Skyepharma shares up despite falling into the red

Shares in SkyePharma rose despite the drug development firm reporting a fall in revenue and a plunge into the red for the year ended December 31st.

The firm recorded a pre-tax loss of £1.6m in 2011, down from a profit of £6.3m the year before, on revenues which fell from £58.1m to £55.2m.

Peter Grant, Chief Executive Officer, said: "The group made significant progress on the delivery of its strategy during 2011. As anticipated, revenues and operating profits were lower than 2010, due to substantial non-recurring revenues in 2010, but profitability remained in line with the board's expectations.

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"This year will be pivotal for SkyePharma - our key goals are to obtain the marketing authorisation and launch of Flutiform in Europe, potential filing of Flutiform in Japan and reach agreements to reorganise the group's finances to align repayment obligations with the group's cash generative potential."

Revenues for the current year are set to benefit from milestones of €8m (£6.7m) if Flutiform is approved and launched in initial markets in Europe.

Contract research and development revenues are forecast to show some growth compared with 2011.

The board said it expects that liquidity will benefit from a $10m (£6.5m) milestone payment due when Pacira achieves the first commercial sale of EXPAREL in the United States. This is anticipated in the second quarter of 2012.

Cash at the end of the period fell from £29m to £15.2m.

The share price rose 2.44% to 42.00p by 11:46.

NR