Adagene declares full year 2021 financial results, corporate updates

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 (Bernama) -- Adagene Inc (Adagene), a company transforming the discovery and development of novel antibody-based therapies, reported financial results for the full-year ended Dec 31, 2021, and provided corporate updates.

“We are committed to delivering on our promise to transform cancer immunotherapy, concentrating on overcoming the known safety issues linked to promising yet challenging targets,” said Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Adagene, Peter Luo, Ph.D.

“On the clinical front, we are focused on revitalising anti-CTLA-4 as a safe and efficacious backbone therapy, which remains a huge market opportunity and the only checkpoint inhibitor approved as both monotherapy and combination therapy with anti-PD-1.”

During 2021, Adagene advanced its wholly-owned, differentiated pipeline of antibody-based therapeutics, including three clinical programmes in single and combination phase 1b/2 trials, five programmes in IND-enabling studies and over 50 more across stages of discovery.

According to a statement, the company continues to expand its preclinical pipeline by applying its three-body technology platforms - NEObody, SAFEbody and POWERbody - across modalities.

New POWERbody candidates are designed to unleash the efficacy of a therapeutic through Fc-engineering, drug conjugation, or T-cell engagement, while securing safety by precision masking with SAFEbody technology. Thus, POWERbody candidates incorporate SAFEbody precision masking technology.

For collaborations, Adagene established an exclusive technology licensing agreement with Sanofi in March 2022 to generate novel masked monoclonal and bispecific candidate antibodies, with a potential transaction value of US$2.5 billion. (US$1 = RM4.210)

It also finalised clinical trial collaboration and supply agreements with Merck to evaluate pembrolizumab in combination therapy with all three wholly-owned clinical candidates.

Adagene has previously provided its outlook for 2022, including planned advancement of both its clinical product candidates and preclinical portfolio.

The company recently achieved its goal to complete a major collaboration following the Sanofi licensing agreement, and it continues to work towards strategic development collaborations for its pipeline.

Among the full-year 2021 financial highlights include cash and cash equivalents were US$174.4 million as of Dec 31, 2021, compared to US$75.2 million as of Dec 31, 2020; net revenue in 2021 was US$10.2 million compared to US$0.7 million in 2020; and, R&D expenses were US$68.1 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2021, compared to US$33.5 million for the same period in 2020.

More details at https://investor.adagene.com.

-- BERNAMA