Mineralys Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MLYS) recently announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ending December 31, 2023, along with a corporate update. The company's cash, cash equivalents, and investments stood at $239.0 million as of December 31, 2023, compared to $110.1 million as of December 31, 2022. This significant increase in funds was bolstered by a private placement financing completed in February 2024, which raised gross proceeds of approximately $120 million.
The research and development (R&D) expenses for the year ended December 31, 2023, were reported at $70.4 million, marking a substantial increase from $26.3 million in the previous year. This surge in R&D costs was primarily attributed to several factors, including higher preclinical and clinical costs, license fees, clinical supply, manufacturing, regulatory costs, compensation expenses, and other research and development expenses. Similarly, general and administrative (G&A) expenses for the year ended December 31, 2023, surged to $14.3 million from $5.2 million in the prior year. The increase in G&A expenses was driven by higher professional fees, compensation expenses, insurance expenses, and other administrative costs.
Furthermore, the company reported a total other income, net, of $12.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $1.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. This increase in other income was mainly due to higher interest earned on the company's investments in money market funds and U.S. treasuries. However, despite these positive financial indicators, the net loss for the year ended December 31, 2023, amounted to $71.9 million, significantly higher than the $29.8 million reported for the year ended December 31, 2022.
Mineralys Therapeutics also provided insights into its upcoming milestones, highlighting the progress of pivotal trials and the exploration of lorundrostat for the treatment of hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The company's pivotal advance-htn trial is on track to announce topline data in the fourth quarter of 2024, while topline data from the phase 3 pivotal launch-htn trial is anticipated in the second half of 2025. Additionally, the explore-ckd phase 2 trial, focusing on hypertensive patients with stage 2-3b CKD, is expected to report topline data in the fourth quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025.
As a result of these announcements, the company's shares have moved -1.5% on the market, and are now trading at a price of $13.19. For more information, read the company's full 8-K submission here.
