What happened
Shares of Arcturus Therapeutics (ARCT 1.45%) fell more than 18% as of 2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The clinical-stage biotech company announced second-quarter earnings after the markets closed on Monday. The stock is still up more than 52% this year.
So what
Arcturus focuses on messenger RNA (mRNA) techniques to develop vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases. The company has several late-stage candidates in its pipeline and its revenue is primarily from collaborations. In the quarter, the company reported revenue of $10.5 million, down 61.3% year over year. Arcturus said it also had a net loss of $52.6 million, or $1.98 in earnings per share (EPS), compared with a net loss of $21.6 million, or an EPS loss of $0.82, in the same period a year ago.
The company said the decrease in revenue was due to the end of an agreement with Vinbiocare and a decrease in revenue related to an agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Health. The company said it had $380.6 million in cash as of June 30, enough to fund operations through the beginning of 2026.
Now what
While the earnings drop is disappointing investors, the most important thing for the company is the development of its pipeline. The company's lead candidate is Lunar-COV19, a COVID-19 vaccine and booster it is developing in collaboration with CSL Seqirus. Meiji Seika Pharma, a partner of CSL Seqirus, just submitted a New Drug Application in Japan for the therapy. The company's lead wholly owned therapy is Lunar-OTC to treat ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, a rare genetic disease that causes ammonia to accumulate in the blood and affects more than 10,000 people worldwide. Lunar-OTC is in a phase 2 trial, with top-line data expected later this year.
