SeaStar Medical reports Q1 2024 financial results

SeaStar Medical Holding Corporation reports financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and provides a business update.

“As we guided in late February, we expect initial sales in the coming weeks of Quelimmune™ Pediatric, which is approved for the treatment of pediatric patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) and sepsis or septic condition. Quelimmune has the potential to save lives and improve quality of life by eliminating dialysis dependency through renal recovery for an eligible U.S. pediatric patient population estimated at 4,000 annually,” said Eric Schlorff, SeaStar Medical CEO. “Our launch strategy entails qualifying five prominent children’s hospitals as the first to offer Quelimmune, which will allow us to evaluate its use prior to a more robust commercial rollout that’s planned for the second half of the year.

“We are gaining momentum in our NEUTRALIZE-AKI pivotal clinical trial, having now enrolled 31 subjects at eight activated medical sites in this trial that is evaluating the safety and efficacy of our Selective Cytopheretic Device Adult (SCD-ADULT) in the significantly larger U.S. adult AKI patient population that we estimate at 210,000 annually,” he added.

“Importantly, we have significantly strengthened our balance sheet having eliminated the senior secured debt and exiting the first quarter with $5 million in cash,” concluded Mr. Schlorff.

First quarter financial results
Research and development (R&D) expenses for the first quarters of 2024 and 2023 were relatively consistent at $1.7 million. General and administrative (G&A) expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were $2.3 million, compared with $2.9 million for the first quarter of 2023, with the decrease due to reductions in accounting, finance, legal and SEC-related fees, sales and marketing expenses, insurance fees, other business expenses primarily due to a legal settlement in the prior-year quarter, and slightly lower personnel and consulting costs.

Other expense for the first quarter of 2024 was $8.8 million (of which $8.7 million related to non-cash losses from derivative financial instruments), compared with $2.5 million for the first quarter of 2023. The increase was primarily related to the extinguishment of convertible notes, change in the fair value of liability classified warrants, issuance of convertible notes, and increase in the fair value of convertible notes. This was offset by a recognized loss on a forward purchase agreement derivative liability at March 31, 2023, which no longer exists in 2024, and reduction in interest expense as a result of both paying down notes payable and converting all but $1.1 million in convertible notes as of March 31, 2024.

The net loss for the first quarter of 2024 was $12.7 million, or $0.19 per share on 67.1 million weighted-average shares outstanding. This compared with a net loss for the first quarter of 2023 of $7.1 million, or $0.54 per share, on 13.0 million weighted-average shares outstanding.

The Company reported cash of $5.0 million as of March 31, 2024, compared with $176,000 as of December 31, 2023. In January 2024 the Company announced a $9.0 million registered direct offering priced at-the-market.
MB Bureau