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British company Phytopharm Plc posted a bigger than expected year loss on Wednesday, hitting its shares as income from an experimental weight-loss product and a treatment for eczema in dogs were delayed. Shares in the company, which said payments for the projects fell just outside the end of its financial year, fell by as much as 17.3 percent.
"In this business the payments can be a bit lumpy," Chief Operating Officer Daryl Rees told Reuters.
Phytopharm, which is working with food giant Unilever to develop and launch a weight-loss product derived from the rare South African Hoodia cactus by 2009, made a loss of 5.64 million pounds ($10.75 million) in the year to Aug. 31, up from a loss of 3.3 million the year before.
At 1140 GMT Phytopharm shares were down 10.6 percent at 46-1/2 pence, valuing the firm at about 23.8 million pounds.
"Shares in Phytopharm are down over full-year results," Robin Davidson, analyst at Edison Investment Research said. "Hoodia is probably under-recognised," he added.
Rees said Phytopharm believes annual revenues from the obesity treatment could eventually reach over 1 billion pounds -- comparable with Unilever's Slimfast dieting drink before sales were hit by the popularity of the fashionable Atkins diet.
He also said Phytopharm was in talks with several companies to license its drugs for Alzheimer's and motor neurone disease. Rees said the firm expects to launch the Alzheimer's drug Cogane by 2012.
Phytopharm's revenue fell to 1.9 million pounds from 7.4 million, and the company said its cash balance was 6 million, down from 11.6 million the year before.
The company said it had received 660,000 pounds out of a total of up to 3.5 million which has been committed by Unilever to support the second stage of the development programme for the firms' weight-loss project.
Phytopharm said it had also generated 220,000 pounds of revenues from sales of dog eczema treatment Phytopica, which was launched by partner Schering-Plough.
"Losses are slightly greater and revenue lower than anticipated due to timing variations on income arising from these contracts," the firm said.
"Despite these timing issues, the development programme with Unilever remains on target as does the launch programme with Schering-Plough."
Source: reuters.com |
