Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

1. The Company

v3.20.1
1. The Company
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2019
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
The Company

1. The Company

 

Background

 

Xenetic Biosciences, Inc. (“Xenetic” or the “Company”), incorporated in the state of Nevada and based in Framingham, Massachusetts, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing XCART, a personalized Chimeric Antigen Receptor (“CAR”) T cell platform technology engineered to target patient-specific tumor neoantigens. The Company is initially advancing cell-based therapeutics targeting the unique B-cell receptor on the surface of an individual patient’s malignant tumor cells, for the treatment of B-cell lymphomas. The XCART technology, developed by the Scripps Research Institute (the “Institute”) in collaboration with the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (“IBCH”), is believed to have the potential to significantly enhance the safety and efficacy of cell therapy for B-cell lymphomas by generating patient- and tumor-specific CAR T cells. On March 1, 2019, the Company entered into agreements with Hesperix S.A. (“Hesperix”) and Opko Pharmaceuticals LLC (“OPKO”) to acquire the XCART technology (the “Transaction”) and closed the Transaction on July 19, 2019 concurrent with the completion of an approximate $15 million public offering (the “Offering”). For additional information regarding the Transaction, see Note 4 – Acquisitions.

 

Additionally, Xenetic is leveraging its proprietary drug delivery platform, PolyXen®, by partnering with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. PolyXen is an enabling platform technology which can be applied to protein or peptide therapeutics. It employs the natural polymer polysialic acid (“PSA”) to prolong a drug's circulating half-life and potentially improve other pharmacological properties. Xenetic incorporates its patented and proprietary technologies into a number of drug candidates currently under development with biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry collaborators to create what the Company believes will be the next-generation biologic drugs with improved pharmacological properties over existing therapeutics.

 

The Company, directly or indirectly, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Hesperix and Xenetic Biosciences (U.K.) Limited (“Xenetic UK”), and the wholly-owned subsidiaries of Xenetic UK, Lipoxen Technologies Limited (“Lipoxen”), Xenetic Bioscience, Incorporated and SymbioTec, GmbH (“SymbioTec”), owns various United States (“U.S.”) federal trademark registrations and applications, and unregistered trademarks and service marks, including but not limited to XCART, OncoHist™, PolyXen, ErepoXen™, and ImuXen™, which are used throughout this Annual Report. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

 

Going Concern and Management’s Plan

 

Management evaluates whether there are conditions or events, considered in the aggregate, that raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued. The Company has incurred substantial losses since its inception and expects to continue to incur operating losses in the near-term. These factors raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. The Company believes that it has access to capital resources through possible public or private equity offerings, debt financings, corporate collaborations, related party funding, or other means to continue as a going concern. On March 7, 2019, the Company closed on a $3.1 million registered direct Common Stock offering resulting in $2.7 million of net proceeds to the Company. On July 19, 2019, the Company completed the Offering resulting in $13.4 million of net proceeds to the Company. The Company believes that these financings, coupled with the Company’s existing resources, will be adequate to fund the Company’s operations through mid-2021. However, the Company anticipates it may need additional capital in the long-term to pursue its business initiatives. The terms, timing and extent of any future financing will depend upon several factors, including the achievement of progress in its clinical development programs, its ability to identify and enter into licensing or other strategic arrangements, and factors related to financial, economic and market conditions, many of which are beyond its control.