Pfenex Posts Narrower Q4 Loss Vs. Estimates, Sales Just Miss

Shares of Pfenex Inc. (PFNX) were slightly lower Monday morning after the clinical-stage biotechnology firm reported a narrower-than-expected loss in Q4 but lower revenues that just missed the consensus of analysts polled by Capital IQ. PFNX is trading near the higher end of the 52-week range of $5.28 to $15.19.Net loss widened to $3.6 million from $469,000 a year earlier. On a share basis, net loss totaled $0.18 per share compared to a net loss of $0.59 per share in the prior-year period as the number of outstanding shares rose to 20,388 from 1,542 shares. Analysts were expecting a loss of $0.20 per share. Revenues fell 52.2% year-on-year to $2.0 million, just missing the consensus of $2.1 million. The decrease was due to the expected decrease in BARDA program activity in Q4.Looking ahead, CEO Bertrand Liang said "2015 is off to an exciting start," as the company entered into a previously-announced exclusive collaboration with injectable drugs and infusion technologies provider Hospira (HSP) to develop and commercialize PF582, PFNX's generic version of Genentech's LUCENTIS.Under the terms of the collaboration, PFNX will receive an upfront payment of $51 million and, over the next five years and beyond, will be eligible to receive a combination of development and sales-based milestone payments up to an additional $291 million, and tiered double-digit royalty on net sales of the product.