2005: "difficult year for SkyePharma," chairman

UK-based drug-delivery specialist SkyePharma has posted disappointing results for full-year 2005, as net loss widened 174% on the prior year, to L50.9 million ($90.9 million) and turnover fell 18% to L61.3 million, in what its chairman, Jerry Karabelas, described as a "difficult" period.

In 2005, gross profit dropped 32% to L32.1 million as operating loss before exceptionals reached L16.1 million from L400,000 the previous year.

During 2005, the firm missed out on licensing revenue for its lead pipeline product, the asthma drug Flutiform (fluticasone and formoterol) after it failed to find a partner. In order to fund the product up to Phase III trials, the firm comitted to divest its injectables business and in September raised L35.0 million through a rights issue. Skyepharma says it anticipates a 2009 launch of the drug.