Even when a business is losing money, it's possible for shareholders to make money if they buy a good business at the right price. For example, although Amazon.com made losses for many years after listing, if you had bought and held the shares since 1999, you would have made a fortune. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

So, the natural question for PharmAust (ASX:PAA) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'.

See our latest analysis for PharmAust

How Long Is PharmAust's Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. PharmAust has such a small amount of debt that we'll set it aside, and focus on the AU$2.6m in cash it held at December 2021. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$1.5m. That means it had a cash runway of around 21 months as of December 2021. That's not too bad, but it's fair to say the end of the cash runway is in sight, unless cash burn reduces drastically. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

How Well Is PharmAust Growing?

One thing for shareholders to keep front in mind is that PharmAust increased its cash burn by 206% in the last twelve months. While operating revenue was up over the same period, the 6.8% gain gives us scant comfort. Considering these two factors together makes us nervous about the direction the company seems to be heading. Of course, we've only taken a quick look at the stock's growth metrics, here. This graph of historic earnings and revenue shows how PharmAust is building its business over time.

Can PharmAust Raise More Cash Easily?

Since PharmAust has been boosting its cash burn, the market will likely be considering how it can raise more cash if need be. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.

PharmAust has a market capitalisation of AU$29m and burnt through AU$1.5m last year, which is 5.2% of the company's market value. Given that is a rather small percentage, it would probably be really easy for the company to fund another year's growth by issuing some new shares to investors, or even by taking out a loan.