million decrease in preclinical and other program spend, a $2.0 million decrease in costs incurred related to preclinical supplies and a $2.7 million decrease in employee related expenses.
SG&A expenses: Selling, general and administrative expenses were $13.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024, compared to $17.8 million during the same period in 2023. The $3.9 million decrease was primarily related to a $1.7 million decrease in professional and intellectual property fees, as well as a reduction of expenses for information technology.
Other non-operating items, net:
Other non-operating items, net was an expense of $10.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024, compared to $4.3 million for the same period in 2023. The $6.5 million increase in other non-operating items, net was primarily related to an increase in non-cash interest expense of $12.5 million related to the royalty agreement that the Company entered into in May 2023, which partially was offset by an increase of $4.8 million in interest income earned on investment securities and cash on hand.
Net loss:
The net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2024, was $65.6 million, or $1.36 basic and diluted loss per ordinary share, compared to $77.2 million net loss for the same period in 2023, or $1.63 basic and diluted loss per ordinary share.
About uniQure
uniQure’s mission is to reimagine the future of medicine by delivering innovative cures that transform lives. The recent approvals of our gene therapy for hemophilia B – a historic achievement based on more than a decade of research and clinical development – represent a major milestone in the field of genomic medicine and ushers in a new treatment approach for patients living with hemophilia. We are now leveraging our modular and validated technology and manufacturing platform to advance a pipeline of proprietary gene therapies for the treatment of patients with Huntington's disease, refractory mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Fabry disease, and other severe diseases. www.uniQure.com
uniQure Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are often indicated by terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," “establish,” "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "look forward to", "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," “seek,” "should," "will," "would" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs and assumptions and on information available to management only as of the date of this press release. Examples of these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the Company’s cash runway and its ability to fund its operations into the second quarter of 2027; the Company’s ongoing review of its operations and options to reduce expenses, the Company’s expectations that such review will lead to a strategy that, if effectively executed, will reduce operating expenses and increase shareholder value, and the expected timing of the completion of such review; the Company’s plans to announce additional follow-up data from its ongoing U.S. and European Phase I/II clinical studies of AMT-130; the Company’s plans to initiate interactions with the FDA regarding the further development of AMT-130, the timing of such interactions and expectations regarding regulatory clarity from such interactions; the Company’s plans regarding the third cohort in its AMT-130 clinical trial and the timing of enrollment for such cohort; and the Company’s plans to initiate patient enrollment for AMT-191 in the second quarter of 2024, and to initiate patient enrollment for AMT-260 and AMT-162 in the third quarter of 2024. The Company’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements for many reasons. These risks and uncertainties include, among others: risks associated with the clinical results and the development and timing