Botox injection fails to mask losses at Allergan

The USA's Allergan has reported a net loss of $107.9 million for the second quarter of 2003 compared with a profit of $3.8 million during the like, year-earlier period. The result came despite a 27.5% increase to $143.1 million in sales of the firm's top-selling product, Botox (botulinum toxin type-a), and was largely attributable to soaring R&D costs.

Also hitting earning was a $279 million charge principally relating to the purchase of Bardeen Sciences (Marketletter May 26). Including the effects of this and other items, Allergan reported a diluted loss per share of $0.83 from continuing operations versus $0.02 a year earlier.

The California-headquartered firm, which launched two new products during the reporting period and received one approval (Marketletters passim), said that R&D costs totaled $355.7 million, up from just $57.3 million. Meantime, overall turnover rocketed 30.6% to $441.5 million, while the cost of sales near doubled to $80.1 million from $46.3 million.