e-Therapeutics PLC’s (LON:ETX) annual results revealed a year of significant progress exploiting the potential of its network-driven drug discovery, including its first commercial research collaboration.
That particular tie-up, with the Danish multi-national Novo Nordisk focusing on type-2 diabetes, provided “important validation” of its technology, the company said.
It added that business development activities continued with “a number of discussions progressing on a range of revenue-generating and value-creating deals”.
READ: Danish drugs giant Novo Nordisk to use e-Therapeutics’ technology in searchfor new diabetes treatments
Interestingly, chairman Iain Ross said his team was looking at “alternative sources of funding”, broader industry partnerships and potentially M&A deals “in order to fully exploit all [e-Therapeutics’] assets and capabilities”.
The life sciences group said the current partnerships with companies such as C4X Discovery, Biorelate and Intellegens were “delivering”. Meanwhile, in-house work on patient work in breast cancer has yielded “promising results”.
In common with most businesses at this formative stage of development, e-Therapeutics was loss-making. It posted a £5.1mln operating deficit for the 12 months to the end of January as it burned £3.7mln in cash. More importantly, it was sitting on funds of £5.9mln as at the year-end.
“In executing our plans, we have managed our cash and resources carefully to nurture our core business and to enable us to continue to offer a range of assets and capabilities to the industry,” said chief executive Ray Barlow.
“We remain focused on our extensive business development efforts and are in a number of detailed discussions with potential partners.
“Confident in the broad versatility and utility of the NDD platform, we remain focused on translating this into value for our shareholders."