5th May 2016 11:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - GW Pharmaceuticals PLC on Thursday said it was stepping up plans to commercialise its Epidiolex product for the treatment of rare childhood epilepsy Lenoox-Gastaut syndrome, as it posted a widened pretax loss in the first half.
GW Pharmaceutics said its pretax loss widened in its first half to GBP43.4 million for the six months ended March 31 from GBP13.7 million for the same period a year earlier, as revenue fell and research and development costs rose.
GW Pharmaceuticals said its revenue more than halved in the period to GBP6.3 million from GBP14.3 million, whilst research and development costs rose to GBP50.0 million from GBP30.5 million.
GW Pharmaceuticals said the decline in revenue was due to a decrease in research and development fees, and reflects the conclusion of the partner funded Sativex Phase 3 cancer pain trials.
Its research and development costs rose as it set up its Phase 3 study in Tuberous Sclerosis, with further costs coming from the increase in staff and employment linked to increased global headcount combined with transition of the group's clinical headcount from partner funded studies to the GW Pharmaceuticals funded Epidiolex development program.
The company said it was entering into an "exciting chapter", as it starts to prepare for its first non-disclosure agreement with the Food and Drug Administration and ramped up its plans for the commercialisation of its Epidiolex product. This was after GW Pharmaceuticals received robust data from its first Phase 3 trial in Dravet syndrome.
GW Pharmaceuticals said it looks forward to its results from its Phase 3 trials in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome in the near future. In addition, it said it continues to expand its research through exploring further indications for Epidiolex as well as ongoing Phase 2 clinical programmes for "a number of our pipeline candidates".
Shares in GW Pharmaceuticals were down 1.9% at 441.00 pence on Thursday afternoon.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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