During Tuesday's fourth-quarter earnings call, Aratana Therapeutics Inc.'s new CFO said the company's significant decrease in research-and-development expenses from $15.1 million in 2017 to just $6.9 million in 2018 .
Rhonda Hellums, who was named CFO in early February, pointed to "fewer ongoing pivotal studies and (less)production of drug product" to account for decreases in year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter R&D expenses.
"We do believe R&D expenses may increase slightly in 2019 as we turn…
