Revenues flat but loss narrows at Human Genome Sciences

Human Genome Sciences has reported revenues of $5.3 million for thefirst quarter of 2001, the same as those posted for the like, year-earlier period. The company's net loss was $13 million, or $0.10 per share, compared with a loss of $72.5 million, or $0.70 EPS for the first quarter of 2000, and HGS said that a substantial portion of the net loss for the year-earlier period is due to one-time expenses of $50.8 million associated with the conversion to equity of two issuances of convertible subordinated notes. The firm ended the quarter with cash and short-term investments of $1.76 billion.

William Haseltine, HGS' chief executive, said that the company is making good progress in developing its drugs and that one of its partners, GlaxoSmithKline, has announced results from a Phase I trial of a cardiovascular drug discovered using a target derived from the two groups' collaboration. Another partner, Japan's Takeda Chemical Industries, has begun a series of programs on around 100 targets for use in small-molecule and antibody drug discovery.