DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ:DRRX) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 13, 2023 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Tim Papp - Chief Financial Officer

Jim Brown - Chief Executive Officer

Conference Call Participants

François Brisebois - Oppenheimer

Carl Byrnes - Northland Capital Markets

Thomas Yip - H.C. Wainwright

Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the DURECT Corporation Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please also note, today's event is being recorded.

And at this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Tim Papp, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Tim Papp

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to DURECT Corporation's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call.

Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone of our forward-looking statement. During the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding the results and clinical data from the AHFIRM trial, development plans for larsucosterol, expected product benefits, market potential, regulatory plans, potential regulatory approval, and the company's financial projections. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements, including the risk that future trials of larsucosterol do not confirm the results from the AHFIRM trial. Further information regarding these and other risks can be found in our SEC filings, including our 10-K and 10-Qs under the heading Risk Factors.

To begin, I would like to review our third quarter 2023 financial results. Our total revenues in the second quarter -- or third quarter, were $1.7 million compared with $12 million for the third quarter of 2022. This difference was largely due to the recognition of $10 million of milestone revenue related to our licensing deal with Innocoll that we recognized in 2022.

R&D expenses were $7.2 million compared with $9.9 million for the prior year. The decrease was primarily due to lower clinical trial and contract manufacturing expenses for larsucosterol and the elimination of feasibility programs, offset partially by an increase in spending on other R&D projects.

SG&A expenses were $3.8 million compared with $3.9 million for the prior year, so essentially unchanged year-over-year.

As of September 30, 2023, we had cash and investments of $39.1 million compared with cash and investments of $43.6 million at December 31, 2022. During the third quarter, we completed a registered direct offering raising $13.9 million in net proceeds. Our cash burn in the third quarter was approximately $9.7 million excluding proceeds from the offering. We believe our cash on hand is sufficient to fund operations through at least the middle of 2024.