Biopharmaceutical Firms Report On 2nd Qtr

Many of the USA's biopharmaceutical and small pharmaceutical companies continue to report revenue gains along with losses as product development progresses.

Aronex's president, James Chubb, said that during the second quarter of 1996 the firm succeeded in securing additional funding to support its ongoing clinical and preclinical programs. "In addition to our financial achievements, the company presented preliminary data on its HIV integrase inhibitor, zintevir, at the 11th International Conference on AIDS in Canada," he said. Aronex has four products - nyotran, tretinoin, annamycin and zintevir in various stages of clinical development and a number of products in preclinical development.

Arris Pharmaceutical increased its R&D spending in the second quarter of 1996 from $3.6 million to almost $6.9 million. President and chief executive, John Walker, said: "even though Arris has increased its investment in R&D, we are controlling the rate at which we are burning our cash, and our operating losses are as planned. The increases in research spending principally reflect an acceleration of activities that will drive our discovery pipeline into a clinical pipeline. These include new and expanded collaborations with our partners, a number of programs obtained in our acquisition of Khepri Pharmaceuticals at the end of last year (Marketletters passim) as well as proprietary programs initiated prior to that event."