Respiratory drug discovery and development company Synairgen PLC (LON:SNG) remains on track to advance a Pharmaxis compound into Phase I trials this year.
In its full-year results for 2016 it said it made excellent progress last year I collaboration with Pharmaxis on the development of an LOXL2 inhibitor to treat or prevent fibrosis.
A compound should be in the clinic for trials in the second half of this year.
Meanwhile, the company said it would perform an in-depth analysis of the data being provided by AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) after the drugs giant returned the rights last month for “strategic reasons” to a promising respiratory drug, AZD9412 (inhaled interferon beta or IFN-beta) .
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Based on encouraging and recently published and unpublished work (from emerging research at the University of Southampton) the opportunity for further clinical development for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients will be actively investigated.
As for the financial results, the company is a pre-revenue one and currently remains loss-making.
Research & development costs in the year went up to £2.42mln from £1.36mln the year before, while other administrative expenses eased to £1.02mln from £1.28mln.
The loss from operations widened to £3.44mln from £2.61mln.
The company ended 2016 with cash and deposit balances of £4.77min (£7.71mln).
House broker finnCap said the cash position was some £1.2mln higher than expected, which it put down to lower research & development costs, which were timing related, and better than expected working capital.
“As indicated in late April, Synairgen intends to conduct a thorough analysis of all data arising from the AZ Phase IIa study with the intention of providing an update in the next 1-2 months. The possibility of using inhaled Interferonbeta (IFN-beta) in COPD, given recently published data indicating the link between colds and exacerbations in COPD, suggests the analysis to be warranted,” opined finnCap.
“Target price remains under review, pending outcome of analysis,” finnCap revealed.
“Suffice to say, the progress of LOXL2 into Phase I is a valuation inflection point in itself, worth as much as 5-10p per share but excluding any upfront payments,” it added.
The shares were off three-eights of a penny at 10.875p in mid-morning trading.
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