CAPR - NASDAQ

Good day and welcome to the Capricor Therapeutics' Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. A.J. Bergmann, CFO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Linda. This afternoon's press release provided a summary of our second quarter of 2022 financials on a GAAP basis. You may also refer to our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which we expect to become available shortly and will be accessible on the SEC website, as well as the financial section of the company website. As of June 30th, 2022, the company's cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaled approximately $51.4 million compared to approximately $34.9 million on December 31st, 2021. As Linda mentioned, we believe that based on our current operating plan and financial resources, we expect that our available cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities will be sufficient to cover anticipated expenses and capital requirements into the second quarter of 2024. Turning now to the financials in the first half of 2022, our net cash provided by operating activities was approximately $17.5 million, driven by the $30 million upfront payment from Nippon Shinyaku. For the second quarter of 2022, excluding stock-based compensation expenses, our research and development expense was approximately $4.7 million compared to approximately $3.4 million in Q2 2021. Excluding stock-based compensation, our general and administrative expense was approximately $1.4 million in Q2 2022 and approximately $1.2 million in Q2 2021. Net loss for the first half of 2022 was approximately $14.9 million compared to a net loss of approximately $9.9 million for the first half of 2021. With that, we will now open the line up for questions.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from the line of Joe Pantginis with H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead, your line is now open.

Got it. And my last question, if you don't mind and it's actually kind of important, I think just based on the current biotech environment, which looks like it's starting to bounce back, but cash is king right now. So, being able to have a balance into the second quarter of 2024 speaks volumes. So, I wanted to address one of your comments in the press release and A.J.'s comments about excluding potential strategic uses of this capital, is this something that would look to expand your pipeline externally -- from an external source or further expand an exosome program, or I guess what kind of things could we look at if that would be one of the options you consider?

Yes, Joe, happy to take a little bit of that question. I mean, obviously, we're being judicious with our cash spend. I think we have a nice runway into the second quarter, because we just articulated of 2024. And really what we're prioritizing what our current mission is focused on CAP-1002 for DMD, and the exposome pipeline right now in a preclinical status. So, it's obviously out there, and we're considering all options, but we're going to do our best to effectively manage our burn rate moving forward.

Operator, do we have another question?

Hello.

Hi, Alan.

[Operator Instructions]

Hello.

Yes. Go ahead Alan. It's open.