Amryt Pharma (LSE: AMYT) was in positive territory in start-of-week business, although market reaction to latest trading details can hardly be considered electrifying — the medicines ace was last 1% higher from Friday’s close.
The company, which develops a range of treatments for rare and orphan diseases, announced that revenues totalled €6.18m during the first six months of 2017, a result that came in above the board’s expectations. By comparison, revenues in the corresponding period last year came out at €161,000.
Particularly encouraging was demand for Amryt’s Lojuxta drug in the period, which is used to tackle a life-threatening disorder that causes abnormally high levels of so-called bad cholesterol, or homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH). Sales here clocked in at €5.75m between January and June, and as a result, Amryt declared that “management has revised upwards its estimate of the potential market for HoFH in its territories to approximately €100m.”
Chief executive Joe Wiley added that “[Lojuxta] revenues are ahead of our expectations and we now believe that the potential addressable market is larger than we originally anticipated.” He continued that “a major focus for us looking forward is opening up new, untapped territories covered by our licence agreement.”
Strength across the board
This was not the only good news to come out of Amryt today. The Irish firm announced that AP101 — which is targeted at a rare, genetic skin condition called epidermolysis bullosa — has commenced Phase III clinical testing, interim results from which are anticipated for the first half of 2018.
Amryt puts the size of the market for its lead development asset at around €1.3bn.
And elsewhere, the medicines giant announced that AP102, which is designed to treat rare neuroendocrine diseases, remains on track for human clinical trials for 2018.
Whilst Amryt would appear packed with brilliant revenues potential, investors must remember that the road from lab bench to pharmacy shelf can often be littered with setbacks that can create huge financial headaches through lost revenues and increased R&D bills.
And the business is not expected to flip into the black any time soon. The AIM-listed business is predicted to rack up pre-tax losses of £12.3m and £10.6m in 2017 and 2018 respectively, according to City forecasters.
Still, given the vast revenues potential of its core markets, I reckon Amryt is at least worthy of a glance from growth hunters.
Media master
UBM (LSE: UBM) is another share I reckon could deliver solid earnings expansion in the years ahead, a view which is also shared by the number crunchers.
The media and events organiser is predicted to deliver a 25% earnings rise in 2017, and a fractional improvement is forecast for next year. As a consequence, UBM deals on an ultra-cheap forward P/E ratio of 13.3 times as well as an ultra-cheap PEG reading of 0.6.
Whilst profits growth is expected to slow markedly next year, I reckon the fruits of its upbeat acquisition strategy, allied with its consequently-expanding global footprint, should keep earnings moving regularly higher in the years to come.
Meanwhile, there is also plenty to please dividend chasers — predicted payments of 22.9p and 23.9p per share for this year and next yield 3.4% and 3.6%. And I am backing dividends to keep growing at a healthy rate given the company’s rosy earnings outlook.