Drugmaker TTY Biopharm Co (台灣東洋藥品) yesterday said that it would increase its annual operating profit to NT$500 million (US$16.7 million) from NT$339.86 million last year within the next two years by cutting operating expenses.
The company plans to cut its research and development expenses by NT$100 million and other operating expenses by another NT$100 million, TTY Biopharm chairman Clark Hsiao (蕭英鈞) said at an investors’ conference yesterday.
“I will not take any salary from the company before we reach the target, and I will step down if I cannot lead the company to achieve it within two years,” Hsiao said.
Hsiao took office on June 24 after the company’s shareholders’ meeting, replacing Lin Rong-jin (林榮錦), the current chairman of Center Laboratories Inc (晟德).
“There are a lot of drugs under development in TTY Biopharm’s pipe line, and we think some of them might not yield positive results in the end,” Hsiao said.
Vice president Hu Yu-fang (胡宇方) said in terms of research and development expenses, the company is set to keep expenses for drug development at NT$200 million a year, while reducing costs for clinical trials.
Last year, TTY Biopharm spent NT$383.88 million on research and development, while other operating expenses were NT$1.33 billion, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
In the first half of this year, the company posted profit of NT$59.47 million (NT$0.32 per share), down 90.33 percent from NT$615.06 million (NT$2.65 per share) the previous year, the filing showed.
Hsiao said the profit decline was because of high base level a year ago, when the company sold 60 percent shares of its subsidiary and booked income of NT$478 million.
The company shipped ovarian and breast cancer drug Doxil to health giant Johnson & Johnson in April, May and last month respectively this year, said Chang Chih-meng (張志猛), company special assistant to chairman.
TTY Biopharm shipped 70,000 units of Doxil to Johnson & Johnson last month, increasing its monthly revenue by NT$12.67 million. However, cumulative revenue from January through last month still declined 1.03 percent to NT$1.71 billion from NT$1.73 billion a year ago, the company said.
Total shipments of Doxil to Johnson & Johnson are set to be around 150,000 units this year, TTY Biopharm said, adding that its client Johnson & Johnson faces strong competition from India-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes Lipodox, a generic drug approved by the US government in February last year for having similar effect as Doxil.
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