24th Mar 2016 10:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - Biopharmaceutical company PuriCore PLC, which makes products which prevent the spread of pathogens, on Thursday reported an widened pretax loss for 2015 despite growth in revenue due to higher operating costs.
PuriCore said it made a pretax loss of USD9.6 million for the year to the end of December, compared to USD7.0 million a year earlier.
Revenue grew 37% to USD23.4 million from USD17.1 million, but this was offset by higher operating costs across the board driven by higher research and development costs on drug development, regulatory investments and some one-off write-offs.
Supermarket revenue in the year grew 42%, with strong sales of its ProduceFresh and FloraFresh products and an agreement in the US on its Sterilox Fresh line. Health Sciences revenue slumped around 60% due to the termination of a dermatology partnership.
PuriCore completed a strategic review in February and is now considering its options for the Supermarket Retail unit, including a possible spin-off. PuriCore noted the unit delivered robust top-line growth in 2015, but still requires investments to boost its operations.
"We made good progress in 2015, most notably in finalising the outcome of our strategic and operational review which, as announced in February 2016, focuses on leveraging our proprietary immunomodulatory technology to develop novel, topical treatments for inflammatory diseases," said Alex Martin, PuriCore's chief executive.
"We are excited about the prospects of our new drug development strategy and look forward to sharing more as it progresses," he added.
Shares in PuriCore were untraded on Thursday, having last traded at 25.10 pence.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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