Enanta Pharmaceuticals (ENTA), a research and development-focused biotechnology company, saw its loss widen to $5.04 million, or $0.27 a share for the quarter ended Sep. 30, 2014. In the previous year period, the company reported a loss of $4.44 million, or $0.25 a share.

Revenue during the quarter surged 95.48 percent to $2.64 million from $1.35 million in the previous year period.

Commenting on the revenue performance, Enanta said, "The increase in revenue for fiscal 2014 year was primarily due to milestone payments totaling $40 million received from AbbVie for the U.S. and European regulatory filings for AbbVie's investigational hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment regimen containing the protease inhibitor ABT-450, which was developed in the Enanta-AbbVie collaboration. Enanta's milestone and other payments from collaborations have varied significantly from period to period, and are expected to continue to do so."

Operating loss for the quarter was $5.33 million, compared with an operating loss of $4.70 million in the previous year period.

"We ended our fiscal year in a strong financial position to advance our development pipeline," commented Jay R. Luly, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. "With over $131 million in cash and securities, as well as pending U.S. and European regulatory approvals that are anticipated to generate milestone payments and then royalties for us, the company will be well funded to advance our wholly-owned HCV programs and our other internal programs. We will also continue to invest in additional new disease areas for which we can apply our internal chemistry expertise."

Working capital increases

Enanta Pharmaceuticals has recorded an increase in the working capital over the last year. It stood at $103.23 million as at Sep. 30, 2014, up 3.04 percent or $3.04 million from $100.19 million on Sep. 30, 2013. Current ratio was at 22.75 as on Sep. 30, 2014, down from 23.14 on Sep. 30, 2013.