Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc(NASDAQ: PTLA) stock lost over 28% on March 1st, 2018 hurt by the weak fourth quarter of 2017.
For the fourth quarter of 2017, the collaboration and license revenue earned under Portola’s collaboration and license agreements with BMS, Pfizer, Bayer, J&J, Daiichi Sankyo, and Dermavant Sciences fell to $9.8 million against $13.7 million in prior corresponding period. Collaboration and license revenue fell to $22.5 million for fiscal year against $35.5 million in pcp. Portola reported a net loss of $91.8 million, or $1.41 net loss per share during the quarter against a net loss of $53.8 million, or $0.95 net loss per share, for the same period in 2016. Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders fell to 65.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2017 against 56.5 million in pcp.
On the other hand, the group got FDA approval for the first medicine, Bevyxxa. With the commercialization of Bevyxxa, we they entered into an exciting new phase for the Company, focusing on delivering treatments for life-threatening diseases and conditions, which positions us for long-term growth. Bevyxxa is the first and only anticoagulant approved as a single-drug regimen from hospital admission to home for up to 35 to 42 days and this to prevent VTE including VTE-related deaths and hospitalization in acute medically ill patients. The group also got FDA approval for a second Prior Approval Supplement or PAS in early 2018 and will now manufacture betrixaban at their commercial CMO site in Cork, Ireland. The group got the regulatory refiling of the Biologics Licensing Application or BLA for breakthrough-designated Factor Xa inhibitor universal agent, AndexXa, which has an FDA action date of May 4. Factor Xa inhibitor is growing at rapidly surpassing their expectations. AndexXa would be the first and only antidote for Factor Xa inhibitor treated patients with a life-threatening bleeding.
The group continued to advance their investigational oral Syk/JAK kinase inhibitor for treating relapsed/refractory B-cell and other T-cell malignancies in patients who have failed multiple therapies. With its dual-pathway mechanism of action, cerdulatinib may be more effective in specific patients than a single-pathway agent. They also reported a positive interim results which showed between a 40% and 60% response rate across three tumor types, including complete responses that they saw in peripheral T cell lymphoma or PTCL.
For 2018, the group is planning for another transformational year at Portola. They started in January with the U.S. commercial launch of Bevyxxa and also approaching the FDA action date for AndexXa.