10th Feb 2016 12:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - GW Pharmaceuticals PLC on Wednesday said it is looking forward to an "active" 2016, reporting a wider pretax loss in its first quarter as it continued to drive its pipeline through clinical trials.
For its first quarter to end-December, the drug company reported a pretax loss of GBP21.1 million, widened considerably from a pretax loss of GBP4.5 million a year before, as a fall in revenue to GBP3.7 million from GBP8.0 million was compounded by a big step-up in research and development costs.
Research and development costs increased by GBP13.2 million in the quarter compared to the previous year, mostly as a result of increased costs related to ongoing phase III trials of Epidiolex in Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.
Additionally, GW saw higher costs as it bolstered headcount in the UK and US.
The fall in revenue was as a result of a GBP4.1 million decrease in research and development fees.
"We are on track to report top-line data from four Epidiolex Phase 3 trials in the months ahead and remain very excited at the transformational potential of these data for GW," said Chief Executive Officer Justin Gover in a statement.
"We are looking forward to an active 2016, that, in addition to the Epidiolex Phase 3 data, is expected to include our first NDA filing, expansion of our US commercial organization, and ongoing data read-outs from a number of clinical pipeline programs," Gover added.
Shares in GW Pharmaceuticals were up 2.4% at 243.15 pence Wednesday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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