THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Aug. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Lexicon Genetics Incorporated (Nasdaq: LEXG - news), a drug discovery company that uses gene knockout technology to define the function of genes, today reported financial results for the three- and six-month periods ended June 30, 2001.
Revenues: Lexicon's revenues for the second quarter of 2001 were $3.5 million, versus $2.6 million for the corresponding quarter of 2000. For the six-month period ended June 30, 2001, total revenues were $6.8 million versus $5.9 million for the corresponding period in 2000. Revenues for the 2001 second quarter included fees from the Company's LexVision(TM) collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, activity under functional genomics research collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and technology license fees from sublicensees of the Company's gene targeting technology.
Research and Development Expenses: Research and development expenses for the three-month period ended June 30, 2001 increased to $10.7 million, from $5.6 million for the corresponding quarter in 2000. Excluding stock-based compensation, research and development expenses for the three-month period ended June 30, 2001 were $9.3 million, compared to $4.1 million for the corresponding quarter in 2000. For the six-month period ended June 30, 2001, research and development expenses were $20.6 million, compared to $15.9 million for the corresponding period in 2000. Excluding stock-based compensation, research and development expenses for the six-month period ended June 30, 2001 were $17.7 million, compared to $7.7 million for the corresponding six-month period in 2000. The increase in expenses in the second quarter of 2001 primarily reflects increased investments toward the scale-up of the Company's gene knockout and functional analysis programs to determine the function of 5,000 genes over five years for the discovery of new disease targets. Consistent with this focus, through the second quarter of 2001, Lexicon's total workforce grew to 371 people, including 279 scientific staff.
General and Administrative Expenses: General and administrative expenses for the three-month period ended June 30, 2001 increased to $5.0 million, from $3.3 million for the corresponding three-month period of 2000. Excluding stock-based compensation, general and administrative expenses for the three-month period ended June 30, 2001 increased to $3.7 million, compared to $1.5 million for the corresponding three-month period of 2000. For the six-month period ended June 30, 2001, general and administrative expenses were $9.3 million, compared to $9.8 million for the corresponding six-month period in 2000. Excluding stock-based compensation, general and administrative expenses for the six-month period ended June 30, 2001, were $6.7 million, compared to $2.8 million for the corresponding six-month period in 2000. Approximately $1.2 million and $1.9 million of general and administrative expenses, respectively, in the three- and six-month periods ended June 30, 2001, relates to the Company's patent infringement litigation against Deltagen, Inc. The increase in general and administrative expenses also reflect the addition of employees in areas such as finance and accounting, information technology and business development that are necessary to support the growing needs of the Company's business at all levels.
Interest Income (Expense), Net: Interest income (expense), net, decreased to $2.3 million in the three-month period ended June 30, 2001, from $2.8 million in the corresponding quarter in 2000, reflecting lower interest rates and decreased balances of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. For the six-month period ended June 30, 2001, interest income (expense), net, increased to $5.1 million, from $2.8 million in the corresponding six-month period in 2000.
Net Loss: Net loss, including non-cash stock-based compensation related to stock options granted before our initial public offering, was $9.9 million, or $0.20 per share, in the three-month period ended June 30, 2001, compared to a net loss of $3.5 million, or $0.08 per share, in the corresponding quarter of 2000. Excluding the non-cash stock-based compensation charges, net loss for the three-month period ended June 30, 2001 was $7.2 million, or $0.15 per share, up from a pro forma net loss of $282,000, or $0.01 per share, for the corresponding quarter in 2000. Weighted-average shares outstanding used in calculating net loss per share for the second quarter of 2001 were 48.9 million. For the six months ended June 30, 2001, net loss, including non-cash stock-based compensation related to stock options, was $17.9 million, or $0.37 per share, compared to a net loss of $17.1 million, or $0.48 per share, in the corresponding six months of 2000. Excluding non-cash stock-based compensation expenses, net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2001 was $12.5 million, or $0.26 per share, compared to a pro forma net loss of $1.8 million, or $0.04 per share, for the corresponding six months in 2000.
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Marketable Securities: As of June 30, 2001, Lexicon had approximately $184 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, compared to $203 million as of December 31, 2000.
``The second quarter of 2001 was exceptionally strong for Lexicon in terms of executing our strategy. Our progress is placing us in an excellent position to maximize the value of our discoveries and bring unparalleled efficiencies to drug discovery in the post-genome era,'' said Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Lexicon. ``We expect that our merger with Coelacanth Corporation, with drug-like chemical libraries and an industrialized medicinal chemistry approach to drug discovery, will allow us to rapidly implement an integrated gene-to-lead drug discovery platform. Likewise, the combination of our leading capabilities for defining in vivo gene function with Incyte's large number of potential therapeutic proteins gives us the opportunity to become an industry leader in the discovery and development of therapeutic protein products. Our continued strong cash position and the expansion of our genome pharmaceutical discovery center, which is on schedule toward a year-end move-in date, give us the critical resources and infrastructure to execute our plan.''
Second Quarter 2001 Highlights:
Merger with Coelacanth Corporation: Lexicon signed an agreement in the second quarter for a $32 million stock-for-stock acquisition of Coelacanth Corporation, a Princeton, NJ-based company that uses proprietary chemistry technologies to rapidly discover new chemical entities for drug development. The acquisition was completed on July 12, 2001. Coelacanth is the core for a new division called Lexicon Pharmaceuticals that is combining Lexicon's novel, functionally defined targets from the human genome with Coelacanth's high performance chemistry technologies to discover new drugs. The Company believes the combination of Lexicon's industrialized process of in vivo gene function discovery with Coelacanth's established chemistry capability will place Lexicon in a superior position to form drug discovery alliances and partnerships.
Therapeutic Protein Alliance and Additional Collaboration Agreements with Incyte Genomics: Lexicon and Incyte Genomics signed a major alliance that will leverage the respective technology and intellectual property assets of both companies to accelerate the development of therapeutic protein drug products. The two companies also entered into separate agreements for the co-promotion by Incyte of Lexicon's LexVision(TM) database to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; access for Incyte to Lexicon's LexVision database; and access for Lexicon to Incyte's LifeSeq® Gold database.
Progress under LexVision Collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb: Lexicon delivered the third installment of gene function information for new protein targets to Bristol-Myers Squibb, triggering a payment under the related LexVision collaboration agreement. Lexicon's five-year agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb provides up to $25 million in cash payments to Lexicon, as well as future milestone and royalty payments based on products discovered using Lexicon's technology... |
