LONDON (Alliance News) - Skyepharma PLC said Monday it anticipates full-year results in line with its expectations for 2014, although it said its royalties from GlaxoSmithKline PLC may reach their cap a year later than previously expected.
The company said revenue in its fourth quarter benefited from a GBP1.6 million milestone payment following the launch of 'Flutiform' in Spain in December, growing royalties and supply income from 'Flutiform', and a share of higher net sales of Pacira Pharmaceutical Inc's 'Exparel'.
Pacira saw 'Exparel' sales of USD50.2 million in its third quarter, up 12% from its previous quarter, and Skyepharma said its 3% share of sales grew accordingly. Pacira's 'Exparel' revenue estimates for its fourth quarter are USD59 million, SkyePharma said.
However, the company said that GlaxoSmithKline's sales of products using technology licensed from SkyePharma were below market expectations in the third quarter. As a result, whilst SkyePharma still expects its royalties to reach the cap of GBP9.0 million per year, it may be a year later than it had previously expected.
Skyepharma will be reimbursing some restructuring costs at its manufacturing business and premises in Lyon, which are currently leased by Aenova France SAS, and these will be posted as an exceptional cost in its 2014 results.
The company said it was continuing the development of its SKP-2075 product for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as work on a number of "internally developed concepts for novel oral drug delivery platform technologies". Skyepharma said it increased its research and development investment to the middle of its guided range of GBP3 million to GBP6 million in 2014.
For 2015, the company intends to ramp up investment in SKP-2075 and drug delivery platform technologies, and said that it has identified a number of opportunities for increasing its investment in research and development, which could be around GBP10 million for the year as a whole.
"With a strong balance sheet, we continue to seek opportunities for investment in further product and technology development to help deliver additional long-term growth. We look forward to 2015 with confidence," said Chief Executive Officer Peter Grant in a statement.
Shares in Skyepharma are trading down 17% at 284.12 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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