Acasti Pharma ends its fiscal 2Q with US$11.6M in cash after streamlining operations

Acasti Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:ACST) posted fiscal second quarter results Monday, revealing a net loss that narrowed year-over-year. 

The company reported a net loss of US$6.1 million, $0.06 per share, for the three months ended September 30. That’s down from a loss of $21.2 million, $0.25 per share, in the same period of 2019. 

Its cash on hand was $11.6 million as of September 30, which the company believes will fully fund its operations through the first half of 2021 or to an eventual completion of its evaluation of strategic options.

READ: Acasti Pharma initiates review process to evaluate strategic alternatives to boost shareholder value

“We remain committed to maximizing value for our shareholders, and as previously disclosed, we are actively exploring and evaluating a range of strategic options,” CEO Jan D’Alvise said in a statement. “We have also taken a number of proactive steps to preserve our cash by reducing staff, discontinuing all commercialization activities and putting R&D activities on hold. This has resulted in certain one-time and non-cash charges as reflected in our financial statements this quarter.”

The company is moving forward with analysis of its TRILOGY Phase 3 trials of the drug CaPre in patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia. Topline results were released earlier this year, and although the triglyceride reduction in the CaPre arm was one of the largest seen amongst previously conducted triglyceride reduction studies, the drug did not meet its primary endpoint.

“While we continue to pursue strategic alternatives, we plan to complete the full data analyses for TRILOGY as contemplated in the Statistical Analysis Plan, including the pooling of the data from TRILOGY 1 and 2,” D’Alvise said. “As previously disclosed, we plan to provide an update on the final TRILOGY data when feasible.”

Regarding strategic options, the company hired Oppenheimer & Co Inc on September 29 to assist in the sreview process. Potential options could include a merger, business combination or other strategic combination.

Contact Andrew Kessel at [email protected]

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Story by ProactiveInvestors