What: Shares of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals (TTPH +0.00%), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on creating next-generation antibiotics, were up more than 13% in early-morning trading after it reported third-quarter results.
So what: Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.9 million in the period, which fell short of the $3.3 million that Wall Street forecasted. Although the company came up short of expectations on the top line, it did manage to beat on its bottom line -- its reported net loss of $18.0 million, or $0.49 per share, was better than the $0.66 loss analysts projected.
Tetraphase's war chest of cash had about $222.5 million as of Sept. 30. When combined with the expected revenue from its U.S. government awards, management believes it has enough capital to fund operations into the first half of 2017 and possibly beyond.
Now what: While investors appear to be cheering this report, the company's long-term investors are still down big this year as shares of this once-promising stock were annihilated a few months back after its flagship drug, eravacycline, failed to meet its primary endpoint in a phase 3 clinical study.
Guy Macdonald, Tetraphase's president and CEO, did try to offer investors a sense of hope in the release, saying:
Despite the recent setback with the results of the IGNITE2 clinical trial in complicated urinary tract infections, we believe that we have a body of clinical and preclinical data supporting eravacycline as a potential antibiotic treatment option for patients with serious infections, particularly those caused by difficult-to-treat Gram-negative bacteria
He also noted that they continue to talk with regulatory agencies and they could still have a potential path forward. If so, they expect to announce the plan by the end of this year.
The lower-than-expected costs, mixed with the potential for a regulatory path forward, appear to be giving investors hope today, but there still remains huge uncertainty about the future of this company, so I think investors would be wise to look elsewhere for investment opportunities.
