Burcon NutraScience Corporation reported results for the fiscal fourth quarter and year ended March 31, 2015. Q4 revenues totaled $26,000, slightly lower than the prior quarter and consistent with the same year-ago period.
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Q4 revenues were derived mainly from deferred royalty payments from ADM for CLARISOY sales. The nominal revenues reflect the company’s development phase status as it transitions to the commercial stage.
Revenues for the fiscal year totaled $105,000 compared to $95,000 in fiscal 2014, whichwere alsoderived mainly from deferred royalty payments from ADM.
Royalty revenues from the sale by ADM of CLARISOYâ„¢as produced from their semi-works facility in Decatur, Illinois have been marginal. The main purpose of the semi-works plant has been to provide commercial samples for market development purposes and to facilitate other product development work.
Q4 net loss totaled $1.5 million or $(0.05) per basic and diluted share, as compared to a net loss of $1.2 million or $0.04 per basic and diluted share in the same year-ago quarter.
For the fullfiscalyear, net loss totaled $6.6 million or $0.20 per basic and diluted share, as compared to a net loss of $6 million or $(0.19) per basic and diluted share in fiscal 2014.
Research and development (R&D)expenses totaled $665,000 in the fourth quarter, increasing from $599,000 in the same year-ago quarter. The increase is due mainly to higher stock-based compensation expense and technical staff being on leave in the year-ago quarter.
For the fiscal year, R&D expenses totaled $2.5 million, relatively unchangedfrom the same year-ago quarter.
General and administrative (G&A) expenses in the fourth fiscal quarter increased to $1,146,000 from $788,000 in the year-ago quarter, and increased to $4.5 million in fiscal 2015from $4.0 million inthefiscal 2014.
The bulk of the increase in G&A expenses for the quarter is due mainly to an increase in patent legal fees, with significant fees incurred for patent applications that entered national phase and to patent applications that were granted in Europe that incurred registration fees in various European countries.
The increase of G&A expenses over the fiscal 2014 is mainly attributed to the recognition of warrants issued to guarantors of the April 2014 rights offering of $358,000, with the balance to higher patent legal fees.
At March 31, 2015, cash and short-term investments totaled $3.7 million compared to $1.4 million at March 31, 2014. In April 2015, Burcon completed a rights offering that provided net cash proceeds of $3.35 million.
Management believes it has sufficient resources to fund its expected level of operations and working capital requirements until at least July 2016. ■