Sweden's BioInvent falls into loss

Sweden-based BioInvent reported another significant loss in the first quarter of 2008, after a payout from US drug major Genentech saw it profit on the same period last year.

Net revenues for January-March amounted to 16.2 million kronor ($2.7 million) versus 118.0 million kronor in the year-before period due to the payment of 105.5 million kronor received from Genentech (Marketletter January 22, 2007). Excluding this, revenues were in fact up by 30% from 12.5 million kronor to 16.2 million kronor. Nonetheless, after tax, the parent company saw an overall loss of 39.8 million kronor against a profit of 72.8 million kronor year-on-year for the same quarter.

Total costs for the period increased to 58.0 million kronor vs 47.3 million kronor. The most significant being external expenses, moving up from 26.3 million kronor to 37.0 million kronor. Also, despite having one less employee, the firm's personnel costs increased from 17.7 million kronor to 18.4 million kronor.