ReNeuron cuts losses after Fosun licence payment
By Duncan Ferris
Date: Friday 06 Dec 2019
(Sharecast News) - ReNeuron Group on Friday reported a narrower interim loss after receiving payment from a Chinese licensee, while it also made progress in its clinical and research programmes.
The stem cell research company booked a loss before tax of £5.1m for the six months ended 30 September, compared with a loss of £6.8m in the same period last year, as revenue soared from £27,000 to £6.0m.
The leap in turnover was due to an initial gross licence fee of £6.0m that was received from Fosun Pharma, a Chinese pharmaceutical giant which is attempting to develop, manufacture and commercialise of the company's cell therapy programmes in the Far East.
The impact of this was partially offset by a 22.0% jump in research and development expenditure to £9.2m due to costs incurred in ongoing clinical trials.
The AIM traded company said it had enjoyed "significant progress" across its clinical and research programmes, having presented "very encouraging" positive efficacy data from trials of its human retinal progenitor (hRPC) cell therapy candidate in retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary eye disease.
Due to this progress and strong results, ReNeuron has opted to amend its strategy by expanding the current study with the aim of shortening the overall time to market approval application for the candidate.
Chief executive Olav Hellebø said: "We are pleased to be working with Fosun Pharma as our partner for China, following the signing of the exclusive licence agreement for both our CTX and hRPC programmes in that territory during the period. We hope to be able to announce further deals with commercial third parties across our various programmes in the months ahead."
ReNeuron shares were up by 6.87% at 136.80p at 1011 GMT.
Email this article to a friend
or share it with one of these popular networks:
You are here: news
10 Lower Thames St,
London EC3R 6EN