Italian biotechnology group BioXell has reported its financial results for the full year 2006 which saw the company, spun out from Roche in 2002, make good progress with its urology drug elocalcitol.
Revenues for the year were 2.5 million euros, up 19%, much of which came from its sepsis collaboration with Merck & Co, while net loss reached 13.8 million euros, an increase of 32.7%. The rise was due to a 32% climb in the firm’s R&D spend to 12.4 million euros and this rise was largely due to increased clinical trial costs for elocalcitol.
BioXell said that the completion in May of a Phase IIa trial of elocalcitol in overactive bladder was “a decisive milestone” and the results indicated that it may have comparable efficacy to the gold standard anti-cholinergics in this indication, “while avoiding the side effects typically associated with this class of products.” The firm added that it will continue with what it refers to as “a sophisticated ‘urodynamic’ Phase IIb study,” with results due in 2008.
Also, in December last year, enrolment was completed in the Phase IIb trial of elocalcitol in benign prostatic hyperplasia, which the firm says is the largest study ever conducted using magnetic resonance imaging to measure prostate volume. Results will be available in the second half of 2007 and “success in either of these large indications will confirm elocalcitol’s blockbuster potential.”
Back to the numbers and BioXell noted that it raised 40 million euros raised through a listing on the SWX Swiss Exchange in June last year adding to the 10.5 million euros in equity raised in a private financing in March. The firm ended the year with cash reserves of 71 million euros and expects a monthly burn rate of 1.4 million euros during 2007. It concluded by stating that “strong financial discipline as it makes maximum use of its resources to fund the advancement of its pipeline” will lead to a successful year and BioXell will continue to pursue “strategic partnerships, in-licensing and M&A activities.”
