Millennium's 1st-qtr 2006 loss narrows 43%

USA-based cardiovascular and anticancer drug specialist Millennium Pharmaceuticals says that its Generally-Accepted Accounting Principles net loss for the first quarter of 2006 improved 43% on the like, year-ago quarter, to $20.8 million, as total operating costs decreased. However, the results saw a negative market reaction. Shares in the firm closed down $0.04 to $9.52 on the day of the news.

US net product sales of Velcade (bortezomib), the cancer drug it develops with health care major Johnson & Johnson, rose 19% to $53.4 million, mainly driven by growth in market share of treated patients in the multiple myeloma front-line treatment setting, although the drug is only approved for the second-line treatment of MM. Millenium noted that its narrowed loss was impaired by a 12% collaborator revenue drop, to $69.1 million, due to lower net reimbursement from Schering-Plough for the injectible thrombolytic Integrilin (eptifibatide).