04:26 PM EDT, 03/26/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Aptose Biosciences ( APTO ) was up 3% in after-hours Nasdaq trading after the company on Tuesday said its annual loss widened in 2023 on higher research and development spending.

The company, which is developing cancer treatments, said it lost C$51.21 million, or C$7.58 per share, last year, compared with a loss of C$41.82 million, or C$6.80, in 2022.

It reported no revenue in either year.

Research and development spending rose to C$33.27 million from C$24.53 million.

The company is in clinical testing for its tuspetinib drug for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia.

"The data we have generated from tuspetinib thus far - as a single agent and in combination therapy with venetoclax in relapsed and refractory AML - have demonstrated a distinctly favorable safety profile and broad activity for tuspetinib across mutational subtypes ... These data have propelled us to initiate a clinical study of tuspetinib in a triplet combination with venetoclax and azacitidine in frontline therapy for newly diagnosed AML, including both FLT3 wild type and FLT3 mutated subtypes," chief executive William Rice said in a release.

Aptose ended 2023 with C$9.25 million of cash on hand, down from C$46.96 million at the end of 2022, though it raised that to C$18.6 at the end of January, 2024, following a financing in the month.

The company's shares were last seen up US$0.049 to US$1.65 in after hours trade. They closed up C$0.08 to C$2.13 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.