Half-year loss for Cyprotex after poor US sales
A DROP in US revenues has hit half-year profits at drug testing firm Cyprotex.
The Macclesfield business said overall revenues increased 5.1% to £3.72m thanks to sales growth of 21.6% in Europe.
But it recorded a pre-tax loss of £222,368, compared to a small profit of £658 last time, mainly due to a 12% fall in US revenue as a result of a delay in the completion of a major high content toxicology screening contract.
However, the business has been encouraged by new business wins and is confident of hitting profit and revenue targets for the full year.
Chairman Steve Harris said: “2012 has so far seen an excellent improvement in revenues and quality of business in Europe and the rest of the world offset somewhat by the company’s performance in the US, mainly due to delays in completing a high content toxicology deal in the period.”
He added: “We expect revenues from the signing of several high content toxicology deals will be registered in the second half of the year and that, combined with continued growth of our product offerings, as exemplified by the deals announced today, will accentuate our traditional bias towards generating revenues and profitability in that period.”
Cyprotex has promoted director of scientific operations Dr Clive Dilworth to the role of chief scientific officer, replacing Dr Katya Tsaioun who has stepped down after two years.
It has also announced a deal with the Insphero, a Switzerland-based supplier of microtissues for drug testing, to co-market the firm’s liver microtissue technologies.
