Unilife reports losses, new initiatives

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The York County-based company announced a net loss of $25.9 million for the first quarter of its fiscal year, as well as an initiative to generate more capital by selling stock.

The Conewago Township company also said it brought in $3.2 million in revenue, but in two of its biggest line items, spent $14.6 million on research and development and $7 million on selling, general and administrative expenses.

Wall Street analysts had predicted revenue of $3.97 million, according to Yahoo Finance.

Those expenses likely will be cut going forward, as Unilife has enacted a plan to cut research and development spending by 30 percent, and selling, general and administrative costs by 20 percent. The cuts include a 24 percent reduction of the company’s workforce.

For the company’s first quarter, the cost-cutting initiatives resulted in a one-time expense of about $400,000 for severance and other costs. The company will see a cost of about $100,000 in the second quarter, but should start realizing the benefits of the cost-saving measures in the new calendar year, the company reported.

On a per-share basis, Unilife reported a net loss of 21 cents, on par with its performance in the first fiscal quarter of 2015. Analysts had predicted a loss of 15 cents.

Its adjusted loss, taking into account share-based compensation and other factors, hit 15 cents per share.

Unilife also announced a new stock sale that would raise $7.5 million after expenses. The company has said it is exploring options for its future — including a possible sale of the company — and has said it likely wouldn’t have enough capital to make it into calendar year 2016.

The company also reported it has obtained a waiver with New York City-based financier Orbimed for forgiveness of a stringent lending condition. The company needed to have $54.1 million in customer receipts in calendar year 2015 to avoid a default under a financing agreement with Orbimed. Orbimed, however, has waived the requirement.

Orbimed also agreed in October to offer an extra $10 million in debt financing, of which Unilife has received $6.9 million as of Friday.

Unilife, a developer and commercial supplier of injectable drug-delivery systems, has technologies including prefilled syringes with automatic needle retraction, drug reconstitution delivery systems, auto-injectors, wearable injectors and insulin patch pumps.

The company trades its shares on the NASDAQ exchange at the ticker symbol UNIS.