Half-year results from PureTech (PRTC) are typical of an early-stage drugs developer. Revenue remains negligible, generated exclusively from milestone payments from big pharma partners, while a big upswing in clinical trial costs sent operating losses up 65 per cent to $57m (£44m).
But it is best to look beyond the headline numbers for evidence of progress in the six months reported on here. The group has advanced six of its clinical studies, meaning two of its companies – Akili and Gelesis – are due to report data from pivotal trials before the end of the year. Positive results from these projects will allow the group to file the therapies with drugs regulators in the US and the EU. Meanwhile, PureTech’s microbiome specialist Vedanta has been granted five new patents in the US and Japan for various bacterial strains. And the group has established a new respiratory tract infection specialist company – resTORbio – following a license and equity agreement with Swiss pharma giant Novartis.
The group raised $12m of additional external funding for its companies in the period, while it retains a strong balance sheet with $248m of cash. Although this looks like substantial firepower for further investment, broker Numis expects annual research and development costs to exceed $80m until at least 2019.
| PURETECH (PRTC) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 135p | MARKET VALUE: | £320m | |
| TOUCH: | 135-139p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 170p | LOW: 110p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 58ȼ | NET CASH: | $248m | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover ($'000) | Pre-tax profit ($m) | Earnings per share (ȼ) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2016 | 243 | -44.5 | -13.0 | nil |
| 2017 | 665 | -67.2 | -18.0 | nil |
| % change | +174 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | na | |||
| Payment: | na | |||
| £1=$1.29 | ||||
