TaiMed Biologics Inc (中裕新藥) swung into profit in the second quarter on rising sales of its Trogarzo HIV treatment in the US, improving gross margin and recovering value of its financial assets, the company said on Friday.
Net profit in the second quarter was NT$30.42 million (US$1.03 million), compared with a net loss of NT$83.57 million a year earlier, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Earnings per share last quarter were NT$0.12.
Consolidated second-quarter revenue gained 15 percent year-on-year to NT$179 million, which could be attributed to a mild increase in the sale prices of Trogarzo and stable growth in sales, TaiMed chief financial officer Jack Chen (陳怡成) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“Revenue could have grown more during the April-to-June period if there had been no COVID-19 outbreaks... With the spread of the disease accelerating in the US since March, some patients could not go to hospitals due to lockdown measures,” Chen said.
Trogarzo is a fourth-line treatment and is not often recommended to patients unless they have already tried the initial or second-line treatments, the company said.
As a result, revenue contribution from the drug is expected to grow mildly rather than rapidly, Chen said.
The company’s gross margin increased to 42 percent in the second quarter, from 17 percent a year earlier, as its contract manufacturer, China-based WuXi Biologics Co (無錫生物製藥), improved its production procedures, he said.
“Given that our gross margin has remained above 40 percent for four quarters in a row, it seemed that it is not an issue anymore for TaiMed. I expect the figure to continue hovering between 40 percent and 50 percent in the second half of this year,” he said.
TaiMed owns 2.3 million shares of Montreal-based Theratechnologies Inc — its marketing and distribution partner — whose rising share price during the second quarter, amid a bullish financial market, buoyed TaiMed’s asset valuation, Chen said.
In the first half of the year, TaiMed reported a net loss of NT$44.95 million, or a net loss per share of NT$0.18, its data showed.
“Overall, we fared well in the second quarter and hope the momentum will continue in the second half of this year, when the pandemic is expected to slow, and our marketing activities would resume soon,” Chen said.
The company expects to break even for the whole of this year, he said.
The company would delay its plan to market Trogarzo in Germany later this quarter, depending on the situation of the outbreak, he added.
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