CTI BioPharma Corp. (CTIC) saw its loss narrow to $6.37 million, or $0.23 a share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. In the previous year period, the company reported a loss of $25.64 million, or $1.27 a share.

Revenue during the quarter dropped 19.32 percent to $9.14 million from $11.32 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 296 basis points over the previous year period to 90.54 percent.

Operating loss for the quarter was $5.56 million, compared with an operating loss of $26.20 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted operating loss for the quarter stood at $3.46 million compared to operating loss of $24.37 million in prior year period.

"The presentation of detailed results from the Phase 3 PERSIST-2 trial of pacritinib at the ASH Annual Meeting in December demonstrated that pacritinib may have potential to address a critical unmet need for myelofibrosis patients with low blood platelets or those ineligible to receive, intolerant of or which have insufficient response to the approved JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor," said Richard Love, Interim president and chief executive officer of CTI BioPharma. "We are committed to advancing pacritinib for these patients with no other treatment option and look forward to discussions with the regulatory agencies worldwide this year. We are very pleased to have Adam Craig, M.D., Ph.D., join us as president and chief executive officer. We expect that his experience in hematology-oncology drug development will be a tremendous asset for the company. We believe that we are well positioned to make significant progress in 2017 and it should be a transformative year for the company."