AcuTect sales add to Diatide results

In its first quarterly statement since it began selling its AcuTect acute venous thrombosis agent, radiopharmaceutical firm Diatide last month reported fiscal and fourth-quarter (end-December) 1998 results. The Londonderry, NH, company’s year-end revenues were $6.4 million, compared with $4.1 million in 1997. The company’s net loss for the year was $10.2 million, compared with $11 million the year before.

Diatide’s annual revenues for both 1997 and 1998 were primarily due to milestone payments from sales and marketing partner Nycomed Amersham. Nycomed paid Diatide $4 million in 1998, when it filed a new drug application for NeoTect, a lung cancer imaging agent, and when it received Food and Drug Administration clearance for AcuTect (SCAN 10/14/98). Diatide’s 1997 revenues included a $2 million milestone payment from Nycomed for Diatide’s NDA for AcuTect.

Diatide’s fourth-quarter revenues were $717,000, up from $510,000 the year before. Its net loss for the fourth quarter was $3.4 million, compared with $3.8 million in 1997. AcuTect contributed $177,000 to Diatide’s fourth-quarter revenues, a number that company executives acknowledged was disappointing. The firm attributed the slow start to the complexity of its marketing effort: In October AcuTect was introduced to physicians who make diagnoses, and in January it was presented to referring physicians.