UPDATE 1-Pozen posts narrower-than-expected Q4 loss

Wed Feb 25, 2009 8:30am EST
 
[-] Text [+]

* Q4 loss/shr $0.14 vs Street -$0.25/shr

* Revenue more than doubles to $14.0 mln vs est $10.4 mln

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical company Pozen Inc (POZN.O) posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss, helped by higher licensing and development revenue.

For the fourth quarter, the company reported a net loss of $4.1 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with $4.2 million, or 14 cents a share, from a year ago period.

For the latest fourth quarter licensing revenue rose 33 percent to $5.2 million, while development revenue jumped nearly four-fold to $8.8 million.

"The increase in total revenue was primarily due to earning $10.8 million more in revenue for development work performed under the AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) and $2.4 million in royalties from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L)," the company said.

In 2006, Pozen and AstraZeneca signed a deal to co-develop experimental pain drug for arthritis, PN 400, by which AstraZeneca would pay Pozen $40 million upfront and $160 million for certain development and regulatory milestones.

Shares of the company closed at $5.75 Tuesday on Nasdaq.

For the alerts, double-click [ID:nWNAB6656] (Reporting by Anand Basu in Bangalore; Editing by Amitha Rajan)

 

Featured Broker sponsored link