Last checked at 
(Alliance News) - Ovoca Bio PLC on Monday said its loss widened in the first half of the year, suffering higher administration expenses in the year as it worked to develop its BP-101 female sexual dysfunction drug.
For the six months ended June 30, Ovoca's pretax loss was EUR439,000, widened from EUR364,000 the year before.
This was due to administrative expenses, which more than doubled to EUR1.2 million from EUR576,000.
Ovoca did, however, record other gains of EUR463,000, swinging from other losses totalling EUR56,000 the year before. This swing helped mitigate its loss in the first half.
The biopharmaceutical firm's IVIX LLC subsidiary completed its phase 3 study of the drug candidate in Russia during the six month period.
The firm also sold 170,000 shares in Polymetal International PLC and disposed of other securities in the year, generating EUR3.0 million of net proceeds, lifting comprehensive income for the period to EUR2.2 million from a EUR4.3 million loss the year before.
Chief Executive Kirill Golovanov said: "Ovoca Bio PLC continues to have a sound capital base and will use this to support the exciting development of BP-101 in [hypoactive sexual desire disorder], both in its anticipated first commercial market of the Russian Federation followed by Europe and the US, subject to regulatory approval. Your board remains highly optimistic for the future of the company and is committed to creating value for our shareholders."
Shares in Ovoca were down 0.4% at 12.20 pence in London on Monday.
On Thursday last week, Ovoca announced it had filed a marketing authorisation application for BP-101 in Russia with the drug potentially available for marketing in Russia by late 2020.