accrued income and other receivables   458   (3,404 ) 36  
Increase in trade payables   392   220   133  
Increase in payroll taxes, social security and accrued expenditure   551   33   418  
Movements in working capital   1,401   (3,151 ) 587  
Cash used in operations   (8,990 ) (10,366 ) (5,498 )
Corporation tax   282   1,102   1,031  
Net cash used in operating activities   (8,708 ) (9,264 ) (4,467 )
Cash flows from investing activities        
Interest received   162   410   290  
Payments for office and computer equipment   (370 ) (15 ) (6 )
Payments for intangible assets   (725 ) (539 ) (390 )
Proceeds from (investment in) short-term deposits   -   15,075   (75 )
Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities   (933 ) 14,931   (181 )
Cash flows from financing activities        
Proceeds from issue of share capital   79,834   -   -  
IPO related expenses from issue of share capital – included in share premium   (413 ) -   -  
IPO related expenses included in statement of operations   (1,794 ) -   -  
Proceeds from issue of share capital - exercise of share options   120   200   -  
Net cash from financing activities   77,747   200   -  
Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents   68,106   5,867   (4,648 )
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year   19,990   14,112   18,761  
Foreign currency translation differences   (1,393 ) 11   (1 )
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year   86,703   19,990   14,112  
               

For more information, please contact:

NuCana plc
Hugh S. Griffith
Chief Executive Officer
+44 131 357 1111
info@nucana.com

Westwicke Partners
Chris Brinzey
+1 339-970-2843
Chris.brinzey@westwicke.com

RooneyPartners
Marion Janic
+1 212-223-4017
mjanic@rooneyco.com

 

 

Source: NuCana plc