Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corporation issued the following announcement on March 21.

Total revenues of $6.4 millionfor the year including $5.3 million of product revenues

Total Q4 revenues increased to $2.1 million from $1.8 million in the same prior year period

Global expansion of Natesto® continued with four licensing deals for 28 additional countries

In-licensed two strategic products to leverage Acerus’ Men and Women’s Health direct sales force in Canadaand drive new revenue growth

First inventory shipment delivered to U.S. Natesto® partner, Aytu, in Q4

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Acerus Pharmaceuticals Corporation (“Acerus” or the “Company”) (TSX: ASP) today reported its financial results for the three and twelve-month period ended December 31, 2017. Unless otherwise noted, all amounts are in U.S. dollars.

The Company continued to execute on its plan to expand the global reach of Natesto® by signing four additional commercial partnership agreements with medac Gesellschaft fϋr Klinische Spezialprӓparate mbH (“medac”) for 15 countries in Europe, Therios Healthcare (“Therios”) for three countries in the MENA region, Eu Hwa Pte LTD (“EU”) for nine countries in South East Asia, and Apsen Farmacêutica (“Apsen”) for Brazil. In addition, the Company in-licensed two products to expand its Canadian presence in Men and Women’s Health.

“With continued Natesto®prescription growth in the U.S. and Canada, and as our other international partners progress towards market approval, we expect to see an acceleration of our Natesto® revenues going forward”, said Luc Mainville, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Acerus. “In addition, in order to leverage our close relationship with key opinion leaders and high prescribers across the country, we expect to continue to add to our Men and Women’s Health product portfolio.”

Financial Results for the Three and Twelve Months EndedDecember 31, 2017

Product revenues for Q4 2017 increased to $1.8 million from $1.4 million in Q31 and was higher compared to $1.6 million for the same prior year period due to the ramp up in Natesto® sales inCanada and the U.S. Product revenues for the twelve months ended December 31, 2017 and 2016 were $5.3 million and $7.0 million, respectively. While Estrace® accounted for the majority of the sales in the reported periods, Natesto®revenues have shown strong growth in 2017 and are expected to contribute a growing portion of the total revenues going forward.

Research and development ("R&D") expenses for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2017 were $0.7 million and $2.2 million, respectively, compared to R&D expenses for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2016 of $0.4 million and $1.6 million, respectively. R&D expenses were higher due to the New Drug Submission (“NDS”) fees for Gynoflor™ in 2017, as well as, clinical trial, product development, and regulatory consulting costs for drug application filings for Natesto®outside of North America.

Selling, general and administrative expenses (“SG&A”) were $3.1 million and $8.0 million for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2017. This compared to $1.6 million and $5.5 million for the three and twelve-month periods in 2016, respectively. The increase in expenses is due to (i) accrual of severance costs for a member of the executive team, (ii) incremental salary, benefits and stock-based compensation expenses due to recent additions to the management team and (iii) sales and marketing costs mostly associated with programs to drive sales of Natesto® in Canada.

The Company incurred a net loss of $2.1 million and $8.7 million for the three and twelve-month periods ended December 31, 2017compared to a net loss of $0.3 million and net income of $11.1 million for the same prior year periods. The net income for fiscal 2016 was mainly a result of the recognition of $17.5 million in licensing revenue versus $1.1 million in fiscal 2017. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) were a loss of $1.6 million and a loss of $7.2 million for the three and twelve-month periods ended December 31, 2017. This compared to an income of $0.2 million and loss of $2.6 million for the three and twelve-month periods ended December, 2016 respectively. Adjusted EBITDA (see “Non-IFRS Financial Measures” below), were a loss of $2.2 million and a loss of $5.2 million for the three and twelve-months ended December 31, 2017compared to loss of $0.5 millionand loss of $0.6 million for the three and twelve-month periods ending December 31, 2016, respectively.

On December 31, 2017, the Company had current assets of $8.2 million and $5.4 million in current liabilities.

Basic and diluted earnings per share were a loss of $0.01 and loss of $0.04 for the three and twelve-month periods ended December, 2017.

Original source: http://www.aceruspharma.com/English/news/press-release-details/2018/Acerus-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2017-Financial-Results/default.aspx