$1.6-Million Loss for ’86 Listed by Newport Pharmaceuticals

Citing the cost of conducting extensive testing of its drug Isoprinosine on pre-AIDS patients, Newport Pharmaceuticals International Inc. in Newport Beach Friday announced a loss of $1.6 million for its 1986 fiscal year, nearly twice the losses of the previous year.

Sales for the year ended April 30 were $10.3 million, up 17% from the $8.8 million posted last year. In the previous year, the company lost $820,000.

For the final quarter of the fiscal year, Newport Pharmaceuticals lost $801,000, compared with a loss of $443,000 a year ago. Sales in the period were $3.9 million, more than twice the $1.9 million recorded last year. The 1987 quarterly results include one month of operations from the company’s newly acquired America’s Pharmacy Inc. subsidiary.

In addition, the company said Friday that it has filed for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approval to sell $15 million worth of senior secured convertible notes. Proceeds from the debt issue, which would be redeemable in 2002, will be spent on the pre-AIDS tests and an expansion of America’s Pharmacy.

Newport Pharmaceuticals is testing the immune-boosting properties of its drug Isoprinosine in three separate studies in the United States, Scandinavia and Australia. The tests involve 2,300 patients. Initial results of the tests are expected in early 1988.