
Merus Announces Financial Results For The Second Quarter 2024 And Provides Business Update
MERUS N.V. | |||||||
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS | |||||||
(UNAUDITED) | |||||||
(Amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) | |||||||
June 30, 2024 | December 31, 2023 | ||||||
ASSETS | |||||||
Current assets: | |||||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 629,475 | $ | 204,246 | |||
Marketable securities | 157,948 | 150,130 | |||||
Accounts receivable | 1,842 | 2,429 | |||||
Prepaid expenses and other current assets | 17,288 | 12,009 | |||||
Total current assets | 806,553 | 368,814 | |||||
Marketable securities | 58,961 | 57,312 | |||||
Property and equipment, net | 12,090 | 12,135 | |||||
Operating lease right-of-use assets | 10,291 | 11,362 | |||||
Intangible assets, net | 1,658 | 1,800 | |||||
Deferred tax assets | 543 | 1,199 | |||||
Other assets | 2,132 | 2,872 | |||||
Total assets | $ | 892,228 | $ | 455,494 | |||
LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY | |||||||
Current liabilities: | |||||||
Accounts payable | $ | 4,395 | $ | 4,602 | |||
Accrued expenses and other liabilities | 40,826 | 38,482 | |||||
Income taxes payable | 1,605 | 1,646 | |||||
Current portion of lease obligation | 1,688 | 1,674 | |||||
Current portion of deferred revenue | 32,350 | 22,685 | |||||
Total current liabilities | 80,864 | 69,089 | |||||
Lease obligation | 9,332 | 10,488 | |||||
Deferred revenue, net of current portion | 55,260 | 19,574 | |||||
Total liabilities | 145,456 | 99,151 | |||||
Commitments and contingencies - Note 6 | |||||||
Shareholders' equity: | |||||||
Common shares, €0.09 par value; 105,000,000 shares authorized at June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023; 67,852,920 and 57,825,879 shares issued and outstanding as at June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively | 6,863 | 5,883 | |||||
Additional paid-in capital | 1,616,367 | 1,126,054 | |||||
Accumulated other comprehensive income | (38,899 | ) | (22,533 | ) | |||
Accumulated deficit | (837,559 | ) | (753,061 | ) | |||
Total shareholders' equity | 746,772 | 356,343 | |||||
Total liabilities and shareholders' equity | $ | 892,228 | $ | 455,494 | |||
MERUS N.V. | |||||||||||||||
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS | |||||||||||||||
(UNAUDITED) | |||||||||||||||
(Amounts in thousands, except share and per share data) | |||||||||||||||
Three Months Ended June 30, | Six Months Ended June 30, | ||||||||||||||
2024 | 2023 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||||
Collaboration revenue | $ | 7,332 | $ | 10,476 | $ | 15,221 | $ | 23,975 | |||||||
Total revenue | 7,332 | 10,476 | 15,221 | 23,975 | |||||||||||
Operating expenses: | |||||||||||||||
Research and development | 49,119 | 28,298 | 87,703 | 63,163 | |||||||||||
General and administrative | 22,587 | 16,063 | 38,701 | 31,449 | |||||||||||
Total operating expenses | 71,706 | 44,361 | 126,404 | 94,612 | |||||||||||
Operating loss | (64,374 | ) | (33,885 | ) | (111,183 | ) | (70,637 | ) | |||||||
Other income, net: | |||||||||||||||
Interest income, net | 7,130 | 2,795 | 12,047 | 4,790 | |||||||||||
Foreign exchange gains (loss) | 9,519 | 551 | 18,053 | (4,890 | ) | ||||||||||
Total other income (loss), net | 16,649 | 3,346 | 30,100 | (100 | ) | ||||||||||
Net loss before income taxes | (47,725 | ) | (30,539 | ) | (81,083 | ) | (70,737 | ) | |||||||
Income tax expense | 2,317 | 1,494 | 3,415 | 1,037 | |||||||||||
Net loss | $ | (50,042 | ) | $ | (32,033 | ) | $ | (84,498 | ) | $ | (71,774 | ) | |||
Other comprehensive loss: | |||||||||||||||
Currency translation adjustment | (8,978 | ) | (505 | ) | (16,366 | ) | 3,737 | ||||||||
Comprehensive loss | $ | (59,020 | ) | $ | (32,538 | ) | $ | (100,864 | ) | $ | (68,037 | ) | |||
Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders: | |||||||||||||||
Basic and diluted | $ | (0.81 | ) | $ | (0.66 | ) | $ | (1.41 | ) | $ | (1.52 | ) | |||
Weighted-average common shares outstanding: | |||||||||||||||
Basic and diluted | 61,851,260 | 48,321,708 | 59,968,338 | 47,328,259 | |||||||||||
About Merus N.V.
Merus is a clinical-stage oncology company developing innovative full-length human bispecific and trispecific antibody therapeutics, referred to as Multiclonics® . Multiclonics® are manufactured using industry standard processes and have been observed in preclinical and clinical studies to have several of the same features of conventional human monoclonal antibodies, such as long half-life and low immunogenicity. For additional information, please visit Merus' website , and LinkedIn .
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation, statements regarding the content and timing of clinical trials, data readouts and clinical, regulatory, strategy and development updates for our product candidates; our ability to successfully advance Zeno through the regulatory, BLA review and potential commercialization processes; our planned initiation of LiGeR-HN1 by year-end, our planned update by late 4Q 2024 on the HNSCC 2L+ dose cohort and patients previously reported at AACR2023; the potential of petosetmamab for best in class efficacy with a favorable safety profile in both 1L and 2L+ HNSCC; the potential opportunity of petosemtamab being investigated in 2L mCRC in combination with FOLFIRI; our belief that we are well positioned for our ambitious phase 3 trial plans for petosemtamab in HNSCC and beyond; the potential future benefit if any for the receipt of BTD for petosemtamab for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic HNSCC whose disease has progressed following treatment with platinum based chemotherapy and an anti-programmed cell death receptor-1 (PD-1) or anti-programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody; our belief that a randomized registration trial in HNSCC with an overall response rate endpoint could potentially support accelerated approval and the overall survival results from the same study could potentially verify its clinical benefit to support regular approval; our belief that obtaining a commercialization partnership agreement is an important step in bringing Zeno to patients with NRG1+ cancer, if approved; statements regarding the sufficiency of our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, and expectation that it will fund the Company into 2028; the continued investigation of MCLA-145 in combination with pembrolizumab; the advancement of the phase 1/2 trial for MCLA-129 in the dose expansion phase, in monotherapy in Met ex14 NSCLC, and MCLA-129 in combination with chemotherapy in 2L+ EGFRm NSCLC; the benefits of the collaborations between Incyte and Merus, Lilly and Merus, Gilead and Merus, and the potential of those collaboration for future value generation, including whether and when Merus will receive any future payment under the collaborations, including milestones or royalties, and the amounts of such payments; whether any programs under the collaboration will be successful; and our collaboration and license agreement with Betta, which permits Betta to develop MCLA-129 and potentially commercialize exclusively in China, while Merus retains full ex-China rights, including any future clinical development by Betta of MCLA-129. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: our need for additional funding, which may not be available and which may require us to restrict our operations or require us to relinquish rights to our technologies or antibody candidates; potential delays in regulatory approval, which would impact our ability to commercialize our product candidates and affect our ability to generate revenue; the lengthy and expensive process of clinical drug development, which has an uncertain outcome; the unpredictable nature of our early stage development efforts for marketable drugs; potential delays in enrollment of patients, which could affect the receipt of necessary regulatory approvals; our reliance on third parties to conduct our clinical trials and the potential for those third parties to not perform satisfactorily; impacts of the volatility in the global economy, including global instability, including the ongoing conflicts in Europe and the Middle East; we may not identify suitable Biclonics® or bispecific antibody candidates under our collaborations or our collaborators may fail to perform adequately under our collaborations; our reliance on third parties to manufacture our product candidates, which may delay, prevent or impair our development and commercialization efforts; protection of our proprietary technology; our patents may be found invalid, unenforceable, circumvented by competitors and our patent applications may be found not to comply with the rules and regulations of patentability; we may fail to prevail in potential lawsuits for infringement of third-party intellectual property; and our registered or unregistered trademarks or trade names may be challenged, infringed, circumvented or declared generic or determined to be infringing on other marks.
These and other important factors discussed under the caption“Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2024, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on August 1, 2024, and our other reports filed with the SEC, could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management's estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change, except as required under applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.
Multiclonics®, Biclonics® and Triclonics® are registered trademarks of Merus N.V.
CONTACT: Investor and Media Inquiries: Sherri Spear Merus N.V. VP Investor Relations and Corporate Communications 617-821-3246 ... Kathleen Farren Merus N.V. Investor Relations and Corporate Communications 617-230-4165 ...

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