Inovio Pharmaceuticals logs Q4 earnings, sales beat

Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:INO) topped sales and earnings estimates on Wall Street yesterday with its fourth quarter and full year results.

The Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based company posted a net loss of -$21.5 million on sales of $8.8 million for the 3 months ended Dec. 31, for bottom-line growth of 17.9% on sales growth of 3.5% compared with the same period last year.

Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were -24¢, ahead of consensus on The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $7.5 million.

For the full year, Inovio posted a net loss of -$88.2 million, down -19.7% compared to 2016, on sales of $42.2 million – up 19.2% from the previous year.

“Inovio continues to be well-positioned to bring forth relentless innovation and executional excellence towards advancing DNA immunotherapies to treat both cancer and infectious diseases,” president & CEO Joseph Kim said on a call with investors. “In addition to our precancer and cancer-focused therapies, Inovio continues to effectively utilize recent grant and non-dilutive funding for our infectious diseases platform. These collaborations and funding continues to support our versatile technology while providing us with multiple out-licensing opportunities.”

INO shares closed at $4.47 apiece yesterday, down -1.5%.

In January this year, Inovio announced that it inked an amended collaboration and licensing deal with ApolloBio for its DNA immunotherapy product designed to treat the pre-cancers caused by human papillomavirus.

The exclusive partnership is limited to China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, but it could also include the Republic of Korea over the next three years, Inovio reported. In connection with the deal, ApolloBio is slated to pay $23 million upfront and as much as $20 million later, based on certain milestones.

Inovio’s plasmid DNA immunotherapy is injected intramuscularly, followed by electroporation using the company’s Cellectra delivery device. Cellectra uses a pulse of electricity to briefly open the pores in a cell’s membrane and introduce the DNA.

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