Evotec's 1st-qtr 2006 losses deepen 108%

German drugmaker Evotec AG says that revenues for the first quarter of 2006 increased 12% on the like, year-ago period, to 17.8 million euros ($22.9 million), driven by growth in its services division, which rose 14% to 15.4 million euros.

However, the group's net loss deepened 108% to 10.4 million euros, equivalent to 0.17 euro per share. The Hamburg-headquartered firm noted that this was due to high R&D expenses related to its acquisition of two Phase I monoamineoxidase B inhibitors from Swiss drug major Roche.

Revenues from Evotec's pharmaceuticals division from its target discovery collaboration with Japanese drug giant Takeda amounted to 500,000 euros. while its Evotec Technologies unit experienced a traditionally weak first quarter following strong 2005 year-end business. The firm noted that demand for ET's growing cell biology business remains strong, adding that it had received a $2.8 million order from an academic institution, among others. On this basis, Evotec continues to expect an improvement of ET's financial performance for 2006.