BTG eyes being speciality pharma co by 2010/11

By Ben Deighton

LONDON (Reuters) - BTG (BGC.L) hopes to effect its transformation from a biotechnology company to a specialty pharmaceutical business by the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011.

"We're very focussed on that and that's a sort of pivot point," Chief Executive Louise Makin told Reuters. "Our strategy is, if we can, to also bring things in so we might even not only sell CroFab and DigiFab (poison treatments) at that time but be selling other things as well."

The company plans to use some of its 78.2 million pounds war chest to buy in other assets that it can sell into hospitals alongside its existing products as part of its drive to become a speciality business.

"More so than ever it seems that people are looking to trim product portfolios, look for different options, things that don't fit (in big pharma)," Makin said, adding there are smaller companies that may also have exciting development programmes but insufficient funding.

"I did see a number that said a third of the U.S. biotechs are running out of cash in the next six months ... so that gives you a bit of a scale of the fluidity and dynamics that are going on at the moment," said Makin.

Earlier the company said it swung to a full-year pretax loss as costs associated with its purchase of Protherics weighed, but said its all-important recurring royalties figure increased by 30.4 percent to 55.3 million pounds.

(Reporting by Ben Deighton; Editing by Sharon Lindores)

($1=.6611 Pound)