LONDON (Alliance News) - 4d Pharma PLC on Tuesday said its loss widened in 2018 on research and development costs as it continued to develop its live biotherapeutic products, which contain living microorganisms.
Shares in 4d Pharma were down 7.6% at 98.00 pence in morning trade.
The company's pretax loss for 2018 was GBP28.4 million, widening from GBP24.0 million in 2017, as research and development costs rose 47% to GBP24.9 million from GBP16.9 million.
Administrative expenses were higher as well, at GBP4.4 million versus GBP3.5 million.
Helping to keep the loss in check, the company posted a GBP749,000 foreign currency gain versus a GBP431,000 loss in 2017. 4d Pharma also incurred GBP3.5 million of non-recurring costs in 2017 but no such non-recurring costs in 2018.
4d Pharma now has four products in clinical development, with two ongoing studies in oncology, two in gastrointestinal disease, and one in respiratory disease. The company's "key goal" is to produce enough meaningful data to support the use of live biotherapeutics for multiple types of diseases.
"Throughout 2018, 4D made significant progress towards its goal of producing live biotherapeutics as safe and effective therapies. 4D, at the forefront of this revolutionary field, is well positioned to deliver positive clinical results to establish confidence in the potential of this new class of medicines. Over the next 12 to 24 months, the group will lead the way in generating robust clinical data to support the use of this new class of drugs across indications including oncology, gastrointestinal and respiratory disease," said 4d Pharma Chief Executive Duncan Peyton.
In 2018 the company's cash and cash equivalents and short-term deposits fell to GBP26.2 million on December 31 from GBP50.0 million the year before. The company said its annual cash burn was in line with its expectation due to the higher costs of progressing clinical programmes and preparing for upcoming phase one and phase two trials.
"2018 has been an exciting year for us with a number of clinical and research goals achieved. I look forward to the coming year as we prepare for clinical readouts that could revolutionise our quest to make microbiome medicines a reality for patients," said Peyton.
