Biotech ARYx Therapeutics Reports Smaller 2Q Loss

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) — Development-stage biotechnology company ARYx Therapeutics Inc. said Thursday its second-quarter loss shrank as it reduced expenses, but the company recorded no revenue.

ARYx said it lost $9.4 million, or 34 cents per share, compared with a loss of $11.9 million, or 67 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

In 2008, the company recorded $1.1 million in revenue from a collaboration agreement with Proctor & Gamble Pharmaceuticals that ended in July 2008.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected, on average, a loss of 33 cents per share with no revenue.

ARYx said research and development expenses for the quarter fell to $6.3 million from $10 million due in part to the completion of some clinical studies.

The company said its cash position was $22.6 million at the end of June, and it can fund operations through the first quarter of next year. By then, it expects to complete at least one corporate partnership.

ARYx has four products in clinical development. Its shares dropped in July after it said the experimental anticoagulant tecarfarin failed to meet a key treatment goal in a late-stage study.

Company officials said in a statement Thursday they believe tecarfarin "remains on an approvable regulatory track," and they plan to discuss next steps with regulatory officials.

The company's shares rose 26 cents, or 7.3 percent, to $3.81 in afternoon trading.

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