NEW YORK – Nautilus Biotechnology on Tuesday reported a net loss of $15.8 million in the first quarter of 2022, up 88 percent from a net loss of $8.4 million in the year-ago period.
The proteomics startup did not post any revenues during the quarter ended March 31.
Loss per share for the quarter was $.13, which was lower than the $.25 per share loss the company reported in Q1 2021.
Nautilus used approximately 124.4 million weighted-average shares to calculate net loss per share for Q1 of 2022, compared to 33 million shares in Q1 of 2021.
On a conference call following release of the Q1 results, Nautilus CEO Sujal Patel said that the company was still aiming for a commercial launch of its proteomics platform by the end of 2023. While the company is not providing firm timelines for hitting intermediate milestones on the way to the planned launch, he said, it will continue to provide updates via scientific presentations and publications.
To that end, Parag Mallick, the company's cofounder and chief scientist, highlighted several presentations Nautilus made of its technology during the quarter. These included a poster at the US Human Proteome Organization annual meeting presenting results from the firm's collaboration with Genentech using its platform to detect specific forms of phosphorylated tau protein and a poster presented at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting demonstrating the company's ability to produce antibodies binding trimer and tetramer peptide targets at picomolar affinity. Mallick said that study showed the feasibility of the company's iterative antibody binding approach to proteome profiling.
Nautilus's R&D spending in Q1 more than doubled to $9.7 million from $4.8 million a year ago, while general and administrative costs were $6.4 million, up 78 percent from $3.6 million in Q1 2021.
CFO Anna Mowry said on the call that the growth in expenses was driven by increased personnel costs and spending on product development.
The company ended the quarter with $189.5 million in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash and $135.5 million in short-term investments.
In Tuesday morning trading on the Nasdaq, Nautilus shares were flat at $4.84.