Actelion ‘prepared for long-term growth’

Actelion has published its results for the first quarter of the 2007 financial year. During this time, the firm generated revenues of CHF 290.4 million (120.49 million pounds), an increase of 38 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2006.

The company saw a net loss of CHF 150 million during the quarter, compared to an operating profit of CHF 53.7 million at the same time last year, with a net loss per share being CHF 6.43.

Actelion reported that it had attained a number of landmarks in the first quarter of the year, including the market growth of Tracleer and evidence of its benefits in chronic-thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension patients.

Other milestones reached by the firm in the first three months of 2007 included the swift integration of CoTherix into the firm and the granting of a positive opinion to expand the indication of Tracleer in Europe.

Jean-Paul Clozel, chief executive officer of the company, said: “I am confident that Actelion has every resource required to continue its long-term growth trajectory.

“By year-end, the company could have five different compounds in phase III and ten compounds in clinical development in total, some of them with blockbuster potential.”

He added that the firm consequently was in possession of a research and development pipeline which would drive accelerated future growth.

Last month, Actelion announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency issued a recommendation for an expansion of the use of Tracleer beyond pulmonary arterial hypertension.