NightHawk Biosciences Provides Second Quarter 2022 Business Update

DURHAM, N.C., Aug. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NightHawk Biosciences (NYSE American: NHWK), a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on developing first-in-class therapies to modulate the immune system, today provided strategic, financial, and operational updates for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022.

Jeff Wolf, Chief Executive Officer of NightHawk, commented, “We continue to advance our evolution towards becoming a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company via our subsidiary ecosystem. Specifically, we are on track to open the Scorpion San Antonio biologics manufacturing facility in Q3 and are actively progressing development efforts for our newly-announced commercial scale biomanufacturing facility in Manhattan, Kansas. We intend to provide a full suite of CDMO manufacturing and bioanalytic services to biopharmaceutical clients. I’m pleased to report that feedback from prospective customers has been positive, and we look forward to commercial announcements in the near-term.”

“On the clinical front, we continue to evaluate a variety of strategic options for our HS-110 and PTX-35 programs moving forward. Our Elusys subsidiary recently executed a contract to deliver ANTHIM to Canada’s National Emergency Strategic Stockpile, our first sale of ANTHIM outside the United States. Finally, we continue to advance our research efforts and expand our pipeline through ongoing development at our Skunkworx subsidiary. Overall, we are extremely encouraged by the outlook for the business and look forward to providing further updates on our growing pipeline and commercial activities.”

Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results

• Recognized $0.05 million of contract revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 compared to $0.5 million of grant and contract revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2021. The decrease in grant revenue in the current-year period is due to the fact that we recognized all $15.2 million of grant revenue during 2021. As of June 30, 2022, we had a grants receivable balance of $1.5 million for CPRIT proceeds not yet received, but for which the costs had been incurred or the conditions of the award had been met. We continue our efforts to secure future non-dilutive grant funding to subsidize ongoing research and development costs.
• Research and development expenses were $4.7 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022 compared to $4.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021. The increase was primarily due to expenses associated with the ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of PTX-35, integration costs associated with ANTHIM, as well as unallocated research expenses consisting of personnel costs, including stock-based compensation from stock awards, contractor expense and supplies purchased for discovery projects.
• General and administrative expenses were $4.9 million and $2.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2022 and 2021, respectively. The increase was due to increased labor and consulting costs, additional facility and office expenses and other professional services, and an increase in stock-based compensation expense.
• Net loss attributable to NightHawk Biosciences was approximately $10.2 million, or ($0.40) per basic and diluted share for the three months ended June 30, 2022, compared to approximately $6.5 million, or ($0.26) per basic and diluted share for the three months ended June 30, 2021.
• As of June 30, 2022, the Company had approximately $69.9 million in cash and cash equivalents.