Audited results for the year ended 31 December 2020 and positive Phase 2b data announced post year-end

Wednesday April 14, 2021

Destiny Pharma plc
(“Destiny Pharma” or “the Company”)

Audited results for the year ended 31 December 2020

Phase 2b XF-73 clinical trial: patient recruitment completed and
positive Phase 2b data announced post year-end 

£10.4M equity raise to acquire NTCD-M3 completed 

Grant supported COVID-19 collaboration announced

Company funded through to Q4 2022

Brighton, United Kingdom – 14th April 2021 – Destiny Pharma plc (AIM: DEST), a clinical stage innovative biotechnology company focused on the development of novel medicines that can prevent life-threatening infections, announces its audited financial results for the year ended 31 December 2020.

Financial and corporate highlights

  • Successful equity fund raise of £10.4 million (gross) to acquire NTCD-M3 for the prevention of Clostridioides difficile (difficile) infection recurrence
  • Strong year end cash position with cash and term deposits of £9.7 million (2019: £7.5 million)
  • Increase in R&D expenditure to £4.5 million (2019: £3.8 million) due to planned clinical development costs associated with XF-73 nasal gel Phase 2b study
  • Cash runway extended to Q4 2022 as a result of equity fund raise and careful management of operational activities

Operational highlights

Phase 2b clinical trial: XF-73 nasal gel for prevention of post-surgical infections

  • Patient recruitment successfully completed in December
  • Positive top-line results reported in March 2021. Primary efficacy endpoint successfully met with an exceptionally high statistical significance and no treatment related safety events
  • In discussion with US FDA with regards study design for Phase 3 clinical study

NTCD-M3 for prevention of C. difficile infection recurrence

  • Acquisition of global rights to NTCD-M3, a Phase 3 ready asset for prevention of difficile infection recurrence completed during Q4 2020
  • Protocol for Phase 3 clinical study agreed with FDA
  • Commencement of key work required to prepare for a Phase 3 clinical study to be ready to start in 2022
  • Professor Dale Gerding, discoverer of NTCD-M3 and world leading expert in difficile infections appointed to the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board
  • Major new contract signed with leading biotherapeutics manufacturing company for production of Phase 3 clinical trial doses

SporeGen COVID-19 collaboration

  • Destiny Pharma and SporeGen Limited announced collaboration and Innovate UK grant award of £800,000 to co-develop a novel, preventative product for COVID-19
  • Expands Destiny Pharma’s novel pipeline targeted at preventing infections with novel biologics/microbiome approach

Earlier pipeline and research projects

  • Research projects with Cardiff, Sheffield, Southampton and Aston Universities making good progress after COVID-19 delays
  • New grant awarded by National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) to fund a second research collaboration with Cardiff University in oral infections
  • Oxford University review supports the unique target profile of XF-73 and its potential to address the threat of anti-microbial resistance (AMR)

Post period highlights

  • Brazilian patent granted for XF-73 nasal gel
  • Agreement with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to evaluate a novel XF-73 formulation in skin wound infections
  • Professor Mark Wilcox, a recognised leader in infection prevention and control and renowned expert in difficile infection, appointed to the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board

Neil Clark, Chief Executive Officer of Destiny Pharma, commented:

“Destiny Pharma has delivered a very strong performance in the last 12 months and we look forward to further progress this year. We have delivered excellent Phase 2b data from our XF-73 nasal gel clinical study for the prevention of post-surgical infections and also expanded our pipeline through the acquisition of NTCD-M3 – a Phase 3 ready project targeting C. difficile gut infections. The Company has also progressed its earlier pipeline and been awarded additional grant funding including a £800,000 grant from Innovate UK to fund our COVID-19 collaboration. We closed a £10.4m equity funding in December to enable the NTCD-M3 acquisition and have a cash runway through to Q4 2022. We remain committed to developing novel products that prevent infections and have a clear clinical need and a substantial commercial opportunity”

Webcast and Conference Call

Destiny Pharma will host a webcast presentation followed by a live Q&A conference call for analysts and investors today, Wednesday 14th April 2021 at 09:30 am BST.

The webcast of the presentation will be available here and available on the Company’s website at https://destinypharma.com/

For details of the Q&A conference call, please contact DestinyPharma@optimumcomms.com

This announcement has been released by Shaun Claydon, CFO, on behalf of the Company.

For further information, please contact: 

Destiny Pharma plc
Neil Clark, CEO
Shaun Claydon, CFO
+44 (0) 1273 704 440
pressoffice@destinypharma.com

Optimum Strategic Communications
Mary Clark, Shabnam Bashir, Manel Mateus
+44 (0) 203 174 1789
destinypharma@optimumcomms.com

finnCap Ltd (Nominated Advisor & Joint Broker)
Geoff Nash / Kate Bannatyne, Corporate Finance
Alice Lane, Corporate Broking
+44 (0) 20 7220 0500

WG Partners (Joint Broker)
Nigel Barnes / Claes Spång / Nigel Birks
+44 (0) 203 705 9330

About Destiny Pharma

Destiny Pharma is a clinical stage, innovative biotechnology company focused on the development of novel medicines that can prevent life-threatening infections. Its pipeline has novel microbiome-based biotherapeutics and XF drug clinical assets including NTCD-M3, a Phase 3 ready treatment for the prevention of C. difficile infection (CDI) recurrence which is the leading cause of hospital acquired infection in the US and also XF-73 nasal gel, which has recently completed a positive Phase 2b clinical trial targeting the prevention of post-surgical staphylococcal hospital infections including MRSA. It is also co-developing SPOR-COV, a novel, biotherapeutic product for the prevention of COVID-19 and other viral respiratory infections and has earlier grant funded XF research projects.

For further information on the company, please visit  https://destinypharma.com

Forward looking statements

Certain information contained in this announcement, including any information as to the Group’s strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance, constitutes “forward-looking statements”. These forward looking statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms “believes”, “estimates”, “anticipates”, “projects”, “expects”, “intends”, “aims”, “plans”, “predicts”, “may”, “will”, “seeks” “could” “targets” “assumes” “positioned” or “should” or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, goals, future events or intentions. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. They appear in a number of places throughout this announcement and include statements regarding the intentions, beliefs or current expectations of the Directors concerning, among other things, the Group’s results of operations, financial condition, prospects, growth, strategies and the industries in which the Group operates. The directors of the company believe that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable, but may be affected by a number of variables which could cause actual results or trends to differ materially. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future or are beyond the Group’s control. Forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Even if the Group’s actual results of operations, financial condition and the development of the industries in which the Group operates are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this document, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods.

The full text of the announcement may be found here.