News

Senomyx sees revenues decline

10 Mar 2016

Taste technologies company Senomyx has reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2015. Revenues for 2015 were $24.9 million, down from the prior year $27.6 million.

Taste technologies company Senomyx has reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2015. Revenues for 2015 were $24.9 million, down from the prior year $27.6 million. Net loss for the year was comparable with the prior period at $12.6 million.

"Senomyx is starting 2016 well-positioned for continued commercial growth and R&D progress," said John Poyhonen, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "Importantly, our flavour ingredient Sweetmyx S617 was first commercialised by PepsiCo and made available to consumers in the fourth quarter of 2015. In addition, our direct sales efforts continue to build momentum with additional flavour house wins.”

"2016 is a pivotal year for Senomyx with the R&D funding period of our Sweet Taste Program collaborations coming to their natural conclusion this summer. There continues to be significant interest in the reduction of calories in foods and beverages driven by many factors including the global increase in obesity and diabetes rates and recently issued government dietary guidelines. Based on these tailwinds, we are actively pursuing potential new collaborative relationships for our Sweet Taste Program.”

"From a research and development perspective, we made meaningful advances in our natural high intensity, zero calorie sweetener discovery program last year. Our R&D team has identified multiple novel sweeteners from certain plant sources known to have a sweet taste. During the second half of the year, we prioritized our natural sweetener lead candidates and completed our internal evaluations of their performance. Several of these natural sweetener candidates have met our internal stability and solubility requirements. Our next step is further characterization of the taste profile and continued investigation of potential manufacturing scale-up routes. We remain optimistic that we will identify a commercially viable natural high intensity sweetener with competitive advantages to currently available sweeteners, although the discovery and development timeline is uncertain.”

"Senomyx's direct sales team continues to make progress marketing our five Complimyx brand flavour offerings to leading flavour companies," said Sharon Wicker, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Development Officer. "Since our last quarterly update, three new wins have been reported for our flavour ingredients by our flavour house customers, increasing the total to ten. A 'win' occurs when a flavour company is awarded new business by a consumer products company, which in our case is a flavour system that incorporates a Complimyx flavour ingredient.”

"2015 financial results were generally in line with management expectations and the financial guidance provided in October last year," said Tony Rogers, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "Our primary financial objectives going into 2015 were to grow commercial revenues and control spending to end the year with more than $20 million in cash. Commercial revenues increased to $7 million for the year and we ended the year with $23 million in cash. We anticipate further growth in commercial revenues in 2016, but we have limited control over the timing and magnitude of this growth. Furthermore we are actively pursuing potential new collaborative relationships for our Sweet Taste Program. The financial terms, scope and timing of the potential collaborations is uncertain and dependent on multiple factors. In terms of expenses, we believe investing in research and development will continue to yield compelling results that will support long-term commercial revenue growth. In 2016, we expect a reduction in R&D and S, G&A expenses of approximately $1 million compared to 2015 primarily based on the full year benefit of certain cost reduction measures implemented in 2015, partially offset by increased outsourcing costs related to product candidate development. Based on the uncertainty associated with revenues, we are modifying our approach for financial guidance to generally focus on the near-term where we have better visibility.”