(Alliance News) - e-therapeutics PLC on Monday posted a narrowed pretax loss due to lower research costs and maiden revenue from ongoing business collaborations.
The Oxford-based company also said that expects a further reduction in operating loss in the second half compared to the first half due to revenue received from collaborations, its cost reduction programme, and anticipated lower spend on the two core drug discovery projects.
The company, which has created two technology-based drug discovery platforms, recorded a pretax loss of GBP1.5 million, compared with a GBP2.8 million loss in the year-ago period. Revenue, mainly generated from a drug discovery collaboration with Danish pharma firm Novo Nordisk AS, totalled GBP188,000 versus none a year ago.
Research & development expenditure fell to GBP1.1 million in the first half from GBP2.1 million a year ago. Administrative expenses declined to GBP599,000 from GBP742,000.
e-therapeutics said it continues to look at alternative sources of funding, including "shared funding" approaches, and for non-organic opportunities, including mergers and acquisitions. The company noted though that it has enough money to finance operations until the first quarter of 2021.
"In the immediate term, we will continue to focus our efforts on the monetisation of the [Network-Driven Drug Discovery] and [Genome Associated Network Interactions] platforms through industrial collaborations. If executed successfully, this will enable the business to become self-sufficient and cash flow positive," said Chief Executive Officer Ray Barlow.
Shares in e-therapeutics were down 5.3% at 2.70 pence each on Monday morning in London.
By Tapan Panchal; tapanpanchal@alliancenews.com
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E-therapeutics (ETX)