Altimmune Inc. (NASDAQ: ALT) reported its earnings results
for fiscal-year 2019. Revenues totaled $5.8 million compared to $10.3 million
last year. The drop in revenues was caused by lower billings under the US government
contracts.
Net loss attributed to common
stockholders for the year was $20.97
million, or $1.60 per share, versus $42.48
million, or $15.16 per share, last
year. Last year’s results were impacted by an impairment charge of $24.9
million.
Analysts had projected a loss of $1.52 per share on revenue
of $5.9 million for the year. Shares were down 6.4% in premarket hours on
Friday.
R&D expenses decreased to
$17.8 million from $18.5
million last year due to lower manufacturing and clinical trial
costs on existing programs.
Altimmune announced that it
has begun developing AdCOVID, an intranasal vaccine candidate for protection
from COVID-19. The company said its vaccine candidate is capable of remaining
stable under room temperature thus avoiding the need for cold chain shipping.
This makes distribution easier among communities.
The company plans to begin
animal testing in the second quarter of 2020 and is working to push the
candidate towards a Phase 1 clinical trial as early as the third quarter of
this year.
In 2019, Altimmune acquired Spitfire
Pharma, Inc. including the product candidate ALT-801 indicated for
the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The company expects
to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial in 2020.
Altimmune also received $3.7
million in additional funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research
and Development Authority (BARDA).
This funding will support the Phase 1b clinical
trial of NasoShield this year to evaluate alternative methods of intranasal
dosing in humans.
At December
31, 2019, the company had cash, cash equivalents and short-term
investments of $37.3
million.
Altimmune’s stock has gained 80% over the past three months
and 10% over the past week.