Crucell's losses drop as Flavinum nears registration
This article was originally published in Scrip
Crucell's second-quarter net loss fell by 76% to €1.8 million as the company benefited from increased revenues and reduced R&D costs.
The Dutch biopharmaceutical firm's total revenues leapt by 32% to €78.7 million, mainly driven by sales growth from its paediatric vaccines, particularly the fully liquid pentavalent vaccine Quinvaxem.
Product sales in the second quarter were €66.4 million, with paediatric vaccines contributing 60%, travel and endemic vaccines 24% and other products 16%. Crucell recorded licence revenues of €3.5 million (-36%), service fees of €2.5 million (+9%) and other operating income of €6.3 million (+85%), which was attributed to increased activity in its malaria and rabies programmes.
Crucell's performance might have been even better had it not been for a higher than usual tax charge. The company recorded a €2.2 million second-quarter tax charge, mainly due to taxable profits in Korea and Sweden. The charge in the first half increased to €4.6 million, compared with just €1.5 million in the same period last year. The consolidated tax was high compared with the profit before tax on a consolidated basis, Crucell said. It expects the tax charge for this year to be around €12 million.
R&D costs fell by 10% to €15.9 million due to the timing of programme-related expenses, while SG&A costs were down by 1% to €15.1 million. Crucell had €121.6 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of June, down from €171 million at the end of last year.
Crucell submitted its yellow fever vaccine Flavimun for registration in Switzerland in March and it expects to submit the product in Germany before the end of this year.
Total revenues in the first half of this year increased by 42% to €152.4 million, while its net loss dropped to just €1.6 million, compared with €15.9 million in the same period last year.