Faron Pharmaceuticals Share News (FARN)

(Alliance News) - Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd on Friday reported a widened loss in 2022 as it ramped up its research & development efforts.

The Turku, Finland-based biopharmaceutical drug discovery and development company said pretax loss widened 36% to EUR28.7 million in 2022 from EUR21.2 million a year prior. Faron Pharma does not yet generate revenue.

Research & development expenses increased 19% to EUR20.7 million from EUR17.4 million. Meanwhile, general & administrative expenses narrowed 25% to EUR7.5 million from EUR9.9 million, despite raising its headcount to 40 employees at the end of 2022 from 37 a year before. The company incurred a financial expense of EUR1.4 million in 2022, up sharply from EUR235,000 in 2021.

Faron Pharmaceuticals said one of its 2022 highlights was the successful conduction of two fundraising rounds, raising EUR13.4 million gross in total via new and existing investors.

Further, it obtained up to EUR30 million in debt funding from IPF Partners, and drew EUR10.0 million upon signing in February 2022. IPF Partners is a Luxembourg-based investor in emerging commercial stage pharmaceutical companies, among others.

Faron said another highlight was that "Bexmarilimab has been evaluated as a single agent in the Phase I/II MATINS in more than 200 patients and found to be well-tolerated".

Bexmarilimab is the company's wholly-owned precision immunotherapy, in combination with standard of care in aggressive hematological malignancies including acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome.

Chief Executive Officer Markku Jalkanen said: "Last year we accelerated the development of bexmarilimab in hematological malignancies and reported exciting early data that lays a solid trajectory. We also demonstrated compelling antitumor activity in heavily pretreated patients across multiple solid tumor types, setting the stage for a combination with standard of care in first-line solid tumors."

Faron Pharmaceuticals shares were 3.0% lower at 320.15 pence each in London on Friday morning.

By Tom Budszus, Alliance News reporter

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