Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DRNA) posted operational and financial report for the first quarter closed March 31, 2017. Net loss came at $14.2 million against net loss of $15.7 million for the comparable quarter in 2016.
The updates
Earlier in March, Dicerna finalized a stock purchase deal with a syndicate of new and current investors, for the sale of 700,000 shares of Preferred Stock at a buy price of $100 per share, for gross proceeds of $70 million. Participants in the financing comprise Cormorant Asset Management, EcoR1 Capital, Domain Associates and RA Capital and Skyline Ventures. The Preferred Stock can be converted into common shares at a price of $3.19 per share.
Douglas Fambrough, Ph.D., the CEO and President of Dicerna, reported that while continuing to focus on R&D activities during Q1 2017, they reported a major convertible preferred stock financing worth $70.0 million, which subsequently was closed in April.
The financing, directed by Bain Capital Life Sciences together with a syndicate of new and current investors, provides an additional level of substantiation to the potential of company’s proprietary GalXC™ RNAi know-how platform.
Besides, the funds together with cash on-hand, provide Dicerna with the necessary resources to follow their reported plan, which comprises pursuing the advancement of their core therapeutic plans. Specifically, as they look forward and into 2019, they project to be able to develop their first three development plans, including DCR-PHXC and DCR-HBV, into proof of concept trials, while advancing DCR-PCSK9 toward official preclinical development, leading in numerous value-creating inflection points.
The CEO of Dicerna added that in the nearer term, he looks forward to showcasing new preclinical report for DCR-PHXC in this year and to company’s projected Investigational New Drug or Clinical Trial Application filing at the close of 2017.
In the last trading session, the stock price of Dicerna jumped more than 2% to close at $3.15.