The Mesoblast limited (ASX: MSB) share price is under pressure again on Friday.
In morning trade, the allogeneic cellular medicines developer's shares are down over 1% to $1.89.
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Why is the Mesoblast share price on the move?
The Mesoblast share price is trading lower ollowing the release of its fourth quarter update this morning. That update revealed further significant cash burn during the three months by the embattled biotech.
According to the release, Mesoblast recorded Temcell royalties of US$1.9 million for the quarter. However, this was nowhere near enough to stop the company from burning through significant cash again.
Mesoblast reported net cash usage of US$20.7 million for the three months ended 30 June. This includes an investment of US$10.8 million related to remestemcel-L for steroid refractory acute graft versus host disease (SR-aGVHD) and COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Mesoblast had a cash balance of US$136.9 million at the end of the period, down from $158.3 million at the end of March.
COVID ARDS update
The Mesoblast share price has been sold off this year due to concerns over its COVID-19 ARDS trial. It was halted in December following analysis by the Data Safety Monitoring Board. This put its game-changing deal with pharma giant Novartis under threat.
Today's update reveals that Mesoblast met with the FDA this week in relation to COVID-19 ARD and to determine the registration pathway for approval of remestemcel-L in this indication. No details were provided, but formal minutes are expected in the coming weeks
Management also advised that its agreement with Novartis remains in place but continues to be subject to certain closing conditions. This includes time to analyse the results from the COVID-19 ARDS trial.
The Mesoblast share price has lost over half of its value since this time last year.
