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(Alliance News) - N4 Pharma PLC on Wednesday said its loss widened slightly in the first half of the year, owing to grant income and a gain on an investment sale the year before which did not repeat.
Shares in N4 were up 8.5% at 3.20 pence in London shortly before midday.
N4 Pharma's pretax loss for the six months ended June 30 was GBP552,160, widened from a GBP526,221 loss the year before.
This widening resulted from GBP49,308 of government grant income in the first half of 2018, which was non-repeating. Another factor in this change was a GBP27,693 gain on sale of investment in 2018 which also did not repeat.
The company, which is developing its Nivec vaccine and cancer treatment delivery system, cut research and development costs to GBP117,694 from GBP287,160. However, general and administration costs rose to GBP432,879 from GBP315,527.
N4 Pharma had a somewhat turbulent first half, reporting that initial in-vivo testing of Nuvec had been unsuccessful due to issues with the study. Post period end, however, N4 said it had repeated the in-vivo study and found it was successful provided multiple injections were given at certain doses.
The firm then began work aimed at improving "dispersity of Nuvec formulations" and begin more in vivo work to test an improved formulation.
Chief Executive Nigel Theobald said: "In this period, we have confirmed that Nuvec works for both DNA and mRNA delivery, having produced an antibody response for both. We have also made progress in understanding how Nuvec behaves once loaded with DNA and mRNA. We have put in place a clear plan to investigate how we can improve the dispersion of Nuvec®once loaded with DNA. We will then test this improvement in both in vitro and in vivo studies and conduct an oncology efficacy model.
"The development and improvement of our Nuvec particle once loaded with DNA and mRNA is an essential step on its path towards use in clinical trials and usual for the evolution of any delivery system. Nuvec still shows great potential as a delivery system for nucleic acids and we remain excited and confident about its future."