Bruker and Bruker Revenues Up Though Customers Delay Mass Spec Buys
Bruker Biosciences, born from the merger of Bruker Daltonics and Bruker AXS on July 1, reported increased second-quarter revenues for both of its component companies this week.
Bruker Daltonics’ revenues totaled $34.4 million for the quarter, compared to $27.9 million for the second quarter of 2002. Bruker AXS’ second-quarter revenues came to $26.5 million, up from $24.0 million for the year-ago quarter. Bruker Daltonics nearly broke even for the second quarter, losing $233,000 compared to $4.2 million for the same period last year, while Bruker AXS reported widening losses, of $2.0 million, compared to $608,000 for the same period last year.
“The second quarter had its challenges in part due to delayed budgets and our customers’ need to evaluate our many new life-science mass spectrometry products introduced in March 2003,” John Hulburt, chief financial officer of Bruker Daltonics, said in a statement. “However, activity has increased recently, and at the end of the second quarter, Bruker Daltonics had a healthy increase in backlog compared to the beginning of the quarter.”
R&D expenses for both companies were up slightly, with Bruker Daltonics spending $6.6 million in the quarter, compared to $5.1 million in the second quarter of 2002, and Bruker AXS spending $3.2 million, compared to $2.8 million in the same period last year.
As of June 30, Bruker Daltonics had $46.8 million in cash and short-term investments, while Bruker AXS had $48.1 million, bringing the combined company’s cash assets to $94.9 million at the beginning of the third quarter.
GPC Biotech Q2 Revenues Are Up, As Net Losses Decline
GPC Biotech of Martinsreid, Germany reported this week a slight increase in Q2 revenues amid declining losses.
The company, which markets LeadCode protein-drug interaction technology, reported revenues of €5.2 million ($5.9 million) compared to €5.1 million for the second quarter of 2002.
Net loss narrowed to €6.4 million in the second quarter compared to €7.0 million in the year-ago period. R&D expenses decreased to €9.6 million, from €10.2 million for the same period in 2002.
As of June 30, the company said it had €104.3 million in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments, and marketable securities.
Serenex Snags Lilly For Chemoproteomics Technology Deal
Serenex said this week that Eli Lilly would use its chemoproteomics technology in select drug discovery programs.
Under the agreement, Lilly will have access to Serenex’s proteome mining and functional proteome fractionation technologies to screen compounds against thousands of protein targets simultaneously. The companies will evaluate how these technologies impact the lead identification process, Serenex said.
Serenex, of Durham, NC, signed a similar deal in May with GlaxoSmithKline, and in September 2002 with Chiron.
MDS Sciex Takes Leap For US Distribution Agreement
Leap Technologies of Carrboro, NC, signed an agreement this week with MDS Sciex to distribute MDS’ NanoLC proteomics system in the US market.
The system, launched at the American Society of Mass Spectrometry conference in Montreal in June, uses Eksigent Technologies’ microfluidic flow control system for nanoscale chromatography. It is used in LC/MS identification of peptides and on its own.
Matritech Q2 Revenues Up Slightly, Losses Narrow
Matritech, of Newton, Mass., reported revenues of $1.1 million for the second quarter, up from $870,000 for the same period of 2002.
The company, which is developing proteomics-based cancer diagnostics, reported a narrowed net loss of $1.9 million for the quarter, compared to $2.0 million for the year-ago quarter. R&D expenses came to $700,000, down from $1.0 million in the second quarter of 2002.
As of June 30, the company had $5.1 million in cash and cash equivalents.
SurroMed Signs Deal with MediBic for BioMarker Development, Distribution
SurroMed has signed an agreement with MediBic of Tokyo, in which both parties will collaboratively develop biomarker products, and MediBic will act as SurroMed’s exclusive sales representative in Japan for biomarker discovery products, Surromed said last week.
MediBic is a services and support firm for genomic-based R&D, founded by Yasuhiro Hashimoto, a research executive at Nippon Glaxo.