Arcturus Therapeutics reports $213.4 million in cash, sees runway past Q2 2028

A smaller cash balance and two runway statements

Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: ARCT) reported first-quarter 2026 results on May 7, 2026. Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash were $213.4 million on March 31, 2026, down from $232.8 million on December 31, 2025. The company says its cash runway extends beyond the second quarter of 2028.

The same release contains a second runway statement. The chief financial officer, Dennis M. Mulroy, is quoted as citing a "strong balance sheet and runway of over two and a half years." The release does not reconcile the two phrasings, and it does not say which date the company is measuring from.

The release includes a balance sheet and a statement of operations, but no cash flow statement, so it gives no figure for cash used in the quarter. Total stockholders' equity fell to $191,362 thousand from $213,985 thousand. The accumulated deficit rose to $541,554 thousand from $514,590 thousand.

Losses and falling revenue

The company reported a net loss of approximately $27.0 million, or ($0.95) per diluted share, compared with $14.1 million, or ($0.52) per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2025. Its loss from operations was $28,931 thousand.

Revenue fell by $27.3 million from a year earlier. The company says the drop came mainly from lower revenue recognized under its collaboration with CSL Seqirus, as it moves away from infectious disease vaccine development toward rare disease clinical programs. Collaboration revenue was $610 thousand, against $25,477 thousand in the first quarter of 2025. The company now names its grant agreement with BARDA as its primary revenue stream.

Total operating expenses were $31.0 million, down from $46.2 million. Research and development expenses fell to $21.5 million from $34.9 million. The company attributes that decline mainly to lower manufacturing costs for its LUNAR-COVID and BARDA work and reduced clinical trial costs for LUNAR-COVID, plus lower payroll costs from lower stock-based compensation and a smaller headcount. Higher manufacturing costs for LUNAR-OTC partly offset those reductions. General and administrative expenses fell to $9.5 million from $11.3 million.

The rare disease programs

The cystic fibrosis program, ARCT-032, is an inhaled mRNA therapy. The company says it started enrolling a new cohort in March 2026. The open label Phase 2 study is enrolling up to 20 participants with Class I CF mutations, dosed at 10 mg over 12 weeks. It will look for safety and evidence of early clinical benefit, including changes in lung function measured by ppFEV1 and LCI, two quality-of-life measures and high-resolution CT imaging. A study of that size with no comparison group can show early signals, but it cannot by itself show that the drug works, and the release does not describe a control arm.

The ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency program, ARCT-810, has a more uncertain path. The company says the FDA, in a March 2026 Type C meeting, provided a clear path toward a pivotal pediatric study. The company also says that study requires additional exploratory data to establish the optimal dose and therapeutic effect. The next regulatory step is an End of Phase 2 meeting that the release places in the second half of 2026.

Arcturus also reports that its Japanese partner, Meiji, is preparing KOSTAIVE, its self-amplifying mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, for the 2026 to 2027 season in a 2-dose vial presentation.

Management changes and the context behind the release

The company appointed Alan H. Cohen, MD, as chief medical officer and Dennis M. Mulroy as chief financial officer. The release says Mulroy was most recently CFO at AnaptysBio, which recently completed a strategic transaction that resulted in two public companies.

The annual report filed March 3, 2026 adds context the release leaves out. CSL Limited reported an accounting write-down of approximately $430 million on February 11, 2026 tied to the CSL Seqirus collaboration, citing declining COVID-19 disease burden and more onerous U.S. regulatory requirements. For 2025, Arcturus reported revenue of $82.0 million against $152.3 million, a net loss of $65.8 million and cash used in operations of $74.3 million. In the ARCT-032 study, one serious adverse event occurred after dosing ended; the safety review committee found no convincing evidence that it was related to the drug.

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