ARQL Lifts 2018 Outlook, AXGN Q2 Revenue Up 36%, RXII Catches Eyes

(RTTNews) - Today's Daily Dose brings you news about BioCryst Pharma's stock offering; AxoGen and Blueprint Medicines' strong Q2 financial results; positive results of RXi Pharmaceuticals' phase I/II trial with RXI-109 for retinal scarring and reverse stock split of Synthetic Biologics.

Read on...

ArQule Inc. (ARQL) has turned to profit in the second quarter of 2018, reversing a year-ago quarterly loss, thanks to research and development revenue from its April 2018 Basilea licensing agreement.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2018, the Company reported net income of $5.16 million or $0.05 per share compared with a net loss of $7.20 million or $0.10 per share for the second quarter of 2017.

Revenues for the recent quarter were $13.71 million compared with revenues of zero for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

For 2018, ArQule now expects revenue to range between $21 million and $23 million and net loss to range between $10 million and $14 million, or net loss per share of $0.10 and $0.14. Earlier, the Company had forecast revenue to range between $14 million and $17 million and net loss to range between $16 million and $21 million, or loss per share of $0.18 and $0.24 for the year 2018.

ARQL closed Wednesday's trading at $5.70, up 14.46%.

AxoGen Inc. (AXGN) has reported 36% growth in the second quarter ended June 30, 2018.

Adjusted net loss for the recent second quarter widened to $3.2 million or $0.09 per share from $1.3 million or $0.04 per share in the second quarter of 2017. Revenue in the second quarter of 2018 was $20.6 million, up 36% compared to $15.2 million in the second quarter of 2017.

The Company continues to expect 2018 revenue to grow at least 40% over 2017 revenue and gross margins to remain above 80%. Revenue was $60.4 million and gross margin was 84.6% in 2017.

AXGN closed Wednesday's trading at $46.30, up 3.06%.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BCRX) has offered to sell 9.09 million shares of common stock at a price of $5.50 each.

The gross proceeds from this offering to BioCryst are expected to be $50 million. The offering is expected to close on or about August 6, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions.

The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.36 million shares of the Company's common stock.

BCRX closed Wednesday's trading at $5.52, down 6.44%.

Shares of Blueprint Medicines Corporation (BPMC) rose more than 12% on Wednesday, following a narrower Q2 loss and surge in collaboration revenue.

Collaboration revenues were $41.4 million for the second quarter of 2018 compared to $5.9 million for the second quarter of 2017. This increase was primarily due to revenue recognized under the collaboration agreement with CStone Pharmaceuticals.

Net loss narrowed to $27.0 million or $0.62 per share in the second quarter of 2018 from $33.4 million or $0.86 per share for the second quarter of 2017.

The lead product candidate in the pipeline is Avapritinib.

In June of this year, the Company initiated a phase III clinical trial evaluating Avapritinib against Regorafenib in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), dubbed VOYAGER.

Another ongoing GIST trial is known as NAVIGATOR, a phase I trial testing Avapritinib in people with advanced GIST.

There is one ongoing trial and two proposed trials of Avapritinib in the indication of systemic mastocytosis namely:

-- A phase I clinical trial of Avapritinib in patients with advanced systemic mastocytosis, dubbed Explorer, is ongoing. -- A phase II clinical trial of Avapritinib in patients with advanced systemic mastocytosis, dubbed PATHFINDER, is expected to be initiated in Q3, 2018. -- A phase II clinical trial of Avapritinib in patients with indolent and smoldering systemic mastocytosis is expected to be initiated by year-end.

BPMC closed Wednesday's trading at $66.79, up 12.18%.

Shares of RXi Pharmaceuticals Corp. (RXII) rose more than 20% on Wednesday, following positive results from a phase I/II trial with RXI-109 for retinal scarring.

According to the Company, the study successfully met the primary objective of showing that RXI-109 is safe and well tolerated and secondary objectives of improved or stable disease.

RXII closed Wednesday's trading at $1.79, up 20.95%.

Synthetic Biologics Inc. (SYN) is all set to implement a 1:35 reverse stock split, effective August 10, 2018.

The Company's common stock will begin trading on a split-adjusted basis when the market opens on August 13, 2018.

As a result of the reverse split, the number of outstanding common shares will be reduced from 132,969,743 shares to 3,799,136 shares.

SYN closed Wednesday's trading at $0.19, up 9.67%.