Half-year results boost Diurnal shares

Shares in AIM-listed speciality pharmaceutical business Diurnal Group (LON:DNL) climbed by 4% to 26p (as of 15:05 GMT) as losses for the six months ended 31st December narrowed by 53%. Revenues for the company’s Alkindi range were up by 516% as it launched in new markets during the half year.

CEO Martin Whitaker commented: “Diurnal has continued to experience strong commercial traction for Alkindi® with robust growth in sales. Further Alkindi® launches are planned for 2020 in Europe, in addition to the recent launch in Italy. We also delivered on two major regulatory milestones, filing both the US NDA for Alkindi® and European MAA for Chronocort® submissions during Q4 2019. Diurnal anticipates US regulatory approval for Alkindi® in Q4 2020 and European regulatory approval for Chronocort® in Q1 2021. There also continues to be strong interest in Alkindi® and Chronocort® from potential US partners and we expect to conclude a US licensing deal in H1 2020. During the Period, Diurnal also announced positive Phase I clinical data from its oral native testosterone product, DITEST™, adding a potentially valuable clinical-stage product to its expanding endocrinology-focused pipeline. Diurnal believes that it is strongly positioned to capitalise on the progress with its pipeline and to secure funding for the next stage of its development into a world-leading endocrinology speciality pharma company“.