Sareum expects FY losses to widen on higher R&D costs, supply delays

British drugmaker Sareum said on Thursday that it expects to post a widened full-year loss as a result of increased research-and-development expenditure and delays in compound supply.

Sareum stated its loss on ordinary activities after taxation for the year ended 30 June was expected to be approximately £1.6m, widened from £960,000 in the prior year, reflecting increased R&D expenditure required for preclinical development.

The AIM-listed firm added that recent delays in compound supply mean that its SDC-1801 candidate was now scheduled to commence its final preclinical studies at the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2021. However, Sareum still aims to file a clinical trial application by the end of the quarter, subject to no further delays.

Sareum also highlighted that it had raised £2.37m in June via two subscriptions to a "high net worth individual" and has also raised a further £2.18m through share subscriptions to two additional "high net worth individuals" and an exercise of warrants in July and August.

Chief executive Dr Tim Mitchell said: "The past year has seen Sareum advance the preclinical development of our proprietary dual TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor programmes, with the goal of completing preclinical development of SDC-1801 and filing for clinical trials approval by the end of 2021.

"We are particularly pleased to have raised substantial additional funding during the period, which will be deployed to advance these programmes into clinical development and build a robust data package to support our ongoing partnering activities for these exciting and differentiated assets."

As of 1050 BST, Sareum shares were down 3.74% at 7.86p.