France's Genset Reports 16% 3r Qtr Revenue Increase

Claiming to be Europe's leading genomics company, France's Genset SA reported net sales of 8.1 million French francs ($1.6 million) for third-quarter 1996, largely due to increased customer orders for synthetic DNA, particularly from the USA and UK. For the first nine months of the year revenues were 24.1 million francs, up 17%.

Genset recorded a loss of 17.7 million francs in the third quarter (cf 9.2 million francs), primarily as a result of significant increases in R&D expenses, which amounted to 2.9 million francs for the period. For the nine months, the net loss was 51.3 million francs (cf 9.9 million francs), and the company said it expects to report losses for the next several years. As of September 30, Genset had cash and cash equivalents of 530.2 million francs.

The quarter "was a period of continuing progress for Genset," said its chief executive, Pascal Brandys. He noted the conclusion of "an important rapid gene discovery alliance with Johnson & Johnson, the current market leader in schizophrenia drugs," and in September "we established the largest industrial mapping operation in the world using proprietary technologies in Evry, France."