Immunocore Q1 2024 Financial Results and Business Update

Immunocore Holdings plc, a leading commercial-stage biotechnology company, released its financial results for the first quarter of 2024 and provided a comprehensive business update. The company reported significant progress and milestones in its pipeline of transformative immunomodulating treatments targeting cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders.

During the first quarter of 2024, Immunocore's lead product, KIMMTRAK® (tebentafusp-tebn), achieved net revenues of $70.3 million, a 36% increase compared to the same quarter in 2023. The revenue was primarily driven by sales in the United States, which amounted to $50 million, with additional contributions from Europe and international markets. Since January 2024, KIMMTRAK has been launched in seven more countries, including Australia, Canada, Spain, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, and Lithuania, bringing the total to 17 countries where the drug is available for patients with HLA-A02+ metastatic uveal melanoma (mUM).

Immunocore's CEO, Bahija Jallal, emphasized the company's urgency in bringing KIMMTRAK to more patients and advancing its PRAME ImmTAC therapy, brenetafusp, into registrational trials. Mohammed Dar, Head of Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer, highlighted the selection of brenetafusp melanoma data for oral presentation at the ASCO 2024 meeting and noted the ahead-of-schedule recruitment for the KIMMTRAK registrational trial in late-line cutaneous melanoma, TEBE-AM.

In terms of financial results, Immunocore reported research and development expenses of $57.5 million for the first quarter of 2024, up from $36.6 million in the same period in 2023. This increase was primarily due to expenses related to the PRAME programs and the initiation of a Phase 3 clinical trial. Selling, general, and administrative expenses also rose to $39.3 million from $32.6 million in the previous year, reflecting the expansion of the company's workforce and commercial activities. The net loss for the quarter was $24.4 million, compared to $19.4 million in Q1 2023. The basic and diluted loss per share was $0.49, up from $0.40 in the same period a year earlier.

As of March 31, 2024, Immunocore's cash and cash equivalents stood at $832.8 million, bolstered by net cash proceeds of $390.2 million from a convertible notes offering in February 2024. The company plans to use $50 million of these proceeds to repay its existing loan by the end of the year.

KIMMTRAK remains a standard of care for most markets it has been launched in, and the company sees further growth potential in expanding its use to adjuvant uveal melanoma and advanced cutaneous melanoma. The ongoing Phase 2/3 TEBE-AM trial for KIMMTRAK in late-line cutaneous melanoma is progressing well, and the ATOM Phase 3 trial for adjuvant uveal melanoma is expected to begin randomization in the second half of 2024.

The company is also advancing its PRAME franchise, with brenetafusp (IMC-F106C) undergoing evaluation in combination with nivolumab in a Phase 3 trial (PRISM-MEL-301) for first-line advanced cutaneous melanoma. Data from the Phase 1/2 trial of brenetafusp in late-line cutaneous melanoma has been selected for oral presentation at the ASCO meeting on May 31, 2024. Additionally, the company is developing two new PRAME ImmTAC candidates: IMC-P115C, a half-life extended version of brenetafusp, and IMC-T119C, suitable for people with the HLA-A24 allele.

In the area of infectious diseases, Immunocore is working on ImmTAV candidates for functional cures for HIV and Hepatitis B. Two investigational candidates are currently in Phase 1 trials for these chronic infections. The company is also expanding its platform into autoimmune diseases with two new bispecific candidates targeting tissue-specific immune modulation.

Immunocore aims to provide innovative treatments through its proprietary T cell receptor (TCR) technology, which generates bispecific biologics like ImmTAC and ImmTAV to target cancer and viral infections, respectively. These advancements highlight Immunocore's commitment to leveraging its ImmTAX platform to develop therapies for a broad range of diseases, including cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune conditions.