LONDON, UK, 11 January, 2016 - Skyepharma PLC (LSE: SKP), the expert oral and inhalation drug development company, today publishes an unaudited pre-close update ahead of its results for the year ended 31 December 2015, due in March.
Trading
Full year revenues for 2015 are anticipated to be ahead of the Board’s previous expectations announced on 26 November 2015, primarily because the Group’s license partner, Mundipharma, has agreed that the first flutiform® sales milestone of €10 million (£7.4 million) will now be recorded in 2015. This will be through the release of deferred income and no cash will be received as it will be used to meet a large part of the balance of Mundipharma’s right to recover up to €25 million (£17.6 million) of previous development costs, as already disclosed.
The Group’s cash and cash equivalents as at 31 December 2015 was approximately £41 million and net cash was approximately £35 million. Cash generation in the second half of the year benefited from both a robust operating performance and the later timing of payments for capex projects, which remain on track.
Partner sales
Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has reported that its unaudited revenue estimates for EXPAREL® in Q4 2015 were U.S.$67.2 million, an increase of 13 per cent. compared with sales of U.S.$59.7 million for Q3 2015. For the full year 2015, EXPAREL® sales were an estimated U.S.$239.9 million, an increase of 27 per cent. compared with U.S.$188.5 million in 2014.
Peter Grant, Chief Executive Officer of Skyepharma, commented:
“Skyepharma has performed well in 2015 with robust growth of flutiform and increasing contributions from EXPAREL and the GSK Ellipta products, which have resulted in significant revenue growth and cash generation. We have also made substantial progress with our pipeline. This was demonstrated by the recently announced feasibility and option agreement with Mundipharma in respect of the triple combination respiratory product, SKP-2076. In addition, the focus and scope of the SKP-2075 development programme now offers the potential for its relatively rapid development in Europe as one of the first therapies targeted at patients with both asthma and COPD symptoms, a group with a high unmet medical need. We remain confident in the future prospects for the Group.”
