LAVAL, Quebec (AP) _ Bellus Health Inc. (BLU) on Wednesday reported a loss of $14.4 million in its first quarter.

On a per-share basis, the Laval, Quebec-based company said it had a loss of 13 cents.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 18 cents per share.

The drug developer posted revenue of $4,000 in the period.

Bellus shares have decreased 16% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $6.78, a rise of 86% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BLU at https://www.zacks.com/ap/BLU

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