Guilford Goes Into Profit

- Guilford Pharmaceuticals went into profit in 1996. The firm achievednet profits last year of $5.1 million, or $0.35 per share, compared with a loss of $12.6 million, or $1.70 per share, in 1995. The increase in net income was a result of a $27.5 million non-recurring milestone and rights payment from Rhone-Poulenc Rorer relating to R-PR receiving worldwide marketing and distribution rights to the Gliadel wafer (polifeprosan 20 with carmustine), Guilford's implantable brain tumor treatment, which R-PR has just launched in its first market, the USA (Marketletter March 3).

Craig Smith, president and chief executive of Guilford, said: "1996 was a landmark year for Guilford. With the commercial launch of Gliadel, we have now joined the select group of biopharmaceutical companies that have successfully brought a product to market." The firm has completed enrollment in a multicenter Phase II clinical trial of Dopascan, its Parkinson's disease imaging agent.