With the business potentially at an important milestone, we thought we'd take a closer look at Achieve Life Sciences, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:ACHV) future prospects. Achieve Life Sciences, Inc., a late-stage pharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes cytisinicline for nicotine independence in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The company’s loss has recently broadened since it announced a US$55m loss in the full financial year, compared to the latest trailing-twelve-month loss of US$114m, moving it further away from breakeven. The most pressing concern for investors is Achieve Life Sciences' path to profitability – when will it breakeven? Below we will provide a high-level summary of the industry analysts’ expectations for the company.

According to the 11 industry analysts covering Achieve Life Sciences, the consensus is that breakeven is near. They anticipate the company to incur a final loss in 2027, before generating positive profits of US$17m in 2028. The company is therefore projected to breakeven around 2 years from today. How fast will the company have to grow each year in order to reach the breakeven point by 2028? Working backwards from analyst estimates, it turns out that they expect the company to grow 69% year-on-year, on average, which signals high confidence from analysts. Should the business grow at a slower rate, it will become profitable at a later date than expected.

Underlying developments driving Achieve Life Sciences' growth isn’t the focus of this broad overview, however, keep in mind that typically biotechs, depending on the stage of product development, have irregular periods of cash flow. This means, large upcoming growth rates are not abnormal as the company is beginning to reap the benefits of earlier investments.

One thing we would like to bring into light with Achieve Life Sciences is it currently has negative equity on its balance sheet. This can sometimes arise from accounting methods used to deal with accumulated losses from prior years, which are viewed as liabilities carried forward until it cancels out in the future. These losses tend to occur only on paper, however, in other cases it can be forewarning.

Next Steps:

There are too many aspects of Achieve Life Sciences to cover in one brief article, but the key fundamentals for the company can all be found in one place – Achieve Life Sciences' company page on Simply Wall St. We've also put together a list of key aspects you should further examine:

1. Valuation: What is Achieve Life Sciences worth today? Has the future growth potential already been factored into the price? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether Achieve Life Sciences is currently mispriced by the market.
2. Management Team: An experienced management team on the helm increases our confidence in the business – take a look at who sits on Achieve Life Sciences’s board and the CEO’s background.
3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.