Dallas, Texas 05/21/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ:ARIA), the controversial small-cap bio pharma company has now taken some steps in the right direction towards rebuilding the company’s Iclusig brand with release of its Q1 earnings results. For the reported quarter, the total revenue rose 82% to $11.8M & it included $8 million of sales of the company’s leukemia drug-Iclusig that had been temporarily pulled out from the market towards the end of 2013 for a few weeks & had been relabeled with some more inclusive safety-warnings. This is a 25% rise from the previous year.
Sales figures
As per the company’s press release, $4.7M in sales have came from the United States & $3.3M have come from Europe. The company also reported $3.1M in deferred revenue which has not yet been reported. This included the $1.3M in inventory that is now waiting to be shipped from the pharmacies to the patients, and $1.8M that is shipped to France inspite of the fact that the reimbursement pricing-negotiations are still in progress. In addition to the product revenue, ARIA also recorded $3.8M in licensing revenue which reflected the $3.75M milestone payment that came from Medinol for licensing of ridaforolimus.
Research & development
Research & development expenses also shrank very considerably in the quarter, partly because of the clinical hold that has been placed on the company’s Iclusig by the Food and Drug Administration in 2013. The R&D costs totaled only $28.6M, which was a drop of 31% from the same quarter of the previous year, due to the reduction in its clinical-trial costs, mainly the absence of the company’s EPIC trial that was shelved in Oct 2013, which led to lower costs. Selling, and general & administrative costs rose 7% to touch $31.6M & this reflect the company’s marketing effort that had been put toward re- launching the drug Iclusig within the country & in many other countries overseas.