Mithra suffers on the stock market after its half-yearly figures

Mithra

, the Liège specialist in women's health, saw its turnover increase by 55% in the first half of 2019, from 12.6 million euros to 19.6 million. Revenue from continuing operations has, meanwhile, recorded a 191% increase, compared to 6.7 million in June 2018. As a reminder, François Fornieri's company separated in July 2018 from its portfolio of generic medicines in Belgium and Luxembourg, sold to Ceres Pharma.

The increase in turnover is mainly due to licensing products concluded with major players in women's health, such as Gedeon Richter for 15 million euros, says Mithra in a statement released this Thursday morning.

The biopharma company, which celebrates its 20th anniversary, reports a marked improvement inEBITDA, with a strong growth (+ 78%) from -11.5 million to -2.5 million, "a record level for half-year results since the IPO", welcomes the CEO François Fornieri in the release.

At the same time, Mithra still has dug his net loss. Following the positive results of phase III and the transition to the preparation phase of the submission dossier, the probabilities of successful commercialization of the Estelle contraceptive increased significantly, leading to an increase in the net loss from 28.9 million to 105.7 million.

The more successful this treatment is, the higher the milestone payments and royalties for former product owners will be for Mithra. This result "is explained by the evolution of the fair value of the potential liabilities (or" earn outs ") for -98.9 million, as well as by the evolution of the amortized costs of the public advances recoverable by -4, 9 million ", explains Mithra in his statement. "These two items have no effect on the cash flow, their impact is due to the increase of the probabilities of success mentioned above", still makes society worthwhile.

On the side of Treasury, the company shows itself serene, with 77.5 million in cash. Which according to Mithra, "helps to ensure new R & D developments, with good visibility on its evolution thanks to the portfolio of contracts already signed and new partnership agreements to come."

The company is waiting for the signature of a major agreement for the marketing of Estelle in the USA. "Our comfortable financial situation is a key asset, it allows us to have the time necessary to the conclusion of the best possible partnership for the commercialization of our blockbuster candidate Estelle in the United States", François Fornieri comments again.

Mithra recalls, moreover, that it intends to to file the registration dossier for her contraceptive Estelle with regulatory agencies by the end of this year and that Phase III studies for Donesta, the product against the harmful effects of menopause, will be as for them launched in the second half of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.