CLYM — Q2 2026 Financial Report Analysis

Climb Bio lost $13.5 million in the second quarter of 2026, up from $8.7 million a year earlier, as spending on its two antibody drugs and the staff running their trials went up. The quarter's real news was on the balance sheet: an April private share sale brought in $103.4 million, lifting cash and investments to $239.2 million. The company has no products for sale and no revenue, so how long that cash lasts, and what the trials show before it runs out, is what matters here.

At a glance

• $239.2 million in cash and investments at June 30, up from $146.3 million at March 31, almost entirely because of the April share sale. Climb owes no debt; total liabilities were only $6.7 million.
• About $10.5 million of cash used to run the business in Q2 ($24.9 million in the first half, of which $14.4 million was in Q1). At that pace the cash would last well over four years. Management's own guidance says only "into the second half of 2028", which means it plans to spend much faster from here.
• Four sets of trial data are due in Q4 2026: budoprutug in a kidney disease (primary membranous nephropathy), a blood-platelet disorder (immune thrombocytopenia, ITP) and lupus, plus more Phase 1 data on its second drug, CLYM116. For a company with no sales, these readouts will probably move the stock more than anything in the income statement.

Which company's numbers these are

Climb Bio is the former Eliem Therapeutics, which was incorporated in 2018 and renamed in September 2024 (per SEC's records of the registrant's former names). In June 2024 Eliem bought Tenet Medicines, a private company that owned the rights to budoprutug, now Climb's lead drug. The financial statements are the continuing history of that one legal company. That explains why the $316.9 million accumulated deficit (all the losses since 2018 added together) includes years spent on Eliem's earlier, now-dropped programs (ETX-123 and ETX-155). Those still show up as a "legacy programs" line in R&D, though it was just $7,000 this quarter. The year-ago Q2 2025 figures already include budoprutug, so the comparison below is like for like.

The numbers

Climb reports no revenue, so the table focuses on spending, losses and cash. All figures are in millions of US dollars except per-share amounts.

Source: Climb Bio Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026.

Where the R&D money went. Climb splits its R&D spending by drug for the part paid to outside firms such as contract research organizations (companies hired to run trials) and drug manufacturers:

The company attributes the R&D increase to "advancement of our budoprutug and CLYM116 programs as well as increased personnel-related expenses." CLYM116 is the fastest-growing line: its first human trial began dosing in December 2025, so the year-ago quarter had almost nothing to spend on. G&A (the cost of running the company: executives, finance, legal) rose $1.5 million, all of it from higher personnel costs as headcount grew, including $0.7 million more in stock-based pay.

Takeaway: The $103.4 million raised in April mostly pays for a bigger plan rather than buying time. In Q1, Climb said its $146.3 million would last "into 2028" before counting the new money. With $103 million more, guidance only moves to "into the second half of 2028." At the current burn of about $10.5 million a quarter the cash would last far longer, so the guidance implies spending will roughly double or more once trials move into larger, later-stage studies.

The drugs, in plain terms

Both drugs are antibodies aimed at B cells, the immune cells that make antibodies. In autoimmune diseases some of those antibodies attack the body's own tissue.

• Budoprutug binds CD19, a marker found on B cells at every stage of their development, so that those B cells get destroyed. Climb is testing it in three diseases:
  • Primary membranous nephropathy (pMN): an autoimmune kidney disease in which antibodies against a kidney protein (PLA2R) cause the kidneys to leak protein. The Phase 2 "PrisMN" trial is now enrolling its second dose group (600 mg). The FDA granted Fast Track designation in April 2026, which can speed up review, on top of the orphan-drug designation it already had. First data from the low-dose (200 mg) group, covering B-cell counts and anti-PLA2R antibody levels, are expected at a medical meeting in Q4 2026.
  • ITP: an autoimmune disease that destroys blood platelets and raises bleeding risk. Initial Phase 1b data shown in June 2026 at the European Hematology Association covered efficacy at the 250 mg dose and safety at 500 mg. The company described "robust B-cell depletion, and meaningful platelet responses in heavily pretreated patients." The 1000 mg group is nearly fully enrolled, and data from the 500 mg and 1000 mg groups are expected in Q4 2026. The trial targets about 24 patients.
  • Lupus (SLE): first B-cell data from the global Phase 1b trial are expected in Q4 2026. A separate trial in China, which also enrolls lupus patients with kidney involvement, dosed its first patient in June 2026.
  • An under-the-skin injection version finished a Phase 1 trial in healthy volunteers, with topline data in May 2026. It removed B cells about as well as the intravenous version at a matched dose. A multiple-dose study in patients is next, with data expected in 2027.
• CLYM116 blocks APRIL, a signalling protein that drives production of IgA antibodies. It is aimed at IgA nephropathy, a kidney disease caused by abnormal IgA deposits. Climb finished dosing its healthy-volunteer Phase 1 trial in June 2026. China partner Mabworks dosed the first IgA nephropathy patient in its Phase 2 trial on August 13, 2026 (Climb 8-K, August 14), which met the "third quarter" timing in the 10-Q. Initial data from that trial are expected in 2027.

What the headline numbers hide

• The first-half loss looks smaller than last year only because of a one-off. Six-month R&D fell to $19.1 million from $23.9 million, but only because the first half of 2025 included a $9.0 million upfront payment to Mabworks to license CLYM116. Without that payment, underlying R&D rose. The company cites about $2.7 million more pipeline spending and $1.5 million more personnel cost. Q2 alone, with no one-offs in either year, shows the real trend: expenses up 44%.
• Cash burn is close to the reported loss and slightly below it, as you'd expect. First-half operating cash outflow was $24.9 million against a $27.2 million net loss. The gap is mostly $3.1 million of stock-based pay (an expense that costs no cash), partly offset by $0.7 million of interest income that was booked but not yet received in cash. Nothing in working capital is distorting the picture.
• The loss per share grew more slowly than the loss because there are more shares. The net loss rose 56%, but the loss per share rose about 38%, because the weighted share count (including pre-funded warrants, which are shares bought in advance for a near-zero exercise price) rose 12.7%. Shares issued in April added more. At June 30 there were 57.4 million common shares plus about 22.5 million shares' worth of pre-funded warrants, nearly all held by an affiliate of investor RA Capital Management.
• Interest income is falling. It dropped to $1.9 million from $2.2 million despite more cash, which the company attributes to "lower returns earned on our marketable securities." It still offsets about 12% of operating expenses, but that cushion shrinks if rates keep falling.
• More share sales may be coming. In June 2026 Climb set up a $100 million "at-the-market" program with Jefferies, which lets it sell new shares gradually on the open market. None had been sold by June 30. It cancelled an older, unused $22.4 million program with Oppenheimer. Having the program in place doesn't mean Climb will use it, but it is a ready source of dilution, especially if the Q4 data lift the stock price.
• Accounting controls are still flagged. Management again concluded its disclosure controls were not effective, because two material weaknesses first identified for 2020 remain unremediated: too few experienced accounting staff, and incomplete formal procedures, including segregation of duties. The company says neither caused a misstatement. It is a governance point to track, not a sign the numbers are wrong.

What to watch next

The next two quarters will be decided by trial data, not by the income statement. Management's milestones for Q4 2026 are first pMN data from the 200 mg group, ITP data from the 500 mg and 1000 mg groups, first lupus B-cell data, and further CLYM116 Phase 1 updates from Climb and Mabworks at a medical meeting. CLYM116 pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data (how the drug moves through the body and what it does to its target) were scheduled for a September 3, 2026 R&D Spotlight event. That falls after this quarter and is not covered here.

Our read: Climb has more cash than most companies at this stage, no debt, and runway guidance that reaches about two years past this quarter. The tension is that the guidance implies a much higher spending rate than today's roughly $42 million a year. If the Q4 readouts are good, expect that money to go into larger trials, with the ATM program as an obvious way to raise more. Weak or mixed data, especially in pMN, where budoprutug now has Fast Track designation, would leave a company spending heavily on a narrower pipeline. In the Q3 10-Q, due around early November, look for whether quarterly R&D starts climbing toward the level the guidance implies, and whether any shares were sold through the ATM.