Altimmune's Third-Quarter Loss Widens as Pemvidutide Trials Ramp

The Tip Desk · November 12, 2026 · 3 min read

The company posted a $31.6 million net loss, or $0.15 a share, and ended September with $480 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments.

Altimmune, Inc. (ALT), a biopharmaceutical company developing pemvidutide for serious liver diseases, reported a net loss of $31.6 million, or $0.15 a share, for the three months ended September 30, 2026, compared with a net loss of $19.0 million, or $0.21 a share, a year earlier.

The widening dollar loss tracked higher operating expenses as the company ran its late-stage liver programs. Research and development expenses were $27.0 million in the quarter, up from $18.7 million in the three months ended June 30, 2026. The company said the year-over-year increase from $15.0 million in the same period in 2025 was driven primarily by the ongoing PERFORMA Phase 3 trial in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and the RESTORE Phase 2 trial in alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD). Of the quarter’s R&D spend, $20.3 million was direct costs related to pemvidutide development.

General and administrative expenses were $8.7 million, compared with $5.9 million in the same period in 2025, which the company attributed primarily to higher compensation and professional services. Total operating expenses were $35.7 million. Interest income was $4.8 million. Weighted-average shares outstanding were 205.3 million, versus 89.4 million a year earlier, after an April 2026 public offering that raised $225.0 million in gross proceeds.

Cash, cash equivalents and investments totaled $480 million as of September 30, 2026, down from $519 million as of June 30, 2026. The balance sheet showed cash and cash equivalents of $28.9 million, short-term investments of $236.2 million and long-term investments of $214.8 million. Term loan, noncurrent, was $35.0 million. Common shares issued and outstanding were 194.5 million.

Chief Executive Officer Jerry Durso said the company continues to make progress across its clinical programs as it builds a liver franchise around pemvidutide. The global PERFORMA Phase 3 MASH trial, initiated in July 2026, was described as progressing as planned, with a 52-week topline data readout still anticipated in 2029. Pemvidutide holds Breakthrough Therapy Designation in MASH based on 24-week IMPACT Phase 2b data; 48-week IMPACT results were published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

In alcohol use disorder, the company scheduled an End-of-Phase 2 meeting with the FDA for December 2026 to discuss a Phase 3 registrational program, after previously saying it planned to request such a meeting following positive July 2026 RECLAIM Phase 2 topline data. Pemvidutide has Fast Track designation for AUD. A late-breaking oral presentation of the 24-week RECLAIM results was delivered at AASLD The Liver Meeting 2026.

Enrollment in the RESTORE Phase 2 ALD trial is complete, with topline data expected in the second half of 2027. In October 2026 the company appointed Peter Greenleaf and Alex Howarth to the board, and in November it relocated its corporate headquarters to Morristown, New Jersey.