Irish drugmaker Elan today reported it had a second-quarter net loss of $68.2 million against a year-earlier deficit of $71.5 million.
Executive vice president and chief financial officer, Shane Cooke, said the results reflected the strong performance of the biopharmaceuticals business and Elan Drug Technologies (EDT).
Total quarterly revenue rose to $281 million led by a 30 per cent increase in revenues from multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri and a 10 per cent rise in revenues from EDT. Mr Cooke said the net number of patients using Tysabri had risen 55 per cent since the first quarter.
Elan said around 43,300 patients worldwide were on Tysabri therapy - a drug it markets with U.S. partner Biogen Idec - by the end of June.
Elan said its share of the $254 million the treatment generated during the quarter was $173.7 million. Sales of the drug are approaching $1 billion annually.
“For the full year 2009, we remain on target to record double-digit revenue growth and to be profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis,” he said.
Operating losses fell by 54 per cent from $36 million to $16.5 million, with pre-tax losses declining to $52.3 million compared with €69 million in the same period in 2008.
The net loss shrank to $68.2 million, or 14 cents a share, from $71.5 million, or 15 cents, a year earlier.
Johnson & Johnson said on July 2nd that it will pay $1 billion for an 18.4 per cent stake in Elan, while paying $500 million toward a new unit to hold experimental Alzheimer’s medicines Elan is developing with partner Wyeth.
The deal will take $100 million off Elan’s research costs while trimming its debt by 70 per cent, Mr Cooke said on July 16th.