LONDON (Alliance News) - Midatech Pharma PLC said Monday its 2017 loss narrowed on lower costs and reduced impairments as its approaches 2018 with a number of key "inflection" points for its oncology pipeline.
For 2017, pretax loss narrowed to GBP17.3 million from GBP29.3 million the year prior. This was after revenue and grant revenue rose to GBP7.6 million from GBP6.4 million the year before.
Profit performance was helped by a sharp fall in impairments in 2017. Impairments amounted to GBP1.5 million, compared to GBP11.4 million the year prior.
Profit also benefited from a fall in administrative and distribution, sales and marketing costs. These fell to GBP12.6 million from GBP17.6 million the year before. This more than offset the rise in research and development costs to GBP10.2 million from GBP7.8 million the year prior.
"2017 was a year of significant change and progress for Midatech," Midatech Chief Executive Officer-Designate Craig Cook said. "We have continued the development of our three lead oncology drug candidates and we now have exciting value inflection points coming up in 2018. Additionally we made good progress with our immunotherapy assets, which are now advancing toward potential clinical development. Our US commercial business recorded solid growth, achieving a breakeven Ebitda [Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] in the second half of the year."
In mid-March, Midatech announced current Chief Operating Officer Cook will replace current Chief Executive Officer Jim Phillips at the start of June.
"As we announced earlier in the year," Cook added, "Midatech has an updated leadership team and we are fully focused on advancing our R&D pipeline into clinical development and beyond. With additional funding secured, we are well-resourced to drive towards our clinical objectives. We are enthused by the prospect of delivering transformative therapies to improve patients' lives and progressing our R&D pipeline forward to address unmet needs in significant markets, driving future profitability and creating value for stakeholders."
Shares in Midatech were trading 7.4% lower at 25.00 pence on Monday.