Acambis' six month loss down 16% as R&D costs fall; awaits warmbase deal

UK vaccines developer Acambis loss for the six-month period ended June 30 was L19.3 million ($38.9 million), down 15.7% from the deficit it recorded in the comparable period last year. The firm said that the improvement was due to lower expenditure on ordinary activities and increased efficiency in its R&D efforts, the cost of which fell 44.8% to L11.2 million.

Revenues were L3.4 million down 67.9% on the year-earlier period, in which Acambis' contract with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the supply of 155 million doses of its smallpox vaccine, deals relating to MVA3000 and sales of its typhoid vaccine Vivotif were key drivers. In contrast, turnover achieved in the first half of this year was primarily due to milestone payments the company received from its ChimeriVax-JE partnership with French vaccines specialist Sanofi Pasteur.

Sales and marketing expenditure fell 76.9% to L300,000, largely due to the inclusion last year of costs associated with selling by Berna Products prior to its divestiture (Marketletter October 9, 2006). In addition, the settlement of Acambis' litigation with Bavarian Nordic relating to its smallpox vaccine in July reduced administrative expenses some 44% to L2.9 million.