General and administrative expenses were $8.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2020, and $33.0 million for the year ended 2020, as compared to $6.2 million and $20.8 million for the comparable periods in 2019, respectively. These increases were primarily due to an increase in employee headcount, which includes the impact of non-cash stock-based compensation, as well as professional fees and consulting costs.
As of Dec. 31, 2020, AVROBIO had $259.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, as compared to $187.0 million in cash and cash equivalents as of Dec. 31, 2019. This increase was primarily the result of the completion of the company’s follow-on offerings completed in February 2020 and November 2020 that generated total net proceeds of $163.8 million. Based on the company’s current operating plan, AVROBIO expects its cash and cash equivalents as of Dec. 31, 2020 will enable the company to fund its operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements into the first quarter of 2023.
About AVROBIO
Our vision is to bring personalized gene therapy to the world. We aim to prevent, halt or reverse disease throughout the body with a single dose of gene therapy designed to drive durable expression of therapeutic protein, even in hard-to-reach tissues and organs including brain, muscle and bone. Our ex vivo lentiviral gene therapy pipeline includes clinical programs in Fabry disease, Gaucher disease type 1 and cystinosis, as well as preclinical programs in Hunter syndrome, Gaucher disease type 3 and Pompe disease. AVROBIO is powered by our industry leading plato® gene therapy platform, our foundation designed to deliver gene therapy worldwide. We are headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., with an office in Toronto, Ontario. For additional information, visit avrobio.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by words and phrases such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “designed to,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “possible,” “potential,” “seeks,” “will,” and variations of these words and phrases or similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding our business strategy for and the potential therapeutic benefits of our current and prospective product candidates, results of preclinical studies, the design, commencement, enrollment and timing of ongoing or planned clinical trials, clinical trial results, product approvals and regulatory pathways, the timing of patient recruitment and enrollment activities, and product approvals, anticipated benefits of our gene therapy platform including potential impact on our commercialization activities, timing and likelihood of success, the expected benefits and results of our implementation of the plato® platform in our clinical trials and gene therapy programs, including the use of a personalized and ultra-precision busulfan conditioning regimen, and statements regarding our financial and cash position and expected cash runway. Any such statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Results in preclinical or early-stage clinical trials may not be indicative of results from later stage or larger scale clinical trials and do not ensure regulatory approval. You should not place undue reliance on these statements, or the scientific data presented.