Jennifer McNealey - Senior Director, Investor Relations Susan Molineaux - Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer William Waddill - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Analysts:.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Calithera Biosciences Fourth Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call maybe recorded.

I would now like to introduce your host for today’s conference, Ms. Jennifer McNealey, Senior Director, Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin..

Good morning, everyone and welcome to Calithera’s fourth quarter and year end 2015 conference call. Joining me today are Susan Molineaux, our Founder, President and CEO; and Will Waddill, our Senior Vice President and CFO.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's discussion will include statements about the company's future expectations, plans, and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including those discussed in the Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which we plan to file with the SEC before the market opens today.

In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so even if our views change.

Please note that this call is being recorded. With that, I will turn the call over to Susan..

for CB-839 additional preclinical data will be presented at the AACR meeting in April. We are continuing to enroll patients in our CB-839 combination expansion cohorts. We are initiating the checkpoint inhibitor combination trial and the investigator sponsor trial in colorectal cancer. And we will present combination therapy data in mid 2016.

For CB-1158 we plan to present additional preclinical data at the AACR meeting in April and file our IND for arginase inhibitor in the first half of 2016. With that, I’ll pass it over to Will for an update on our financials..

Thank you, Susan and good morning everyone. Calithera finished 2015 in a well capitalized position which we believe enabled us to drive our wholly-owned first-in-class programs to meaningful valuation and flexion points in 2016 and beyond.

That’s why our financials cash, cash equivalents and investments totaled $71.9 million at December 31, 2015 compared with $102 million at December 31, 2014. Research and development expenses for full year 2015 were $23.7 million compared with $16.4 million in the prior year.

The increase of $7.4 million in 2015 primarily attributed to higher expenses associated with the company’s arginase inhibitor program including the selection of 1158 and its advancement through preclinical development and continued enrollment of CB-839, the company’s first-in-class glutaminase inhibitor in Phase 1 clinical trials.

Research and development expenses for the fourth quarter 2015 were $5.8 million compared to $5 million for the same period last year. General and administrative expenses for the full year 2015 were $9.1 million compared to $5.4 million for the prior year.

The increase of $3.7 million in 2015 was primarily due to higher employment related expenses including stock-based compensation expense and professional service fees related to Calithera’s cost associated with operating as a public traded company.

General and administrative expenses for the fourth quarter of 2015 were $2.3 million compared to $1.9 million for the same period last year. Loss from operations for the three months and year end December 31, 2015 were $8.1 million and $32.6 million respectively.

As for our financial guidance for 2016, Calithera expects cash, cash equivalents and investments to be at least $35 million at the end of 2016 exclusive of any funds arriving from new collaborations, partnerships, equity financing or other new sources of funds arising from any additional equity financing, collaborations or other new sources of capital.

And with that I will turn it back over to Susan..

Thank you, Will. And with that, operator, we are happy to open the line for questions..

A -.

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And I am showing no further questions at this time..

Once again, thank you all for joining the call today and in closing we look forward to seeing you at AACR and ASCO as well as at investor conferences. Thank you and have a good day..

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day..