SINGAPORE (Feb 8): iX Biopharma announced 2Q losses widened nearly fivefold to $3.24 million from $0.67 million a year ago.
Revenue increased by 7% to $1.75 million from $1.64 million last year, mainly led by the increase in revenue across all the group’s divisions.
Its chemical analysis division recorded a 4% increase in revenue to $1.68 million, while its specialty pharmaceutical division was up by 60% to $24,000. The group’s nutraceuticals division, Entity Healthy, launched 12 new products via its e-commerce portal in Nov 2017, which derived a revenue of $46,000.
Cost of sales however increased by 16% to $1.25 million from $1.08 million a year ago. This comprised mainly personnel and consumable expenses relating to provision of chemical analysis services.
Hence, gross profit for the quarter came in at $0.50 million, 10% lower than $0.56 million recorded in 2Q17.
The group’s research and development expenses increased by 42% to $1.19 million compared to $0.84 million the previous year, as it undertook R&D activities in pharmaceutical product developments, including formulation and manufacturing for clinical trials.
Sales and marketing expenses also increased by 155% to $0.57 million from $0.22 million a year ago, as it started commercialisation of its Entity Health nutraceutical products. The increased expense was mainly in headcount and marketing efforts in product launch.
During the quarter the group incurred a loss of $0.69 million its other expenses, compared to a gain of $1.21 million last year, due to currency fluctuations of the USD and AUD against SGD for the group’s foreign currency denominated cash deposits and receivables from its subsidiaries.
Looking forward, the group will be undertaking more marketing activities over the next 12 months to promote its products in the region.
Separately, the group announced that it has been granted a patent for WaferiX in China.
The patent that expires on Oct 11, 2033, allows the group to exclusively use and obtain protection for its WaferiX drug delivery technology in China.
WaferiX is a fast-dissolving, proprietary wafer formulation that allows pharmacologically active compounds, such as ketamine and sildenafil, to be administered sublingually and delivered into the blood stream.
With the receipt of this China patent, iX Biopharma’s intellectual property rights for its technology is now secured in key Asian markets, including Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan.
Shares in iX Biopharma closed at 20 cents on Thursday.
