LAVAL, Quebec (AP) _ Bellus Health Inc. (BLU) on Wednesday reported a loss of $14.8 million in its fourth quarter.

The Laval, Quebec-based company said it had a loss of 18 cents per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 28 cents per share.

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

For the year, the company reported that its loss widened to $71.2 million, or 90 cents per share. Revenue was nearly unchanged at $16,000.

Bellus shares have declined 25% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $6, a climb of 56% 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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