InterMune's 1st-qtr loss increases to $20.8M

US drugmaker InterMune says that, for the three months ended March 31, 2007, it saw a net loss of $20.8 million, or $0.61 per share, compared to a deficit of $12.8 million, or $0.39 per share, in the first quarter of the prior year.

The firm's total revenue fell 16.4% to $20.3 million, primarily reflecting reduced sales of Actimmune (interferon gamma-1b), while R&D expenses sky-rocketed 37% to $29.4 million, because there was no first-quarter 2006 patient enrollment in CAPACITY, the company's Phase III trial program evaluating pirfenidone, a small-molecule drug candidate for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Dan Welch, InterMune's chief executive, noted that, in first-quarter 2007, the firm enhanced the chances for the success of CAPACITY by increasing its statistical power, and also brought its protease inhibitor program into the clinic, dosing patients in the first clinical study of ITMN-191 in humans.