Windtree Therapeutics’ roots may have received some urgently needed financial watering last month thanks to a private placement of its stock, but the biotech still doesn’t have enough money to keep its pipeline of cardiovascular meds in health for more than a year.
The company kicked off 2024 with a search for strategic alternatives that could have stretched to a potential acquisition, merger, company sale or other transaction.
While there have been no updates on the M&A front—beyond acquiring a protein kinase C iota inhibitor from Varian Biopharmaceuticals in April—Windtree did have some good news in July when it brought in $12.9 million via a combination of new funding and canceling outstanding senior notes and series B preferred shares.
Still, with a net loss of $12 million in the second quarter and just $1.8 million to hand in cash and equivalents as of the end of June, the company admitted that it doesn’t have enough money “to support our operations for at least the 12 months following the date that the financial statements are issued.”
“These conditions raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern,” Windtree said in a second-quarter earnings release.
Despite these financial anxieties, for now the biotech is still steaming ahead with its lead asset istaroxime. After being shown to help raise blood pressure in a phase 2 trial that read out in April 2022, Windtree continued the steroidal drug in an extension study that is set to read out top-line data in the third quarter.
Lee’s Pharmaceutical, which secured the China and Asia-Pacific rights in January, is also planning a phase 3 trial of istaroxime in acute heart failure.
“With trial execution and active operations comes the need for capital and we successfully completed transactions providing resources for our near-term needs as well as secured an equity line of credit to potentially support future requirements,” Windtree’s CEO Craig Fraser said.
“Looking to the next several months, besides the important data read out on the istaroxime SEISMiC Extension Study, based on available resources, we plan to accelerate enrollments in the istaroxime SCAI Stage C cardiogenic shock study as well as provide guidance on our strategy and planned activities with our oncology preclinical aPKCi inhibitor assets,” Fraser added.