Aptose Biosciences has been thrown a financial lifeline by its own CEO while the leukemia-focused biotech scrambles around for cash to prevent the company from going bust.
The Canadian biotech, whose lead clinical-stage asset is an oral kinase inhibitor called tuspetinib, revealed that its CEO and Chairman William Rice, Ph.D., had provided a “short-term cash advance … to support near-term obligations … while it engages in ongoing negotiations with prospective funding partners.”
“The advance is non-interest bearing and the company may repay the advance in whole or in part with no penalty at any time and from time to time,” Aptose explained in a June 17 release.
The money will be used to pay the company’s staff as well as continue the development of tuspetinib, which is being evaluated in a phase 1/2 study for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in combination with venetoclax and azacitidine.
Despite the cash infusion, Aptose warned that if the company doesn’t find more “in the coming days … the corporation does not expect to have sufficient financial resources to fund planned company operations and will have certain alternatives that could include insolvency proceedings.”
The Toronto-based biotech ended March with $4.7 million in the bank, which it had only expected to fund its R&D costs through to the end of May 2025.
Last week, Aptose presented data from the trial of tuspetinib that it claimed showed “exciting activity.” This included all three of the AML patients who received the 80 mg dose of the drug achieving composite complete remissions.