Celadon Pharmaceuticals PLC on Monday said its annual loss widened, but remains confident in its strategic direction.

Celadon is a London-based pharmaceutical company focused on the research, cultivation, manufacturing and sale of breakthrough cannabis-based medicines.

Pretax loss widened to £18.1 million in 2022, from £4.8 million a year prior. This was driven by finance costs, finance charges on convertible loan notes and share-based payments relating to the reverse acquisition of Vertigrow Technology Ltd, which totalled £12.7 million.

Celadon acquired Vertigrow in March last year for £80 million, funding the deal through an issue of 48.5 million shares at 165 pence each. At the time, Celadon was known as Summerway Capital PLC. It was re-admitted to trading on AIM in March last year.

Revenue multiplied to £24,000 from £2,000 the year before.

The company did not declare a dividend for 2022, unchanged from a year prior.

Looking ahead, Celadon said it remains confident in its strategic direction.

In May, the company entered a supply agreement for the provision of £3 million worth of product over the next three years to an unnamed UK medical cannabis company, and said it is in ‘active discussion’ with several potential partners.

Chief Executive Officer James Short said: ‘The start of this year has now seen Celadon successfully achieve our Good Manufacturing Practices registration from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Registration Agency and an update to our Home Office licence to allow commercial supply of our product. We believe that we are the first UK company of our kind to obtain these approvals since regulations changed in 2018 which positions Celadon to supply the UK market with our pharmaceutical-grade product.’

Shares in Celadon were down 4.3% at 155.55 pence each in London on Monday afternoon.

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.