- Acerus Pharmaceuticals (TSX:ASP) has seen drop in quarterly revenue in the first months of 2020, due to a shortage of its drugs in the Canadian market
- The company’s quarterly revenue fell to approximately C$0.14 million, compared to around $3.08 million in 2019’s corresponding period
- The company’s Natesto drug is currently awaiting Health Canada approval before it can be re-released to the public
- With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the company’s operations, Acerus has generated approximately $25.19 million in financing for its ongoing US growth strategy
- Before the market opens, Acerus Pharmaceuticals (ASP) is trading at $0.50 per share with a market cap of $50.82 million
Acerus Pharmaceuticals (TSX:ASP) has seen drop in quarterly revenue in 2020’s first quarter, due to a shortage of its drugs in the Canadian market.
The company’s first quarter revenue fell to approximately C$0.14 million, compared to around $3.08 million in 2019’s corresponding period.
The company attributed the drop in revenue to the impact of Natesto and Estrace drug shortages in Canada.
After issues were identified with a batch of Natesto testosterone gel, the company modified the manufacturing process.
This resulted in Health Canada requiring a Supplemental New Drug Submission to re-approve the drug before it can be re-released to the public.
Production problems with the drug have caused Acerus to incur a one-time $0.98 million impairment related to previously sold Natesto products.
The drop in revenue resulted in a similar decline in the company’s gross margin, which sank to approximately $0.14 million, versus $2.10 million in 2019’s same quarter.
Consequently, Acerus recorded a marginal increase in losses this quarter, approximately $6.58 million, compared to around $6.16 million in 2019’s first quarter.
Looking forward, early last month Acerus announced it was seeing a significant impact to its business as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the company expects its operations to begin recovering slowly as populations begin emerging from quarantine restrictions.
As a result, the company has generated approximately $25.19 million to put towards its ongoing US growth strategy.
Ed Gudaitis, President and CEO of Acerus, remains confident about the strategy, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.
“Even with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic we continue to position Acerus for the execution of our US strategy in conjunction with our partners Syneos Health and Aytu Bioscience.
“We made significant progress in the past quarter building our US Commercial and Medical Affairs organizations. We have launched our National Accounts team in the quarter, and we are actively engaged with US payers,” he said.
Before the market opens, Acerus Pharmaceuticals (ASP) is trading at $0.50 per share with a market cap of $50.82 million.
