Diurnal announces Interim Results for the six months ended 31 December 2015
Diurnal Group plc (AIM: DNL), the specialty pharmaceutical company targeting patient needs in chronic endocrine (hormonal) diseases, announces its maiden results for the six months ended 31 December 2015.
Operational highlights
Initial Public Offering on the Alternative Investment Market (“AIM”) of the London Stock Exchange in December 2015, raising £30m before expenses via a placing of new ordinary shares and a convertible loan
First patient treated in the Company’s European Phase III trial of Chronocort® in Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, following the period end
First patient treated in the Company’s European follow-on study of the Phase III Infacort® registration trial in paediatric Adrenal Insufficiency, post period end
Strengthening of the Board with the appointment of Peter Allen as Non-executive Chairman and John Goddard as Non-executive Director
Financial overview
Operating loss of £3.5m (H1 2014/15: £1.3m) reflecting investment in increased clinical and development activities together with investment in overheads to support the anticipated growth and development of the business
Cash and cash equivalents at 31 December 2015 of £33.1m (31 Dec 2014: £5.8m) following the successful AIM IPO and fundraising
Net assets of £28.6m (31 Dec 2014: £5.5m)
Net cash used in operating activities was £2.0m (H1 2014/15: £1.0m)
Martin Whitaker, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Diurnal, commented:
“I am pleased to announce our first set of results as a listed company. The Board is grateful for the continued support of the Company’s existing shareholders together with the investment made by new investors in the £30m fundraising and AIM IPO in December. These monies enable the Company to continue to pursue its vision of becoming a world-leading endocrinology speciality pharmaceutical company. In the near term, it allows Diurnal to maintain the momentum behind its late stage development programmes for treatments targeting Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia and Adrenal Insufficiency and where we anticipate market authorisation of our first product towards the end of 2017.”
In the Interim Results:
“H1” refers to the six month period ended 31 December
“bn”, “m” and “k” represent billion, million and thousand respectively
“Group” is the Company and its subsidiary undertaking, Diurnal Limited
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For further information, please visit www.diurnal.co.uk or contact:
Diurnal Group PLC
+44 (0)20 3727 1000
Martin Whitaker, CEO
Ian Ardill, CFO
Numis Securities Ltd
+44 (0)20 7260 1000
Nominated Adviser: Michael Meade, Freddie Barnfield, Paul Gillam
Corporate Broking: James Black
FTI Consulting
+44 (0)20 3737 1000
Simon Conway
Victoria Foster Mitchell
Notes to Editors
About Diurnal
Diurnal is a clinical stage specialty pharmaceutical company targeting patient needs in chronic endocrine (hormonal) diseases which the Company believes are currently not satisfactorily met by existing treatments. It has identified a number of specialist endocrinology market opportunities in Europe and the US that are together estimated to be worth more than $11bn per annum.
On its admission to AIM in December 2015, the Company raised £30 million by way of a placing of new ordinary shares and a convertible loan. The new funds will accelerate the development of two leading product candidates which are in, or expected to commence shortly, Phase III clinical trials, targeting diseases of cortisol deficiency; Chronocort®, to be used for Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (“CAH”) in adults, and Infacort®, to be used for Adrenal Insufficiency (“AI”), including CAH in children. The lead product candidate, Infacort®, is anticipated to receive its first regulatory approval in Europe towards the end of 2017.
For further information about Diurnal, please visit www.diurnal.co.uk
Certain information contained in this announcement, including any information as to the Group’s strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance, constitutes “forward-looking statements”. These forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms “believes”, “estimates”, “anticipates”, “projects”, “expects”, “intends”, “aims”, “plans”, “predicts”, “may”, “will”, “seeks” “could” “targets” “assumes” “positioned” or “should” or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, goals, future events or intentions. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. They appear in a number of places throughout this announcement and include statements regarding the intentions, beliefs or current expectations of the Directors concerning, among other things, the Group’s results of operations, financial condition, prospects, growth, strategies and the industries in which the Group operates. The directors of the Company believe that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable, but may be affected by a number of variables which could cause actual results or trends to differ materially. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future or are beyond the Group’s control. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Even if the Group’s actual results of operations, financial condition and the development of the industries in which the Group operates are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this document, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods.