Immupharma (LON:IMM) , the London based drug discovery and development company, posted today its full year pre-tax profits of £9.1m - up from £4.9m last year. Immupharma focuses on the development of novel drugs, largely based on peptide therapeutics, to treat serious medical conditions such as autoimmune diseases. The company currently has five drugs in development: 1) Lupus, 2) Cancer, 3) Severe Pain, 4) highly resistant infections like MRSA and 5) Inflammatory and Allergic disorders. The report noted that revenues for 2009 jumped to £22m - up from £57,120 a year ago - as well as an increase in operating profit of £9m, compared with a loss of £4.6m in 2008. Cash was also reported as robust, with a balance of £22.5 million, resulting from the LupuzorTM agreement, the report said. The company intend to use the balance to develop other compounds in the pipeline. Chairman Richard Warr commented:
2009 was a landmark year for ImmuPharma with the successful licensing of Lupuzor to Cephalon, the promising results of our Phase IIb trial for Lupuzor, the addition of further blue-chip institutional investors, and the receipt of prestigious industry awards. In addition to our successes in 2009 we are delighted to have received approval from the French regulatory authorities to commence our Phase I/IIa study in cancer patients with IPP-204106. This novel compound is the second ImmuPharma programme to move into clinical testing in patients and is an important part of our future. We look forward to reporting further progress throughout 2010.
Chief scientific officer and President, Dr Robert Zimmer, added:
2009 proved to be another remarkable year for ImmuPharma with the very promising results of the first Phase IIb study for LupuzorTM, the licensing agreement with Cephalon and the growing potential of the cancer programme. The rest of our development portfolio, our continued relationship with the CNRS and our strong cash position provides us with a solid basis for future growth.
