AtheroGenics sees FY 2006 income of $32M

AtheroGenics, a US pharmaceutical company focused on drugs for chronic inflammatory diseases, reported total revenue of $11.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2006 and $31.7 million for full-year 2006, which was the first to generate income.

The firm noted that total earnings included license fees of $6.3 million in the fourth quarter and $22.9 million for the full-year period, related to its collaboration agreement with Anlgo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca and reflects the amortization of the $50.0 million up-front license fee it received in February. At the start of the year, the firms entered a licensing agreement worth up to $1.0 billion for the global development and commercialization rights to Atherogenic's inflammatory cardiovascular product candidate AGI-1067, an oral drug for the treatment of atherosclerosis (Marketletter January 9, 2006).

In addition, $4.7 million in revenue was recorded in the fourth quarter and $8.8 million in 2006 as a whole, for R&D services performed for AstraZeneca for the FOCUS trial, a follow-up Phase III clinical study of AGI-1067, that commenced in 2006 for patients who had completed the earlier ARISE evaluation.