aibioAprea reports first-quarter 2026 results and $46.5 million in cash
Tickers APRE
Aprea said its $30 million private placement closed on March 31, 2026, and reported $46.5 million in cash at March 31, 2026, with runway into the first quarter of 2028. The company also described two partial responses in its Phase 1 trial of APR-1051.
Key facts
- Company
- Aprea Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: APRE)
- News type
- Company Updates
- Primary source
- Aprea Therapeutics, Inc. 8-K (2026-05-13)
Aprea Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: APRE) reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, on May 13, 2026, and gave a corporate update in the same release. The main items were a $30 million private placement that the company called oversubscribed that closed on March 31, 2026, two partial responses in the ACESOT-1051 trial of its WEE1 inhibitor APR-1051, and $46.5 million in cash and cash equivalents at quarter end. Oren Gilad, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are very encouraged by the progress made across both our clinical and corporate priorities during the first quarter of 2026."
The financing
The private placement was led by Soleus Capital. Other new investors included Vestal Point Capital and Squadron Capital Management, and existing investors and certain insiders of the company also took part. The company said net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and for research and development, including adding patients with uterine serous carcinoma (USC), regardless of mutation status, to the ACESOT-1051 study and expanding into cyclin E-overexpressing platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC) patients. The portion of the release available for this story names no placement agent or underwriter for the financing.
The ACESOT-1051 update
Two patients in the trial have achieved partial responses. One uterine carcinosarcoma patient with a PPP2R1A mutation, treated at 220 mg, achieved a 50% reduction in target lesion size at the first imaging assessment. At the confirmatory second assessment, the company reported an additional 9.5% reduction in target lesion size and a further CA-125 decline to 40.2 U/mL, from 362 U/mL at baseline. That patient remains on study with an ongoing partial response. A second patient with PPP2R1A-mutated uterine serous carcinoma, treated at the 150 mg dose level, had an unconfirmed partial response.
A total of 28 patients have been treated at doses from 10 mg to 300 mg once daily. Six patients had a best overall response of stable disease, including patients with colorectal cancer, HPV-positive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and endometrial cancer. Dose escalation is continuing, with enrollment underway in the 300 mg cohort, dose level 9. The company said the two most common adverse events have been Grade 1 or 2 nausea and fatigue, and that no treatment-related class-limiting toxicities have been observed to date.
With the financing, the company is expanding enrollment in ACESOT-1051 to include at least 50 patients with USC and cyclin E-overexpressing PROC, and it anticipates completing dose escalation in the second quarter of 2027.
Financial position
Cash and cash equivalents were $46.5 million at March 31, 2026, compared with $14.6 million at December 31, 2025. The operating loss was $3.4 million, compared with $4.1 million in the first quarter of 2025. Research and development expense was $1.6 million, down from $2.5 million, and the company attributed the decrease mainly to a $0.8 million drop in costs for the ABOYA-119 trial, which was voluntarily paused in October 2025. General and administrative expense was $1.8 million in both quarters.
The net loss was $3.3 million, or $(0.22) per basic share, on approximately 14.7 million weighted-average common shares. The net loss for the first quarter of 2025 was $3.9 million, or $(0.66) per basic share. The annual report shows a net loss of $12.6 million for 2025 and $13.0 million for 2024.
Reading the results with caution
The efficacy signal is thin. Of 28 patients treated, two have partial responses, and one of those is unconfirmed; six had stable disease as their best response. ACESOT-1051 is an open-label Phase 1 study built to find a safe dose, and the annual report calls the results preliminary. The release says the expansion will provide "preliminary efficacy data", and dose escalation has not finished. The release text we have gives no share price, share count or warrant terms for the placement. Aprea paused ABOYA-119 in October 2025, leaving APR-1051 as the lead asset. The company says its cash lasts into the first quarter of 2028. The full first-quarter release is on the SEC website.