Amersham Reports Increase in Q3 Revenues
Amersham PLC, which General Electric is slated to acquire pending regulatory approval (see PM 10-17-03), reported increased third quarter sales this week. The London-based company’s sales for the quarter came to £393 million ($668.3 million), up from £378 million for the same period last year. Broken down by business, sales in Amersham Health came to £235 million, compared to £222 million in the second quarter of last year, and sales in Amersham Biosciences were nearly flat at £158 million, compared to £156 million for the same period in 2002.
Amersham said the increase in Biosciences revenue came from growth in the protein separations business, for which it said revenues were £67 million this quarter, while sales in discovery systems were £91 million. The company also said that the proteomics and bioassay areas grew.
Furthermore, the company said that the restructuring program that it announced in February was proceeding ahead of schedule, “and is on track to deliver profitability as planned during 2004.”
Amersham did not report income, expenses, or assets for the quarter.
Six NIH Institutes To Sponsor Diabetes Proteomics Grant
Six sponsoring NIH institutes released a Request for Applications late last week entitled “Proteomics and Metabolomics in Type 1 Diabetes and Its Complications.” The institutes have committed approximately $3 million in total in FY 2004 to fund six to 12 grants in response to the RFA.
Salvatore Sechi, director of proteomics programs at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, announced at the HUPO meeting in Montreal earlier this month that the NIDDK would be releasing several RFAs supporting proteomics research, including this one (see PM 10-17-03).
The RFA can be found here.
Report Pegs Proteomics Market at $2B
Research and Markets released a report this week that evaluated the current total value of markets for proteomics technologies at $2 billion, with an expected increase to $6 billion by 2005 and $10 billion by 2010. The single most lucrative market was 2D gel electrophoresis, which takes in about $600 million, according to the report.
The report also described the status of various technologies, noting that 2D gels for front-end preparation and mass spec analysis were still the most commonly used methods, and that proteomics technologies were being integrated into drug discovery processes as complements to genomic approaches.
According to the report, the number of companies making products related to proteomics has increased “remarkably” during the past few years; the report cited 300 companies as being involved, with 390 collaborations.
The entire report can be found for a fee here.
SurroMed Wins NHLBI Contract for Restenosis Biomarkers
Mountain View-based SurroMed announced this week that the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute had awarded the company a contract to do proteomic and metabolomic profiling of samples from patients with in-stent restenosis, a condition involving the re-closing of an artery opened by surgical methods. The purpose will be to find biomarkers that indicate which patients are at risk for developing the condition.
Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.