Amryt Pharmaceutical records €4.1m first-half loss

Amryt Pharmaceutical, the orphan drug development business that was subject to a reverse takeover by former oil and gas group Fastnet earlier this year, has reported a €4.1 million pretax loss for the six months ending June 30th.

This compares to a full-year 2015 loss of €1.19 million.

The group said the first-half loss included an operating loss before one-off items associated with the recent reverse takeover and acquisitions of €2.1 million.

Amryt recorded revenues of €161,000 for the six months under review with turnover attributed to sales of Imlan, the company's derma-cosmetics range of products.

Fastnet Equity reversed into Amryt before spinning off its exploration assets into a separate standalone business in April. As part of the reverse takeover, Amryt raised £10 million (€12.6 million) before costs.

As of June 30th, the company had a strong balance sheet with €11.7 million in cash reserves, as against €171,000 a year earlier. The group said at the end of August, it had cash reserves of €10.7 million.

Amryt is now primarily focused on going into clinical trials on a potential therapy for a treatment for a rare, debilitating hereditary skin disorder called epidermolysis bullosa.

The company said on Tuesday that it had been granted a US patent for its lead drug, Episalvan, which follows the granting of a patent by the European Medicines Agency earlier this year.

It said it is now in the process of preparing for a pivotal phase III study for the use of Episalvan in epidermolysis bullosa treatment, which is expected to begin in early 2017.

"Amryt has an attractive mix of approved, late stage and early stage products focused on rare and orphan conditions where there is significant unmet need. We have made excellent progress in the short time since the reverse takeover on April 18th and expect this to continue in the second half of the year," said Harry Stratford, the company's non-executive chairman.