Drugs discovery group manages to reduce interim pre-tax loss
Manchester-based drugs discovery firm, C4X Discovery Holdings managed to reduce interim losses, despite, once again, achieving no revenues in the six months to January 31, 2020.
Pre-tax losses fell from £6.255m in 2019 to £4.899m.
During the year the business achieved a successful fundraise of £7.6m through the issue of new shares to both new and existing shareholders.
R&D investment was £3.6m in the six months, down £1.3m from the £4.9m in the six months ended January 31, 2019.
Cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and deposits at January 31, 2020, stood at £5.5m, compared with £2.4m at July 31, 2019, and £9.2m at January 31, 2019.
Net assets at January 31, 2020 of £10.3m compared with £7m at July 31, 2019, and £12.8m at January 31, 2019.
Chief executive Dr Clive Dix said: “We continue to progress our portfolio, with our inflammatory programmes generating significant advances.
“In particular, our lead IL-17 oral compound has progressed into lead optimisation following recent data demonstrating inhibition of inflammation following oral dosing in pre-clinical disease models.
“Our collaborations with LifeArc and Horizon Discovery, along with results from our Taxonomy3 platform, provide compelling insights as the next wave of potential candidates continue to advance.
“As a result of discussions with potential partners for our NRF-2 activator programme, we intend to enhance the licensing package and add value with additional study data focused on candidate nomination, as we did with partnered programme, Orexin-1.
“With this enhancement of our NRF-2 programme, the licensing process timeline is difficult to predict.”
Dr Dix added: “I am extremely proud that, although our focus has been to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our employees, they have risen to the challenges of progressing our business activities during these difficult times.”
C4X announced that Dr Robin Carr will lead C4XD Drug Discovery Advisory Network to identify new technologies and act as C4XD ambassadors.
Looking ahead, the company said that, ss COVID-19 continues to impact companies globally, certain elements of the business are expected to be challenged in the first half of 2020 as both C4XD and its partners endeavour to protect staff and resources during the coronavirus outbreak.
With a near virtual business model, C4XD’s employees continue to work remotely to build on the good progress made last year with a number of programmes and projects continuing to deliver compelling results.
The company’s focus throughout 2020 is to advance these programmes and to progress the ongoing commercial discussions across its portfolio.
