F-star Therapeutics, Inc.

For full-year 2021, revenue was $21.2 million versus $11.3 million in the prior year, up $9.9 million. Cash and cash equivalents were $78.5 million at Dec. 31, 2021 versus $18.5 million at Dec. 31, 2020. R&D expense was $28.8 million versus $14.1 million, and G&A expense was $23.1 million versus $19.5 million. Net loss was $31.3 million, or $1.88 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $25.6 million, or $9.69 per basic and diluted share, in 2020. For guidance, management expects meaningful clinical data in 2022 across all 4 programs: FS118 data in the middle of the year, FS222 data later this year, an FS120 Phase 1 update in the second half and a pembro combination study to start ahead of schedule later this year, plus further dose-escalation data on SB11285 later this year.

Eliot Forster framed 2021 as F-star’s first full year as a NASDAQ-listed company and called it a “stellar year,” citing progress across the clinical pipeline, new partners, a stronger patent estate and a significant financing. His tone was confident and forward-looking, with repeated emphasis that 2022 is the company’s most important year so far because it should produce data across all 4 clinical programs. He also stressed the platform’s differentiation, especially the tetravalent “2+2” design and its ability to enable crosslinking, clustering and conditionality in the tumor microenvironment.

Darlene Deptula-Hicks walked through the year-end financials, noting cash and cash equivalents of $78.5 million, up $60 million from the prior year, mainly from the $78 million ATM/equity financing, $10 million debt financing and the $17.5 million Janssen upfront payment, partly offset by operating cash needs. She said 2021 revenue of $21.2 million included $18.3 million of upfront fees from new licenses and $2.9 million from Merck KGaA option exercise activity. She also cited higher R&D of $28.8 million and G&A of $23.1 million, and highlighted the company’s view that it remains undervalued because it is trading below cash while the 4 programs are progressing clinically.

Analysts focused on FS118 recruitment and timing, especially the impact of Ukraine and how many patients may be evaluable; management said the head and neck readout remains targeted for the middle of the year, while the checkpoint-naive NSCLC and DLBCL studies are active and data from those groups are guided to the first half of next year. Questions also probed whether LAG-3/PD-1 competitors’ mixed results matter for FS118 and how F-star’s bispecific approach differs; management said FS118’s key hypothesis is LAG-3 removal from TILs, which it believes its 2+2 structure can do more efficiently. For FS222, analysts asked about the lack of a planned PD-1 combination and about CD137 shedding; management said it does not see a need to combine with PD-1, expects to report shedding and biomarker data later this year, and is looking at expansion cohorts early next year.