Santhera's loss down 1.4% as revenues grow

Swiss specialty drug company Santhera Pharmaceuticals says that its net loss for the full-year 2007 was 27.9 million Swiss francs ($26.8 million), an improvement of some 1.4% on the deficit it recorded for 2006. The firm's cash burn was also reduced, falling some 30.5% to 19.1 million francs for the year.

The company's revenue reached 11.7 million francs, approximately 10 times the amount seen the previous year. This was primarily due to Santhera's receipt of a 7.0 million-franc payment from Japan's Takeda related to the 2005 SNT-MC17 (idebenone) licensing agreement.

R&D spending increased 29.7% to 23.3 million francs, due to the cost of trials of SNT-MC17 in various indications. Santhera said that, if the drug gains European approval for Friedreich's Ataxia later this year, it will receive a further payment of 4.0 million francs from Takeda.