Pharmos Corporation 1999 Loss Narrows vs. 1998; Second Round of Financing Results in Total Raise of $12.8 Million
Monday, March 6, 2000 06:40 PM Mail this article to a friend
ISELIN, N.J., March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Pharmos Corporation (Nasdaq: PARS, news, msgs) today reported 1999 product revenues increased 176% over 1998 to $3,279,397 with a net loss of $4,618,190, or $.11 per share for the twelve months ended December 31, 1999, compared to a net loss of $4,663,346, or $.15 per share, for the comparable period ended December 31, 1998. The revenue increase contributed to the funding of higher levels of research & development and general & administrative expenses during the year.
"Revenue growth during the year allowed us to initiate a more intense level of discovery and pre-clinical work on our neurology, CNS and cancer programs," said Dr. Haim Aviv, Pharmos' Chairman and CEO. "The increase in G&A expenses from 1998 merely reflects a return to a more normal level of operation."
In addition to increased activity in the Company's discovery pipeline, Pharmos filed its loteprednol etabonate 0.5% ophthalmic suspension anti-inflammatory product for marketing approval in the UK in December. Known in the US as Lotemax(R) the product will be marketed upon approval in the UK under the tradename Loterox(TM) by Bausch & Lomb Pharmaceuticals, a division of Bausch & Lomb Incorporated (NYSE: BOL, news, msgs). Pharmos expects to file its second product, the ophthalmic anti-allergy product Alrex(R), in the UK within the next few months. Upon approval, the products will be submitted for approval in other European countries through a Mutual Recognition procedure.
"We anticipate continued revenue growth from our ophthalmic pipeline," commented Gad Riesenfeld, Ph.D., President and COO. "We are particularly anxious to file the NDA for our third ophthalmic product, LE-T, as soon as possible because we believe this product has great commercial potential." The Company, together with Bausch & Lomb Pharmaceuticals, is completing work on LE-T and expects to file the NDA later this year.
Pharmos also announced today that it has completed a second round of financing by taking down the remaining unallocated shares of its shelf registration, raising an additional $5.5 million in gross proceeds. The shares were sold at prices ranging from $2.50 to $6.25. Combined with the previously reported $7.3 million financing, the Company raised a total of $12.8 million in this exercise. "We felt it was extremely important to take quick advantage of the improvement in the Company's stock price," said Robert W. Cook, Pharmos Vice President Finance and CFO. "The stock price's upward movement afforded us a great opportunity to lock in funding to support the Company's development programs while our ophthalmic revenues continue their steady growth. Now, in addition to the clinical development of dexanabinol for traumatic brain injury, we can put more resources behind our dexanabinol analog and SERM discovery programs." Dexanabinol analogs and SERMs (Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators) are compounds actively being explored by the Company in early stage studies for use in CNS (Central Nervous System) diseases, as well as in neurological, oncological and other indications.
Pharmos Corporation is a bio-pharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes products for the ophthalmic, central nervous system, neurological and other key healthcare markets. The Company has a diverse product pipeline that includes: marketed products with superior therapeutic indexes, and drug candidates with enhanced molecular structures that display improved safety and/or efficacy properties compared to the parent molecules or to competing products.
Statements made in this press release related to operational expectations of the Company, to the continued market penetration of its drug products, and to the development and commercialization of the Company's pipeline products are forward-looking and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties which may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in these statements. Additional economic, competitive, governmental, technological, marketing and other factors identified in Pharmos' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission could affect such results.
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