Belgian biotechnology company Galapagos says that its revenues for the first half of 2007 leapt 140% to 26.3 million euros but its net loss has also widened considerably.
Revenue growth was primarily driven by the performance of BioFocus DPI, Galapagos’ drug discovery services business and the contributions of recently-acquired Inpharmatica and ProSkelia.
The loss rose to 16.7 million euros from 5.5 million euros in the first six months of 2006, though Galapagos pointing out that the latest figures included 2.7 million euros of restructuring and other one-off costs.
The firm repeated its forecast for full-year 2007 that revenue would be between 54-58 million euros, an increase of 150%- 165%, while R&D expenditure will be 33 million euros. Galapagos added that its full-year cash burn should be limited to 20 million euros, leaving it with cash and equivalents of over 31 million euros.
Chief executive Onno van de Stolpe said that “Galapagos has strongly accelerated its R&D activities, in line with our strategy to deliver a clinical portfolio in bone and joint disease next year,” claiming that “we also have delivered on milestone-bearing alliances with our R&D partners and expanded our turnkey alliance with GSK”. He added that following the acquisitions last year, “BioFocus DPI will be optimising performance further” and “we expect that the powerful service division we created last year will be capable of generating significant cash flows in future years, thereby reducing the company’s need for external funding”.
Galapagos took the opportunity of its results statement to announce that BioFocus DPI has expanded its relationship with AstraZeneca to help the latter’s infection discovery programme. The total contract is worth around 680,000 euros.
