Aeglea Bio Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:AGLE), a Texas based development stage biotech company, just gave us an update regarding its intentions to report (present) data at an upcoming conference.
The data, which relates to its early stage oncology candidate AEB1102, will hit press as part of a scientific poster session at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). The meeting is scheduled for April 16th to April 20th in New Orleans, and Aeglea’s slot is 8am on April 18.
Why is this important? Well, the company hit markets with a pretty weak IPO earlier this month, and a small spike aside, has struggled to gain any real momentum ahead of its pipeline updates. It’s current market capitalization sits at juts shy of $100 million, and all of its candidates (including the one it will present at the conference come April 18) are preclinical or phase I.
This means that in order to advance its pipeline anywhere close to commercialization, it’s going to have to raise funds going forward. We don’t know its cash balance as things stand, in light of its recent offering, but that any future raise will be dilutive for shareholders that get in at this stage is almost certain.
This being said, if the company strikes lucky with its ongoing phase I for AEB1102, there’s every chance it will break the $250 million mark and start to draw attention from the mid tier echelons of capital inflow. Its candidates all focus on what could prove a breakthrough wave of therapy in oncology across the next decade – engineered human arginases – and as the space heats up, chances are the early players will garner attention.
What to watch out for? Keep an eye on the presentation data. It’s very eraly days, so its unlikely we’ll see much efficacy focus, but pharmacokinetics and safety/tolerability are important indications of the path forward.
One to keep an eye on.
At last trade, Aeglea closed for $8.49 a share.
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