Silence Therapeutics Loss Narrows On Asset Sale As Ponders US Listing (ALLIPO)

6th Mar 2018 12:50

LONDON (Alliance News) - Silence Therapeutics PLC said Tuesday its full year loss narrowed after profitable share sales of its NASDAQ-listed peer Arrowhead Pharmaceutical Inc as it considers a NASDAQ listing itself to fund growth activities.

In 2017, pretax loss narrowed to GBP3.8 million from GBP10.4 million the year before. This was despite revenue falling to GBP16,000 from GBP770,000 the year before and administrative expenses rising to GBP6.5 million from GBP4.0 million.

Profit performance was helped by a GBP9.1 million profit on the sale of its final stake in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals. In total, Silence generated a total USD24.7 million through its sale of shares in Arrowhead.

Silence had cash of GBP42.7 million, up from GBP39.0 million the year prior.

"2017 was a transformative and highly productive year for the company," Silence Chief Executive Officer Ali Mortazavi said. "We believe Silence is well positioned to execute its strategy of transitioning into a drug development company. We are also focused on securing strategic platform and pipeline deals in 2018 that validate our science and support the broadening of our pipeline and geographic footprint. We have established a rigorous target selection process to drive creation of a deep pre-clinical pipeline - crucial to the long-term business strategy of the company."

"We are excited by the potential of RNAi based therapies using our world class GalNAc-siRNA technology as we progress our lead asset into clinical trials, taking one step closer to making our therapeutic products available to patients, and all the while creating value in tandem for our stakeholders," Mortazavi added. "In parallel, our technology innovation team continues to advance our next generation GalNAc-siRNA platform, and we intend to introduce this innovative technology into new pipeline products later in 2018."

"As Silence continues to adopt this growth strategy," Mortazavi continued, "and in order to continue to build value for our existing shareholders, the company is currently exploring options to expand our international capital market presence, including the potential for a NASDAQ listing."

Shares in Silence were 4.7% higher at 200.00 pence on Tuesday.

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