diff --git a/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py b/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py
index 05f84a5..6a31318 100644
--- a/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py
+++ b/src/nmreval/io/asciireader.py
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ class AsciiReader:
         with self.fname.open('r') as f:
             for i, line in enumerate(islice(f, len(self.header)+len(self.lines), num_lines)):
                 line = line.strip('\n\t\r, ')
-                line = re.sub(r'[\t ;,] *', ';', line)
+                line = re.sub(r'[\t ;,]+', ';', line)
                 line = line.split(';')
 
                 try: