The new figures arriving on our collective doorstep illustrating the spread of the coronavirus, point up the need for health-care companies to step up their efforts to find treatments for the virus which has claimed thousands in just a few short weeks.
Even so, health-care companies did climb the charts on both sides of the border Wednesday, hurtling higher 3.7% in New York, while the TSX health-care sector improved 1.1%.
Sirona Biochem Corp. (TSX-Venture:SBM) headed for the heavens early Wednesday afternoon, after the Vancouver-based firm revealed it had signed a Letter of Intent with the Chinese pharmaceutical company, Beijing Huaxi Pharma Co, Ltd., ranked number-five in the field of pharmaceutical development in China, to engage in a collaborative effort to bring Sirona's product pipeline to commercial-ready stage for the global market.
Wednesday morning’s news release stopped short, however, of suggesting the partners were collaborating specifically on a coronavirus treatment.
Huaxipharm says it will co-develop on all steps to complete full commercialization of the products created by Sirona. This includes preclinical, clinical development, regulatory, commercial scale up and manufacturing for commercial applications of Sirona's compounds for indications mutually agreed upon in the definitive agreement.
SBM strengthened in price 3.5 cents, or 9.9%, to 39 cents, on 395,000 shares.
South of the line, San Diego-based Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDTX), focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel anti-infectives, came out with financials Wednesday, both quarterly and yearly.
Revenues were $1.8 million for the three months ended December 31, and $20.9 million for the full year, compared to no revenue for the same periods in 2018.
Quarterly net loss was $14.0 million, compared to a net loss of $12.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2018. Net loss for the year was $41.1 million, compared to a net loss of $59.0 million for the prior-year.
CEO Jeffrey Stein, while also steering clear of connection to fighting coronavirus, acknowledged what a breakthrough year it had been.
"We… announced the nomination of our Cloudbreak development candidate, CD377, which we plan to develop as the first antiviral drug conjugate (AVC) with the potential for universal, once-per-season prevention, as well as treatment of influenza."
CDTX shares hiked 36 cents, or 12.6%, to $3.22, on volume topping 1.02 million shares.
