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Organization, Description of the Business and Liquidity
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2021
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Organization, Description of the Business and Liquidity

1. Organization, Description of the Business and Liquidity

 

OncoCyte Corporation (“Oncocyte”), incorporated in 2009 in the state of California, is a molecular diagnostics company focused on developing and commercializing proprietary laboratory-developed tests (“LDTs”) to serve unmet medical needs across the cancer care continuum. Oncocyte’s mission is to provide actionable information to physicians and patients at critical decision points to optimize diagnosis and treatment decisions, improve patient outcomes, and reduce overall cost of care. Oncocyte has prioritized lung cancer as its first indication. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, despite the availability of molecular testing and novel therapies to treat patients.

 

Oncocyte’s first product for commercial release is a proprietary treatment stratification test called DetermaRx™ that identifies which patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer may benefit from chemotherapy, resulting in a significantly higher, five-year survival rate. Beginning in September 2019 through February 23, 2021, Oncocyte held a 25% equity interest in Razor Genomics, Inc. (“Razor”), a privately held company, that has developed and licensed to Oncocyte the lung cancer treatment stratification laboratory test that Oncocyte is commercializing as DetermaRx™. On February 24, 2021, Oncocyte completed the purchase of all the remaining issued and outstanding shares of common stock of Razor and paid the selling shareholders in total $10 million in cash and issued them Oncocyte common stock having a market value of $5.7 million on that date. As a result of the purchase of the Razor common stock, Oncocyte is now the sole shareholder of Razor. The acquisition of the remaining equity interests has been accounted for as an asset acquisition in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 805-50, Business Combinations. See Note 6 for a full discussion of the Razor asset acquisition.

 

On January 31, 2020 (the “Merger Date”), Oncocyte completed its acquisition of Insight Genetics, Inc. (“Insight”) through a merger with a newly incorporated wholly-owned subsidiary of Oncocyte (the “Merger”) under the terms of an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”). Prior to the Merger, Insight was a privately held company specializing in the discovery and development of the multi-gene molecular, laboratory-developed diagnostic tests that Oncocyte has branded as DetermaIO™. DetermaIO™ is a proprietary gene expression assay with promising data supporting its potential to help identify patients likely to respond to checkpoint inhibitor drugs. Insight has a CLIA-certified diagnostic laboratory with the capacity to support clinical trials or assay design on certain commercially available analytic platforms that may be used to develop additional diagnostic tests. Insight also performs Pharma Services in its CLIA-certified laboratory for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including testing for biomarker discovery, assay design and development, clinical trial support, and a broad spectrum of biomarker tests. The Merger has been accounted for using the acquisition method of accounting in accordance with ASC 805, which requires, among other things, that the assets and liabilities assumed be recognized at their fair values as of the acquisition date. See Note 5 for a full discussion of the Merger.

 

Other tests in the development pipeline include DetermaTx™, a test intended to compliment DetermaIO™ by assessing the mutational status of a tumor to help identify the appropriate targeted therapy. Oncocyte also plans to initiate the development of DetermaMx™ as a blood-based test to monitor cancer patients for recurrence of their disease. Oncocyte has added to its LDT development pipeline the TheraSure™-CNI Monitor, a patented, blood-based test for immunotherapy monitoring, and TheraSure™ Transplant Monitor, a solid organ transplantation monitoring test, through a merger with the developer of the test Chronix Biomedical, Inc. (“Chronix”) (see Note 15).

 

Liquidity

 

Oncocyte has incurred operating losses and negative cash flows since inception and had an accumulated deficit of $127.6 million as of March 31, 2021. Oncocyte expects to continue to incur operating losses and negative cash flows for the foreseeable future. Oncocyte did not generate revenues from its operations prior to the first quarter of 2020, and revenues since that period through the date of this Report were not sufficient to cover Oncocyte’s operating expenses. Oncocyte finances its operations primarily through the sale of shares of its common stock.

 

As of March 31, 2021, Oncocyte had $58.9 million of cash and cash equivalents and held shares of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (“Lineage”) and AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (“AgeX”) common stock as marketable equity securities with a combined fair market value of $0.9 million. Oncocyte believes that its current cash, cash equivalents and marketable equity securities are sufficient to carry out current operations through at least twelve months from the issuance date of the condensed consolidated interim financial statements included in this Report.

 

On April 23, 2020, Oncocyte obtained a U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loan in the principal amount of $1,140,930 from Silicon Valley Bank (the “Bank”). The PPP loan bears interest at a rate of 1% per annum (see Note 9) and matures on April 23, 2022. The principal amount and accrued interest on the PPP loan is subject to forgiveness by the Bank through the SBA under the provisions of the PPP loan program. Oncocyte’s application for forgiveness of principal and accrued interest for the PPP loan is pending as of the date of this Report. Although Oncocyte was obligated to make monthly payments of principal and interest on the PPP loan commending in November 2020, each in such equal amount required to fully amortize the principal amount outstanding by the maturity date, Oncocyte has not been billed or charged for any payments for the PPP loan because of its loan forgiveness application status pending. Oncocyte continues to accrue interest on the PPP loan and there can be no assurance that any part of the PPP loan will be forgiven.

 

Oncocyte will need to raise additional capital to finance its operations, including the development and commercialization of its cancer diagnostic and other tests, until such time as it is able to generate sufficient revenues from the commercialization of one or more of its LDTs and other tests and performing Pharma Services to cover its operating expenses.

 

Presently, Oncocyte is devoting substantially all of its efforts on initial commercialization efforts for DetermaRx™ and completing development and planning commercialization of DetermaIO™, although DetermaIO™ is currently available for biopharma diagnostic development and research use only as a companion test in immunotherapy drug development to select patients for clinical trials. While Oncocyte plans to primarily market its LDTs in the United States through its own sales force, it is also beginning to make marketing arrangements with distributors in other countries. In order to reduce capital needs and to expedite the commercialization of any new LDTs that may become available for clinical use, Oncocyte may also pursue marketing arrangements with other diagnostic companies through which Oncocyte might receive licensing fees and royalty on sales, or through which it might form a joint venture to market its tests and share in net revenues, in the United States or abroad.

 

In addition to general economic and capital market trends and conditions, Oncocyte’s ability to raise sufficient additional capital to finance its operations from time to time will depend on a number of factors specific to Oncocyte’s operations such as operating revenues and expenses, progress in development of, or in obtaining reimbursement coverage from Medicare for DetermaIO™ and other future LDTs that Oncocyte may develop or acquire. The availability of financing and Oncocyte’s ability to generate revenues from operating activities may be adversely impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which could continue to cause deferrals of cancer surgeries that might otherwise have resulted in the utilization of DetermaRx™ and deferrals of drug development clinical trials that might have utilized Oncocyte’s Pharma Services. The COVID-19 pandemic also could continue to depress national and international economies and disrupt capital markets, supply chains, and aspects of Oncocyte’s operations. The extent to which the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will ultimately impact Oncocyte’s business, results of operations, financial condition, or cash flows is highly uncertain and difficult to predict because it will depend on many factors that are outside Oncocyte’s control. The unavailability or inadequacy of financing or revenues to meet future capital needs could force Oncocyte to modify, curtail, delay, or suspend some or all aspects of planned operations. Sales of additional equity securities could result in the dilution of the interests of its shareholders. Oncocyte cannot assure that adequate financing will be available on favorable terms, if at all.