Soaring turnover but higher loss for Affymax

California, USA-based company Affymax' loss worsened by 78% year-on-year, for the first quarter of 2009, despite a 55% jump in  revenue, due to plummeting interest income during the period.

Turnover was up to $25.9 million versus $16.7 million, while R&D  expenses were $40.4 million, up 59%, due to higher clinical trial and  personnel costs. The increase in revenue was the result of higher  collaboration income from the firm's partnership with Japan's Takeda  Pharmaceutical, under their 2006 collaboration for Hematide, a novel  erythropoietic agent.

Despite this, the firm's net loss deepened to $27.7 million, or $1.32  per share, vs a loss of $15.6 million, or $1.03 per share. However, as  of March 31, the company had $79.7 million in cash and cash equivalents,  rocketing from just $24.0 million at the end of last year, due to $164.0  million in payments from Takeda.