Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. this month reported a first-quarter net loss of $11.3 million, or 22 cents per share.
Officials at the biotechnology company in Greenburgh said a $1.8 million decrease in total expenses for the quarter lowered the oncology-focused drug developer”™s net loss from $13.1 million, or 39 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2012.
Progenics in January acquired Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical-stage private biotechnology company headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., in an all-stock transaction. The Massachusetts company has a development pipeline of targeted radiotherapy and molecular imaging compounds aimed at enhancing treatment of prostate cancer and other cancers.
Progenics officials said employee layoffs, primarily at Molecular Insight, resulted in a first -quarter restructuring charge of approximately $1.5 million.
Worldwide net sales of Relistor, the company”™s first marketed drug for terminally ill patients, were up 47 percent from the fourth quarter last year, but declined 37 percent from the first quarter of 2012.
Progenics received first-quarter royalty income of approximately $1.16 million on Relistor sales from Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., the licensed developer and marketer of the drug used to relieve opioid-induced constipation in cancer patients. First-quarter royalties were down $677,000 or 37 percent from the first quarter last year.
That drop in sales income was partly offset by $853,000 in first-quarter collaboration revenue, up from $291,00 in the first quarter of 2012, and research grants totaling $198,000, up from $86,000 in grants revenue in the first quarter of 2012.
Total first-quarter revenue of approximately $2.3 million matched the company”™s first-quarter revenue a year ago.
Progenics ended the first quarter with approximately $55.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, compared with approximately $58.4 million at the close of the first quarter last year.
