Exhibit 99.3
NuCana Reports First Quarter 2019 Financial Results and Provides Business Update
Numerous Clinical Data Announcements and Study Initiations Expected in 2019
Current Cash Balance Expected to Fund the Company Into 2021
Edinburgh, United Kingdom, May 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – NuCana plc (NASDAQ: NCNA) announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019 and provided an update on its extensive clinical program with its transformative ProTide™ therapeutics.
As of March 31, 2019, NuCana had cash and cash equivalents of £69.9 million compared to £77.0 million as of December 31, 2018. NuCana continues to advance its various clinical programs and reported a net loss of £5.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, as compared to £6.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2018. Basic and diluted loss per share was £0.17 for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, as compared to £0.20 per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.
NuCana believes its current cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund its planned operations into 2021. In addition to continuing or completing the ongoing clinical studies, NuCana believes its current cash and cash equivalents will enable the following:
| • | | Opening a Phase III study of Acelarin in combination with cisplatin in patients with advanced or metastatic biliary tract cancer; |
| • | | Initiation of a Phase II/III study of Acelarin in combination with a platinum agent for patients with ovarian cancer; and |
| • | | Initiation of a Phase II/III clinical study ofNUC-3373 in combination with other agents for patients with colorectal cancer. |
“It has been a good start to the year and we are pleased with NuCana’s continued progress,” said Hugh S. Griffith, NuCana’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “In February 2019, we announced two abstracts related toNUC-3373 that were selected for presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2019 in April.NUC-3373 is NuCana’s second ProTide™ in clinical development and is a transformation of the active anti-cancer metabolite of5-fluorouracil(5-FU), one of the most widely prescribed anti-cancer agents. Our current findings have shown thatNUC-3373 has an additional mechanism of action for promoting anti-cancer activity that is independent of the DNA damage pathway.NUC-3373 inhibits the target enzyme, thymidylate synthase (TS), causing nuclear to cytoplasmic translocation and induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress. We look forward to announcing additional data in 2019 from the ongoing Phase I study ofNUC-3373, as well as data from the ongoing Phase 1b study ofNUC-3373 in combination with other agents typically combined with5-FU.”
Mr. Griffith continued: “In addition, we are making excellent progress with our other two ProTides. For Acelarin, we remain on track to open our Phase III study in combination with cisplatin in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer in 2019. We also look forward to generating thefirst-in-human clinical data onNUC-7738, our ProTide transformation of 3’-deoxyadenosine (or cordycepin), over the coming months.”