UPDATE 1-InterMune 3rd-quarter loss narrows
(Adds revenue, R&D details, background)
NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - InterMune Inc (ITMN.O) on Thursday reported a narrower third-quarter loss than a year ago, when it took a legal settlement charge and had higher research expenses.
The Brisbane, California-based biotechnology company posted a net loss of $23.1 million, or 66 cents per share, compared with a loss of $29 million, or 88 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts, on average, expected a loss of 65 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue fell to $11.4 million from $22.5 million as sales of Actimmune, its immune system boosting drug, dropped 53 percent to $10.6 million.
Actimmune sales have dried up since a clinical trial failed to show a benefit in the lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The vast majority of the drug's sales had come from off-label use for the lung disease, but most doctors stopped prescribing it for that use once the trial failed.
Third-quarter research and development expenses were down by 27 percent to $23.4 million, reflecting the halting of the late-stage clinical trial of Actimmune for pulmonary fibrosis.
The company is currently testing another experimental drug for the lung disorder.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot)
((Reuters Messaging: bill.berkrot.reuters.com@reuters.net phone 646 223-6030; editing by Carol Bishopric/Jeffrey Benkoe)) Keywords: INTERMUNE RESULTS/
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