LONDON (Alliance News) - Dual NASDAQ and AIM-listed Akers Biosciences Inc on Thursday reported a slightly widened pretax loss for is first quarter, but said it was confident it would materially outperform 2015 in 2016.
Akers reported a pretax loss of USD1.5 million in the first quarter of 2016, widened from a pretax loss of USD1.4 million in 2015, as a rise in revenue to USD738,023 from USD411,714 was offset by higher administrative, sales and marketing expenses.
Revenue growth was predominantly driven by the company's PIFA Heparin/PF4 Rapid Assay products, mostly sold to US hospitals, along with a price increase in the quarter.
The company said its new sales strategy of targeting hospital networks should "now begin to accelerate volumes as well as price".
Elsewhere it began a cost rationalisation programme in the first quarter, and expects the benefits of this to start flowing through late in the first half, and be fully realised in the second.
"Early indicators of the company's performance for 2016 are encouraging with US sales of PIFA Heparin/PF4 Rapid Assay products trending upwards, enhanced by a healthy order book for the shipment of these products into China. Furthermore, we believe our material reductions in overheads by the year end will accelerate our path to profitability," said Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Director Raymond Akers Jr in a statement.
"These factors alone - regardless of any anticipated contribution from other products such as our breath based suite of tests - underpin the board's confidence that the company will materially outperform 2015 in fiscal 2016," he added.
Shares in Akers Biosciences were up 14% at 142.60 pence Thursday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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