Microbix Biosystems reports profitable third quarter and 19% rise in sales
Microbix Biosystems has reported a profitable third quarter ended 30 June 2002 with a rise in sales over the same period last year. The company reported sales of $870,022 compared to $726,547 for the same period in 2001, a 19.7% increase.
Net income increased marginally as foreign exchange losses and costs associated with the company's biotherapeutics licensing efforts negatively affected the quarter.
Microbix stated that its cash position, down for the quarter, is expected to improve in the fourth quarter with the collection of above-average levels of customer receivables.
Licensing discussions and interest in thecCompany's plans to market generic urokinase continued during the quarter with news of Abbott Laboratories's plans to re-launch Abbokinase plus strong messages from the US Food and Drug Administration regarding the approval path for generic biotherapeutics.
"In the core business, we are starting to see results from our efforts to expand product lines and reduce the impact of the cyclical nature of some of the market sectors in which we operate.
This core platform continues to fund our development team which is creating new higher value products and technologies such as urokinase," said William Gastle, president and CEO.
"As expected, we are seeing steady performance in the second half of this year and are anticipating significant new developments in technology and products that should underpin strong growth going forward." Microbix specialises in developing and manufacturing cell culture-derived biologics for an emerging world market of biotherapeutic drugs and vaccines.
It makes reagents for building diagnostic products and tools used in biotechnology research.
