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Fortress Biotech shares rise after posting better-than-expected 2Q results on new drug advances

Last updated: 12:05 10 Aug 2018 EDT, First published: 11:30 10 Aug 2018 EDT

Pills and bottles
The company's subsidiary Mustang Bio recently launched a Car-T cell manufacturing facility

The biopharmaceutical group Fortress Biotech Inc (NASDAQ:FBIO) saw its shares climb Friday after posting better-than-expected results for the second quarter helped by new drug advances from its subsidiaries.

The company came out with a loss of US$0.50 per share in the second quarter, or US$21.6mln, on revenue of US$63.83mln, which was a better performance than the loss of US$0.63 per share on revenue of US$49.78mln, which Wall Street had predicted.

In response, investors sent Fortress shares up 6.9% to US$2.28 in Friday’s morning trading session.

Compared to the year-ago quarter, however, the results look less impressive. The company’s net loss deepened when compared to its loss of US$17.4mln or US$0.43 in the same period last year.

Fortress looks to subsidiaries for revenue and victories in the lab

On the list of quarterly achievements from Fortress’s six subsidiaries was positive data from Avenue Therapeutics’ IV tramadol, which would be the only Schedule IV intravenous opioid in the US if approved.

Cyprium Therapeutics was also granted a fast-track designation by the Food and Drug Administration for its CUTX-101 Copper Histidinate injection in patients with Menkes disease, a rare pediatric disease.

Lastly, its subsidiary Mustang Bio Inc (NASDAQ:MBIO) launched a 27,000 square foot CAR-T cell manufacturing facility that will help to improve its supply-chain.

Read: Fortress Biotech subsidiary Aevitas Therapeutics enters into gene therapy research project with University of Pennsylvania

As of the close of June, Fortress had cash and cash equivalents of US$151.8mln, down from the US$168.3mln it reported at the close of December.

Based in New York, Fortress controls a number of biotech subsidiaries, including Aevitas Therapeutics, Avenue Therapeutics, Caelum Biosciences, Checkpoint Therapeutics, Cyprium Therapeutics and Mustang Bio.

Its research and development expenses swung to US$17.5mln in the second quarter, of which US$15.1mln related to its subsidiaries.

Contact Ellen Kelleher at ellen@proactiveinvestors.com

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