Redx Pharma enjoys good progress during first-half

Two months after its admission to AIM, Redx Pharma said its first-half results were in line with expectations thanks to progress on potential MRSA drugs.Losses before tax rose 60.5% to £3.26m due to a decrease in grant funding and operating expenses increased 5% to £5.48m.The drug discovery and development company recently reached the pre-clinical development stage with a new anti-infective compound designed to tackle MRSA, the bacteria that causes potentially lethal infections in humans.It also announced the launch of its third subsidiary, Redx Immunology. The company said the new division, launched in May, is expected to generate additional pipeline assets and further partnering and licencing deals.Redx has a portfolio of 13 property drug programs focused on cancer and infectious disease.Shore Capital analysts said this was "an impressive achievement for such a young company over a relatively short period of time since its inception".It also secured five commercial partnerships and collaborations, including with AstraZeneca and the NHS.Chief executive Neil Murray said: "I remain very optimistic about the opportunities available to us and Redx's admission to AIM and share placing at the end of March will help to support our ambitious plans for our ongoing development."Shore Capital added: "We continue to believe that the combination of market need from big pharma and well capitalised life sciences companies, the areas of market need (tumour immunology & cancer stem cells in oncology and multi-drug resistance in anti-infectives) should lead to Redx attracting commercial partnerships on financially beneficial terms."