On Aug. 12, Metabolix Inc. released its second quarter financial results, emphasizing its focus on commercial development and biopolymer production with its pivot to a new business strategy focused on specialties.<\/p>\n
Joseph Shaulson, company president and CEO, began the call recapping three key phases: technology, initial commercialization and pivot to specialties phases. \u201cWe have pivoted to a new business strategy focused on specialties, where we are leveraging our core bioscience together with the wealth of experience gained in earlier phases to develop unique differentiated PHAs that have the potential to unlock commercial opportunities in specialty applications like PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and PLA (polylactic acid) additives, functional biodegradation and barrier coatings for paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaulson stated on the call that during the company\u2019s initial commercialization phase, Metabolix established a joint venture with ADM to manufacture and sell its early PHA products as biobased, biodegradable replacements for conventional plastics. \u201cThis was a commodity approach and we faced challenges with that strategy and it ultimately failed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Even so, Shaulson said the company accomplished the successful scale up of PHA manufacturing and gained important knowledge about their polymer products and technology.<\/p>\n
For the second quarter, Metabolix reported a net loss from continuing operations of $6.1 million, or 26 cents per share, as compared to a net loss from continuing operations of $6.8 million for the comparable period in the prior year. Total revenue from continuing operations in quarter two was $700,000 unchanged from the second quarter of 2014. The quarter\u2019s revenue primarily consisted of revenue from government grants, with $100,000 in product revenue recognized during the second quarter of this year compared to $200,000 in quarter two of the prior year.<\/p>\n
Research and development (R&D) expenses for continuing operations were $4.3 million and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses amounted to $2.5 million for the second quarter. This compares to $4.4 million of R&D expenses and $2.7 million of SG&A expenses for the second quarter of 2014.<\/p>\n
The company reported net cash used in operating activities for continuing operations during the second quarter of $5.5 million, up from $4.9 million for the second quarter of 2014.<\/p>\n
For the first half of 2015, Metabolix reported a net loss from continuing operations of $11.9 million, or 52 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $14.3 million for the first half of 2014.<\/p>\n