Spero Therapeutics Inc

NASDAQ:SPRO

Earnings Call Analysis

Revenue up, R&D expenses rise, cash sufficient until late 2025

Spero Therapeutics ended Q2 2024 with $63.5 million in cash. Revenue climbed to $10.2 million from $2.7 million in Q2 2023. This rise was driven by increased collaboration and grant revenues, primarily from agreements with GSK and BARDA. However, R&D expenses surged to $23.7 million from $9.5 million, aimed at advancing key clinical trials. Spero expects its cash, along with milestone payments, to fund operations until late 2025. Additionally, the company anticipates top-line data from its pivotal trials by next year, indicating continued focus on advancing SPR720 and tebipenem HBr【4:0†source】.

Strong Revenue Growth Signals Progress

Spero Therapeutics reported a significant increase in total revenue for the second quarter of 2024, reaching $10.2 million, compared to just $2.7 million in the same period of 2023. This remarkable growth can be attributed mainly to higher collaboration revenues from its partnership with GSK and increased grant revenue associated with its BARDA contract for tebipenem HBr. Despite this positive trend, there were challenges, with decreased revenues under the NIAT agreement linked to SPR206 and lower collaboration revenues with Pfizer.

R&D Expenses Reflect Investment in Clinical Trials

Research and development expenses surged to $23.7 million in Q2 2024, a sharp rise from $9.5 million in Q2 2023. This increase is primarily due to heightened costs related to the pivotal Phase III trial for tebipenem HBr and the Phase IIa clinical trial for SPR720. However, general and administrative expenses decreased slightly to $5.5 million from $6.1 million year-over-year, largely because of reduced personnel-related costs.

Net Loss Indicates Ongoing Investment Phase

The company reported a net loss of $17.9 million, or $0.33 per share, for the second quarter of 2024. This marks an increase in losses compared to $11.9 million, or $0.23 per share, in Q2 2023. While the growing losses may concern some investors, it is important to consider them in the context of the company's significant investments in R&D aimed at advancing its clinical pipeline.

Cash Position and Future Funding

As of the end of Q2 2024, Spero Therapeutics held $63.5 million in cash and equivalents and anticipates three remaining tranches of approximately $24 million each from GSK over the next six months. Furthermore, the company expects its cash reserves, along with other non-dilutive funding commitments, to be sufficient to support its operating expenses and capital needs through late 2025.

Pipeline Developments Indicate Promising Future

Spero's clinical pipeline includes exciting developments with SPR720, aimed at treating non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD). Currently, there are no approved first-line therapies for this condition, which affects an estimated 245,000 patients in major markets. The Phase IIa trial is ongoing, assessing two doses of SPR720, and results are expected in Q4, potentially moving the drug forward to late-stage development. There is also anticipation for data presentation at IDWeek, where resistance data for SPR720 will be highlighted.

Tebipenem HBr Trial on Track for Completion

The PIVOT-PO trial, focusing on tebipenem HBr, continues to make progress toward its target enrollment of approximately 2,648 patients. The trial aims for completion of enrollment in the second half of 2025. The primary efficacy endpoint is a non-inferiority analysis against imipenem-cilastatin, focusing on clinical and microbiological responses. The unique aspect of tebipenem HBr is its potential as the first oral carbapenem treatment for complicated urinary tract infections, addressing a crucial healthcare need.

Leadership Transition and Strategic Guidance

The recent departure of Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kamal Hamed has led to concerns regarding continuity, but the company assures stakeholders that this change will not interfere with its clinical programs. Dr. John Pottage, a seasoned executive with six years on Spero's Board, will oversee clinical development in the interim, providing continuity during the transition. The leadership change could present an opportunity for fresh strategic oversight in advancing the pipeline.

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Operator]

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Spero Therapeutics Second Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that this call is being recorded, and a replay will be available. You can find information on the replay and further information related to today's announcements on the Spero Therapeutics website at www.sperotherapeutic.com.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Shai Biran, Senior Director, Investor Relations. Mr. Biran, please go ahead.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for participating in today's conference call. This afternoon, Spero Therapeutics released financial results and provided a business update for the second quarter of 2024. The press release is available on the Investor page of the Spero Therapeutics website. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that some of the information presented on this conference call contains forward-looking statements under the securities laws. These forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual clinical programs, future results, progress, timing, performances or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties associated with our business and factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are described in detail in the Spero Therapeutics filings with the SEC including in the Risk Factors section of its earnings report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, filed with the SEC today. We also ask that you reference the cautionary statements are forward-looking statements included with the slide presentation accompanying this conference call. Participating in today's call are Sath Shukla, Chief Executive Officer; and Esther Rajavelu, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer. Sath Shukla will begin the discussion. Please go ahead, sir.

[Satyavrat Shukla, executive]

Thank you, Shai. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our conference call today. I am pleased to provide an update on the ongoing progress across our portfolio of clinical stage assets. Before that, I would like to note a change in our executive leadership team with the departure of our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kamal Hamed, on behalf of the Board, management and all of our employees. We thank Dr. Hamed for his many contributions to Spero and wish him every success for the future. We are pleased to announce that Dr. John Pottage a distinguished industry veteran in our field and a member of Spero's Board for the last 6 years, will help oversee and provide strategic guidance for our clinical programs during this transitionary period.

While we continue to search for our next Chief Medical Officer. Moving to our clinical pipeline. Let me begin with SPR720, which we are developing as a first-line oral agent for nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease while NTM-PD. NTM-PD has an estimated patient population of 245,000 patients in the U.S., EU and Japan sent approximately 95,000 of those patients in the U.S. There is currently no approved first-line therapy for these patients. The current guidelines recommend off-label TV drugs, which have a history of lack of efficacy as well as serious tolerability issues. SPR720 has a novel mechanism of action. That is different from other standard of care agents as well as those in development for NTM-PD. Spero has conducted extensive in vitro and in vivo studies which have shown no evidence of cross resistance against marketed antibiotics as well as the low propensity for selection of resistance. We have demonstrated SPR720 to be potent against multiple NTM pathogens.

Overall, we believe the preclinical data supports SPR720's potential for therapeutic benefit. In Q4, we expect to share a comprehensive data set from our ongoing and recently completed clinical studies. This is anticipated to include data from the Phase IIa proof of corn subsidy in treatment-naive and treatment-experienced on refractory patients. We will also report data from 2 supportive Phase I studies in healthy volunteers. One of which assesses SPR720 exposure in lung as monotherapy and the segment of which assesses exposure in plasma when co-administered with standard of care agents azithromycin and ethambutol.the Phase IIa clinical trial compares 2 doses of SPR720, 500 megs and 1,000 megs administered as monotherapy versus placebo in patients with NTM-PD due to [ M avium ] complex, or MAC. We have enrolled a total of 25 patients.

Including both treatment life and treatment experienced patients who do not have treatment refractory disease. It is our hope that the data from this study [indiscernible] SPR720 as a monotherapy can decrease the NTM bacteria load over the treatment course of 56 days to analyze this early bactericidal activity, we are measuring changes in bacterial loads in patients distribution, including the rate of change in long-term colony forming units per millimeter, which is our primary endpoint in this study. We are also looking at the rate of change in time to positivity, which is a key secondary endpoint in the study.

A clear numerical difference in these measures between the [ free-cash ] jobs and placebo could indicate that SPR720 has a potential acetic effect in patients with in NTM-PD. We anticipate that success on these endpoints would also make SBR720 the only oral agent in development that we are aware of to demonstrate early [indiscernible] activity in patients with NTM-PD due to MAT and which enable us to move confidentially into late-stage development. Ultimately, we believe that SPR720 could be used as part of combination treatment regimens and if the ongoing strategy confirms our expectations that the drug has monotherapy activity, we anticipate the future registration-enabling studies to be designed to include standard of care agents.

Complementing the Phase IIa data, as previously mentioned, we will also share data from 2 Phase I studies in healthy volunteers. The first study, you say bronchoalveolar lavage, or BAL to examine intrapulmonary pharmacokinetics of SPR719, the active moiety of the prodrug SPR720. We expect to share PK measures showing the extent of exposures in the lungs, digests, the site of infection. The second strategy evaluates changes in plasma PK when an SPR720 is co-administered with azithromycin and ethambutol [indiscernible] this data to be informative than selecting doses in future combination studies.

Lastly, we recently completed an in vitro resistant study of SPR719 in combination with standard of care agents and anticipate sharing these data at IDWeek in October. The team is excited about this upcoming data readout in Q4. These studies are expected to provide us with a robust data set that we will use to determine the registrational path for SPR720 as first-line oral treatment for NTM-PD.

Turning now to tebipenem HBr. Which we are developing as the first potential oral carbon antibiotic for the treatment of complicated urinary tract infections or cUTI. Enrollment in out our ongoing Phase III global PIVOT-PO trial is on track, and we are pleased with the progress made since the beginning of the year. Our goal remains to complete enrollment in the second half of 2025. Patients are randomized one-to-one in this pivotal Phase III clinical trial to receive tebipenem HBr 600 meg orally every 6 hours or imipenem cilastatin 500 meg intravenously every 6 for a total of 7 to 10 days.

Target enrollment is approximately 2,648 patients. The primary efficacy end point is overall response, which is a composite of clinical and microbiological response and the test of fuel visit. The primary analysis for the trial will be an assessment of noninferiority in the microbiological intent-to-treat population based on a 10% non-CDRT margin. As a reminder, tebipenem HBr is partnered with GSK. We are responsible for the execution of the ongoing Phase III trial, and GSK is responsible for ex U.S. development and worldwide commercialization excluding search and rights in Asian territories held by another partner, [ Mastek ]. [ OTR ] infections are a leading cause of hospitalization in the U.S. The incidence is estimated to be over 3 million cases per year, which translates into a significant version on the health care system. Tebipenem HBr is, to our knowledge, the only oral carbapenem in development. If approved, it could address the need for an oral carbopenem in patients with complicated urinary tract infections caused by multidrug-resistant uropathogens, potentially eliminating the need for hospitalization or reducing length of stay with transition from intravenous to oral carbopenem therapy.

Finally, wrapping up with SPR206 is an innovative, investigational, intravenously administered direct-acting polymyxin partnered with Pfizer for European markets. We announced that in the first quarter of this year, the FDA cleared the IND to advance SPR206 into a Phase II clinical trial in patients with hospital-acquired or ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia and that the FDA also awarded SPR206 fast-track ignition, as a reminder, we plan to initiate a Phase II study contingent on availability of non-value to funding.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Esther to review our quarterly financial results.

[Esther Rajavelu, executive]

Thank you, Sath, and good afternoon to all of you joining us on the call. I'll begin with our cash guidance first and then summarize our GAAP financials. Care ended the second quarter with $63.5 million in cash and equivalents. In addition to the cash on our balance sheet, we anticipate 3 remaining tranches of development milestone payments from GSK in the approximate amount of $24 million every 6 months. As a reminder, upon initiation of the Phase III PIVOT-PO clinical trial, Spero qualified for $95 million in development milestones from GSK, which are payable in 4 equal installments over 2 years. The second tranche of approximately $24 million is payable in the third quarter of this year.

We estimate that our cash and cash equivalents, together with other nondilutive funding commitments, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into late 2025. Now moving on to summarize our GAAP financials. Total revenue for the second quarter of 2024 was $10.2 million compared with total revenue of $2.7 million for the second quarter of 2023. The revenue increased for the second quarter of '24 was primarily due to an increase in collaboration revenue related to our agreement with GSK and an increase in grant revenue related to our BARDA contract both for tebipenem HDR. These were partially offset by a decrease under our NIAT agreement relating to SPR206 and collaboration revenue related to our agreement with Pfizer for SPR206.

Research and development expenses for the second quarter of 2024 were $23.7 million compared to $9.5 million for the same period in '23. The increase in research and development expenses year-over-year primarily due to higher direct costs related to the pivotal Phase III trial for tebipenem HBr and the Phase IIa clinical trial for SPR720. I partially offset by lower direct costs related to the SPR206. G&A expenses for the second quarter of 2024 were $5.5 million compared to $6.1 million for the same period in '23. This year-over-year decrease was primarily due to a decrease in G&A personnel-related costs, partially offset by increases in professional and consulting -- sale reported a net loss of $17.9 million or $0.33 per share of common stock, basic and diluted for the second quarter ended June 30, 2024.

This compares with a net loss of $11.9 million or $0.23 per share of common stock for the comparable period in 2023. For further details on our financials, please refer to our 10-Q filed with the SEC today. We will now open the call for questions. Operator?

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Louise Chen with Cantor Fitzgerald.

[Louise Chen, analyst]

Congratulations on all the progress. So I have two quick questions for you. First one I wanted to ask you was the significance of the IDWeek data that you're going to present and what we think we should learn from all of this? And then second question is just on Kamal departure. You didn't give a lot of details here, but obviously, ahead of the data. people are wondering what happened here. So any color you give would be great?

[Satyavrat Shukla, executive]

Louise, thanks for the questions, and great to hear from you. I'll answer your questions in reverse order, Kamal's departure, obviously, is an event for the company, but it has nothing to do with the data or the programs. That we can share with you. Like the rest of you, we are looking forward to the unblinding and reporting of the top line data for SBR720 in 4Q. And then, of course, for tebipenem next year, where our enrollment continues on track and is expected to be completed in the second half of next year. .

Moving to your first question for IDWeek. We are particularly excited about presenting resistance data. So one of the value propositions for SPR720, as you know, is that with that novel MOA, the data we have seen to date has shown a low propensity for resistance and no evidence of cross resistance. So for IDWeek in particular, that will be a data set we'll build on.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Gavin Clark-Gartner with Evercore ISI.

[Gavin Clark-Gartner, analyst]

I just had one -- so I appreciate that you're doing the PK substudy, which includes boes. But for both of the doses that you're testing in your Phase IIa, over a given day, roughly what duration of MIC90 coverage do you believe that 720 has at both of the doses and specifically at the site of infection?

[Satyavrat Shukla, executive]

Thanks for the question, Gavin. I'll have to look back on what we have disclosed on that question and perhaps come back to you, but I do not believe that we have disclosed that data just yet. Obviously, that data will be part of what we report out. But for today, I'm not sure I can elaborate on it to the degree you ask.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Ritu Baral with PD Cowen.

[Ritu Baral, analyst]

So I wanted to make sure that I heard you correctly. You said that the 25 patients enrolled were I'm sorry if I get this wrong, with the 25 patients were all treatment-naive? Or did you have treatment-experienced patients in there? And well, I'll let you answer that before my follow-up.

[Satyavrat Shukla, executive]

Sure. So we've always said that this trial which have treatment night and nonrefractory treatment experienced patients with -- and that is the expectation for those 25 patients. Did that answer your question.

[Ritu Baral, analyst]

Yes. Can you speak to the mix that you ended up with final enrollment and how it might impact both the primary and secondary endpoint expectations? And then I have a follow-up.

[Satyavrat Shukla, executive]

Unfortunately, right now, we can't with them because most of those data are blinded to us. So even the mix of treatment-naive and treatment experience patients is not something we have disclosed just yet.

[Ritu Baral, analyst]

Got it. I wanted to also ask about the secondary endpoint of time to positivity. Can you elaborate on that? I think previous previous drugs have have discussed sort of time to sputum negativity. Can you go into a little detail on what time to positivity is and what sort of a meaningful time point in that end point?

[Satyavrat Shukla, executive]

Yes. So I think for context, for both the primary endpoint, which is the reduction in the log10 CFU/mL as well as time for positivity. These are metrics that are well established and covered in [ TB ], for example. But in NTM, of course, this being a relatively new therapeutic space, there is a limited academic and medical literature that creates cutoffs, for example. But the way time to positivity works is that it's basically the daily prolongation of time to positivity. So it measures the time growth. In this process, the liquid media are inoculated with a sputum sample. And then when that reaches a predefined signal for the evidence of bacterial growth, that can indicate the efficacy of the treatment in question.

So really, the longer that time to positivity, the better it is. In TB, this measure is well established. For us, it's always in a key secondary endpoint. But within TB, there's usually a high degree of correlation between what we have characterized as a primary endpoint, the log reduction and the time to positivity. So what we hope is that as we report both of these out they will show a activity of the drug on microbial reduce.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Ram Selvaraju with H.C. Wainwright.

[Raghuram Selvaraju, analyst]

Congrats on all the progress. I wanted to ask about the tebipenem Phase III program. And if you could give us an additional granularity regarding the total number of clinical sites that are currently involved and what factors you expect to impact enrollment either positively or negatively with respect to being able to get to that enrollment completion time line target that you disclosed in today's press release?

[Satyavrat Shukla, executive]

Sure. Thanks, Ram, for the question. We haven't given a precise number yet, but if you were to assume somewhere in the triple digits in -- it's a global study for multiple countries you would be in the ballpark. It's a larger trial than the last one, as you know. And as we mentioned on the call, on track for enrollment to date, we have not seen headwinds like the one we saw for adapt, where COVID of among other features was a districting factor for us. So at this moment in time, we continue to hold to our expectation of that completion of enrollment in the second half of next year. And as you know, our partners at GSK are also setting out their time lines for an NDA submission that is also conduit for that time frame. So the bottom line for Jebi is on track, and we are excited to see the data.

[Raghuram Selvaraju, analyst]

Okay. And then just 2 technical questions regarding 720. First is, can you just give us a brief description of the manner in which the prodrug 720 is converted into the active loyalty 719. And secondly, if you can comment on what additional combinations or permutations if any, you might want to look at to assess in terms of variability in plasma PK beyond the sisomicin and ethambutol in the context of use of 720.

[Satyavrat Shukla, executive]

Sure. For the first question, Ram, we'll dig into the publications we have and send them to you. What we have stated in calls is that 720 has a very rapid conversion to its active moiety. But on the granularity, we'll just have to forward to you what we have published, so we can ensure that after the call, for your second question right now, so azetromycin serves as a macrolide. And so with a macrolide under discussion, we feel that, that is an appropriate measure to evaluate co-administration with along with the ethambutol. But as the landscape for NTM evolves, obviously, we will be open to evaluation of what makes sense as we enter later-stage development. For today, as an oral therapy, right now, the only one in development, as you know, in first line, those are the oral therapies that make the most sense to us. But certainly after we see the data and in discussions with the FDA, we will be evaluating all the optionality that would make sense in progressing the asset.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now hand the conference over to Sath Shukla for his closing comments.

[Satyavrat Shukla, executive]

Thank you, everyone, for dialing in. We look forward to updating you as we progress our pipeline. Have a great day.

[Operator]

Thank you. The conference of Spero Therapeutics has now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.