pSivida reports revenues of $699,000 for fourth quarter 2012

Sep 25 2012

pSivida Corp. (NASDAQ: PSDV) (ASX: PVA), a leader in developing sustained release, drug delivery products for treatment of back-of-the-eye diseases, today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.    

"This has been another excellent quarter for us," said Dr. Paul Ashton, President and CEO. "The FDA recently cleared our IND for the posterior uveitis product we are independently developing, permitting us to move directly to two Phase III clinical trials with a 12 month primary end point of recurrence of uveitis and allowing us to reference much of the data, including the clinical safety data, from the clinical trials for ILUVIEN® for Diabetic Macular Edema (DME). We are currently planning the trials, which we expect will target enrollment of a total of 300 patients. Because we are using the same micro-insert used in ILUVIEN for DME, which delivers the same drug as our approved Retisert® product for posterior uveitis, we expect these trials will show efficacy with a comparable side-effect profile in uveitis patients as was seen in DME patients. As a result, we are optimistic that our micro-insert will be efficacious for posterior uveitis, with a favorable risk/benefit profile and fewer side effects compared to Retisert. At the end of June, we had over $14 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and in August raised a further $4.7 million from a registered direct offering of shares of common stock and warrants.

"We were also pleased with the progress on the commercialization of ILUVIEN for DME in the EU by our licensee Alimera Sciences. ILUVIEN has received marketing authorization in the United Kingdom, Austria, Portugal, France and Germany, and has been recommended for marketing authorization in Italy and Spain, for the treatment of vision impairment associated with DME considered insufficiently responsive to available therapies. Further, Alimera has reported its plan to launch ILUVIEN in Germany, the United Kingdom and France in 2013, and has announced a $40 million equity financing, which Alimera believes upon closing will position it financially to proceed with that commercialization," continued Dr. Ashton. "Our collaboration agreement entitles us to receive 20% of net profits, as defined, on sales of ILUVIEN by Alimera in each of these countries."

The International Diabetes Federation estimates that approximately 19 million people in these 7 EU countries are currently living with diabetes, and Alimera estimates that approximately 1 million people living there suffer from DME.

With respect to U.S. regulatory matters, Alimera has reported that it met with the FDA in an effort to gain a better understanding of the regulatory path for ILUVIEN for DME. Alimera further reported that based upon this meeting, it plans to submit a response to the FDA's second complete response letter to include additional analysis of the benefits and risks of ILUVIEN based upon clinical data available from Alimera's completed FAME™ Study. Approval in the U.S. would entitle pSivida to a $25 million milestone payment and 20% of net profits, as defined, from U.S. sales of ILUVIEN by Alimera.

"The investigator sponsored Phase I/II dose-escalation study of our bioerodible, injectable latanoprost micro-insert for glaucoma and occular hypertension is ongoing," continued Dr. Ashton. pSivida granted Pfizer an exclusive option under various circumstances to license the development and commercialization worldwide of this micro-insert for human ophthalmic disease other than uveitis.

"We are encouraged by the progress of our pre-clinical programs. In July 2012, we announced the execution of our first funded technology evaluation agreement for our Tethadur™ protein/antibody delivery technology. The agreement, which is with a leading global biopharmaceutical company, covers the field of ophthalmology. Tethadur is an application of our BioSilicon™ technology platform designed to provide sustained delivery of large biologic molecules, including peptides, proteins and antibodies using an injectable, bioerodible, nanostructured, porous BioSilicon material for drug delivery. A sustained delivery system for these types of molecules which must currently be injected into the eye every one or two months would offer a significant clinical advance in the ophthalmic area."

Revenues for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012 totaled $3.5 million compared to $5.0 million for the prior fiscal year. Revenues in both years included royalty income from sales of Retisert® by Bausch & Lomb and revenue recognition from the June 2011 amendment and restatement of the Pfizer collaboration agreement. In addition, fiscal 2012 reflected revenue recognition from the July 2011 termination of the Intrinsiq license agreement. For the year ended June 30, 2012, pSivida reported a net loss of $24.8 million, or $1.19 per share, compared to a net loss of $8.6 million, or $0.44 per share, for the prior fiscal year. Fiscal year 2012 results included a $14.8 million impairment charge for pSivida's finite-lived intangible assets arising from the November 2011 complete response letter for ILUVIEN for DME and the resulting significant decrease in pSivida's share price.

Revenues for the fiscal 2012 fourth quarter were $699,000 compared to $3.7 million for the fourth quarter a year earlier. The fiscal 2011 fourth quarter included $3.3 million of revenue recognition from the amended Pfizer collaboration agreement. pSivida reported a net loss of $2.3 million, or $0.11 per share, for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2012, compared to a net loss of $140,000, or $0.01 per share, for the fourth quarter of the prior year.

At June 30, 2012, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $14.6 million. In August 2012, the Company completed a registered direct offering of shares of common stock and warrants raising net proceeds of $4.7 million.