Drug discovery firm e-therapeutics has hailed a “pivotal year” in its mission to combine computing and biological data, despite seeing widening losses as it tries to commercialise its technology.
The Newcastle University spin-out, which has bases in Newcastle, Oxford and London, has released results for the year up to January 31 in which revenues stayed unchanged at £500,000. The company’s operating loss broadened to £10.2m, but a successful fundraise of £13.5m last September meant the firm ended the year with an improved cash position.
e-therapeutics said it was working in areas of “high unmet medical need” and had filed eight patent applications on new technology developed within the company. It also highlighted its increasing use of AI as part of its drug design work, and an increased R&D spend of £7.2m.
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After the end of the financial period, e-therapeutics said it had filed four more patent applications and had met milestones in its collaboration with US biotech firm iTeos Therapeutics that had resulted in additional payments.
Chief executive officer Ali Mortazavi said: “2022/23 was a pivotal year for e-therapeutics as we made significant progress towards realising our goal of Computing the Future of Medicine.
“Through our innovative computational approach and RNAi-based therapeutic modality, we were able to rapidly identify and pursue promising targets in multiple disease areas. We are now well-positioned to advance our pipeline of first-in-class preclinical RNAi candidates, making significant progress in just one year.
He added: “Given our established position in computational drug discovery, we are ideally positioned to capitalise on this opportunity and look forward to the future with great confidence.”
In its announcement, e-therapeutics said that it had received £1.5m in R&D tax credit, the same amount as the previous year.
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