Proteome boosted by Sanofi settlement

Biomarker specialist Proteome Sciences is back in profit after receiving €11m from Sanofi-Aventis to settle a warranty claim.The company posted pre-tax profits of £4.59m in the year to the end of December, including the warranty claim. This compared £4.20m pre-tax loss in 2009.Revenues for 2010 we almost entirely made up of the Sanofi-Aventis payout.Of the 2010 revenue of £9.87m, £9.53m came from the settlement.Chief executive, Christopher Pearce, said the firm already had a considerable and growing portfolio of highly developed biomarkers, biomarker assays and the state of the art protein biomarker CRO capability under its belt."Combined with a major increase in marketing and business development, the board is most confident of achieving significant growth in revenues in the year ahead and beyond," he said."The recognition across the healthcare industry and by the major global regulators of the need for and utility of blood biomarkers for diagnostic, patient monitoring, drug selection and drug development purposes, further underpins our confidence in the business," Pearce added.The company said the end of the long standing warranty claim with Sanofi-Aventis would free up a significant amount of executive time to deliver sales and revenue growth from all three parts of the business.----mm