Arca secures cash runway to develop COVID-19 treatment

WESTMINSTER — Arca Biopharma Inc. (Nasdaq: ABIO) said it has the cash to develop its potential COVID-19 treatment through the end of 2022.

In its third-quarter earnings released Monday afternoon, the Westminster-based Arca said it had $51.1 million in cash and equivalents on hand, the majority of which was generated from a late-July stock sale.

Arca is looking to repurpose its flagship drug candidate AB201 for use as an anti-blood-clotting agent for heart-attack patients and use it within certain severe COVID-19 patients whose immune systems are overreacting.

Those overreactions are thought to induce blood clots, which can cause cardiac arrest or other life-threatening side effects in some patients.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already approved Arca’s request to begin advanced trials with COVID-19 patients, where initial data could be made public by the second quarter of next year.

“With the resurgence of SARS-CoV-2 across the country and around the globe, the need for effective therapies to treat patients hospitalized with COVID-19 remains an urgent priority,” CEO Michael Bristow said in a statement.

Arca lost $2 million in the quarter, compared with $1.3 million in losses in the period prior. The increase was attributed to higher research and development costs connected to AB201.

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