NEW YORK, Feb 15 – Variagenics said Thursday its fourth-quarter revenues jumped to $1.2 million, compared with $100,000 in the previous year while revenues for the year rose to $2.3 million from $400,000.
"The year 2000 was pivotal for Variagenics as we commercialized our proprietary technologies for identifying drug-specific genetic markers," Taylor Crouch, CEO of Variagenics, said in a statement. "We are pursuing a vision to place Variagenics' pharmacogenomics at the heart of a new generation of individualized drugs and companion diagnostics.”
Fourth-quarter net losses excluding non-cash equity compensation was $1.8 million, or eight cents a diluted share, compared with $2.3 million, or $3.20 a diluted share, in the year ago period.
For the year, net losses excluding non-cash equity compensation totaled $9.2 million, or 85 cents a diluted share, compared with $13.7 million, or $22.65 a diluted share, in 1999.
The company ended the year with $99.0 million in cash and marketable securities.
During the year, Variagenics of Cambridge, Mass., launched a custom DNA analysis platform, known as NuCleave, and licensed its first system to Covance Central Laboratories Services. The system combines Variagenics' chemical cleavage genotypying and haplotying technologies, Bruker Daltonics' mass spectrometry, Hamilton's robotics, and Waters' DNA sample purification technology.
Waters gave Variagenics $3.0 million in cash in July and made an equity investment in the company for $7.5 million in common stock. Variagenics received a milestone payment from Waters following the sale of the NuCleave system to Covance.
In 2000, the company also expanded its genetic marker database for use in the drug discovery process. The company has patent filings on some 30,000 genetic markers.
So far in 2001, Variagenics has announced deals with Amgen and Isis Pharmaceuticals.