Taiwanese drug maker TTY Biopharm Co (台灣東洋藥品) expects net profits to rise this year from last year because of new orders from US health giant Johnson & Johnson to manufacture a cancer drug.
The company on June 3 announced that it would manufacture ovarian and breast cancer drug Doxil/Caelyx for Johnson & Johnson on a contract basis, according to a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Orders from Johnson & Johnson would start contributing profit to the company from the second half of this year, TTY Biopharm chief auditor Tony Wu (吳文華) said at the sidelines of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday.
The Taiwanese firm did not provide the estimated increase of its earnings per share this year because it would depend on the quantity required by Johnson & Johnson, Wu said.
“The shipments were set to be between 200,000 units and 800,000 units a year, and Johnson & Johnson will adjust the amount based on the market demand,” Wu said.
Johnson & Johnson plans to sell the cancer drug in Europe, while it waits for the drug to receive the approval from regulators in the US, Wu said.
The company posted a profit of NT$542.32 million (US$18.05 million), or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$2.53, for last year, up 3.88 percent the from NT$522.08 million, or EPS of NT$2.44, it recordedthe previous year.
TTY Biopharm shareholders yesterday approved NT$1.4 per common share in cash dividends, representing a 1.41 percent dividend yield ratio. They also passed the distribution of an 8.9 percent stock at the meeting.
TTY Biopharm planned to spend NT$650 million from January to the second quarter of next year on capital expansion, as it expects spending to increase sales to NT$338 million this year and NT$450 million next year, the company said in its annual financial report.
Furthermore, the company said it would invest more than NT$380 million in research and development this year to develop new drugs, the report said. It did not provide last year’s figure for comparison.
Last quarter, TTY Biopharm’s profit nearly tripled to NT$512.49 million, or EPS of NT$2.39, from the NT$131.79 million, or EPS of NT$0.76, it made a year ago after it obtained about NT$400 million from selling shares in its Shanghai-based subsidiary. The figure was 2.77 times higher than the NT$136.05 million it earned a quarter ago.
TTY Biopharm’s shares fell 2.93 percent yesterday to NT$99.5, underperforming the GRETAI’s 1.22 percent decline.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure