VolitionRx Limited (NYSEAMERICAN:VNRX) CEO Cameron Reynolds told shareholders on Tuesday that the epigenetics company is in its “strongest-ever financial position” to support and develop its diagnostic tests.
The company shared full-year 2020 financial results, which showed it had cash and cash equivalents of $19.4 million on December 31, 2020, compared with $17 million at the end of December 2019.
More importantly, after a public offering in February, VolitionRx’s cash and equivalents shot up to $40 million before deducting expenses incurred so far in 2021. During the first quarter of 2021, the firm added nearly $20.5 million in cash mostly through the underwritten public offering.
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In a statement accompanying the numbers, Reynolds said: “Currently we are in our strongest-ever financial position to support the pursuit of our many milestones and look forward to providing updates throughout the year."
"We made significant progress on many fronts throughout 2020, culminating in the launch of our first product, the Nu.Q Vet Cancer Screening Test in the fourth quarter. This was a pivotal moment for Volition, demonstrating that our platform has the reliability and reproducibility to launch in an independent laboratory," he added.
VolitionRx launched the Nu.Q Vet Cancer Screening Test in late November. The company said it is “very happy with the sales progress to date.” It received the first order from the GI lab at Texas A&M University late last year and has already received three additional orders from them in 2021.
“In addition to the Texas beta launch we are finalizing beta launch planning in both Asia and Europe,” the company added.
VolitionRx said it expects to focus on driving revenue in the coming quarters, in four key areas: Nu.Q Vet products, disease monitoring tests - like Nu.Q NETs for coronavirus (COVID-19), sepsis and other diseases, reagent sales, and licensing its technology for others to commercialize in both humans and animals.
"Despite the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic, we kept our laboratory operational throughout the year and completed the fit-out and opening of our new Silver One production facility in Namur, Belgium,” said Reynolds, who aims to continue to advance the company’s large-scale blood, lung and colorectal cancer trials in Europe, Asia and the US.
In addition, VolitionRx has engaged Diagnostic Oncology CRO LLC, the largest US contract research organization specializing in oncology purposed in-vitro diagnostic device clinical trials, to conduct a US regulatory clinical trial for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL).
The company said data suggests Nu.Q technology will help physicians in distinguishing NHL from common conditions, fulfilling “what we believe is a critical unmet clinical need and which represents a major market opportunity.”
VotionRx is also conducting a proof-of-concept study for the monitoring of treatment response for the most aggressive NHL cancer, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The company expects the results from this trial in the first half of 2021.
In other upcoming milestones, the company said it was focused on:
- Publishing several abstracts and peer-reviewed scientific papers with clinical results showing the robustness and utility of the company’s Nu.Q platform;
- Advancing the development of Nu.Q Capture;
- Continuing to file patents to expand and extend the firm’s intellectual property portfolio.
Reynolds pointed out: "We added to our already extensive intellectual property portfolio and at year-end held 64 patents with a further 90 patents pending.”
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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