Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - Biotechnology company PureTech Health PLC on Wednesday reported a slightly narrower annual loss despite a sharp rise in revenue.
In 2018, the US-based company, which develops medicines for dysfunctions in the brain-immune-gut axis, reported a pretax loss of USD68.4 million compared to USD70.7 million in 2017.
The company reported a sharp rise in revenue in 2018 to USD20.7 million from USD2.5 million the year before.
PureTech's administrative expenses increased 2.4% to USD47.4 million from USD46.3 million. The company's research & development expenses increased 7.9% to USD77.4 million from USD71.7 million.
In the year prior, PureTech booked a USD85.0 million gain on deconsolidation of its ownership in an affiliate, compared to USD41.7 million in 2018. The company saw a USD57.3 million gain on investments held at fair value. In 2018, the company reported a USD20.3 million loss on investments held at fair value.
"It has been an exhilarating year and we believe we are on the cusp of unlocking significant value for our shareholders. We are gratified by the excellent reception of our Internal R&D group, which has already secured partnerships with two major pharmaceutical companies, validating the science while enabling PureTech Health to retain most of the rights to the core platforms," said Chief Executive Daphne Zohar.
"We believe that six of our affiliates have the potential for monetisation over the next 12 to 18 months, and we are extremely excited by the post-period news about Gelesis' landmark FDA clearance last week, which is a testament to what our team has been able to accomplish by thinking differently about major health issues," added Zohar.
In 2018, PureTech's affiliates raised USD274 million.
Shares in PureTech Health were down 0.8% on Wednesday at 185.00 pence each.
