Biotech pins hopes on drug link-up
DRUGS group British Biotech said it could be earning revenues from a collaboration with Biocompatibles by 2003, as it announced reduced half-year losses.
A European study on coated stents, which hold open blood vessels to prevent clogging, begins next month. A study in the US is planned for the first half of next year.
Chief executive Elliot Goldstein, unveiling half-year losses of £8.4m against £12.2m last time, said the US market for stents was worth $2bn (£1.4bn). The product, if successful, could yield royalties of tens of millions of pounds for British Biotech.
The company aims to spread its risk by spending some of its £62m cash pile on rights to promising drugs in clinical development. It is looking primarily in the fields of cancer treatment and antibiotics. Goldstein said the company had enough cash to last three and a half to four years after the disposal in August of a large chunk of the research business and its Oxford headquarters building.
The shares rose 3/4p to 17 1/2p on the figures, which Goldstein said demonstrated good progress. The company, once valued at £1.8b on misplaced hopes for its supposed cancer treatment Marimastat, is worth about £116m.
