Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DRNA) issued operational and financial updates for the first quarter completed March 2017. Net loss was $14.2 million versus net loss of $15.7 million for the equivalent quarter in 2016.
The performance
Earlier in March, Dicerna closed a stock buy deal with a group of new and current shareholders, for the sale of as many as 700,000 equity of Preferred Stock at a price of $100/share, amounting to gross proceeds of $70 million. Partakers in the financing constituted Cormorant Asset Management, Domain Associates, RA Capital, Skyline Ventures and EcoR1 Capital. The firm management mentioned that preferred stock were exchangeable into shares at a price of $3.19/share.
Douglas Fambrough, Ph.D., who is the President and CEO of Dicerna, posted that while continuing to emphasis on R&D plans during Q1 2017, they posted a convertible preferred stock financing of $70 million, which was completed in April.
The deal, directed by Bain Capital Life Sciences in association with a group of new and current shareholders, gives an additional level of corroboration to the potential of firm’s proprietary GalXC™ RNAi technology.
Besides, the combined funds provide Dicerna with the resources to execute reported plan, which constitutes pursuing the advancement of key therapeutic plans. Particularly, as it looks to imminent years, they predict to be able to implement its first three progress plans, including plan of DCR-PHXC and DCR-HBV, into POC trials, while taking DCR-PCSK9 into preclinical development, leading in value-creating inflection points.
Dicerna CEO mentioned that in the nearer term, they look forward to showcasing fresh preclinical data for DCR-PHXC and to firm’s projected IND or Clinical Trial Application submission by the close of 2017.
On Thursday, the shares of Dicerna recorded a flat trading session only to close at $3.30. The price range, low to high, in the last 52-weeks stands at 2.42 – 6.10.