Phytopharm Records 1997 $5 Million Loss

Phytopharm of the UK, which specializes in developing botanicalproducts, has reported a loss for the year ended August 31, 1997, of L3.1 million ($5.1 million), and noted that operating expenses more than doubled compared with 1996 to L3.6 million. The company added that it intends to further increase expenditure on R&D as its product portfolio continues to grow.

Phytopharm also said that its lead product, Zemaphyte, an extract based on 10 herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of severe atopic eczema (Marketletter July 14), has had an Investigational New Drug application approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Richard Dixey, chief executive, said that the group had created a portfolio of 12 products spread over four therapeutic areas, and anticipated that several of them will join Zemaphyte in the clinic next year.