HEIDELBERG, Germany, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- LION bioscience AG (Neuer Markt: LIO, WKN 504 350, Nasdaq: LEON) today announced that revenues more than doubled for the second quarter and for the six month period of the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2002, when compared with the same periods in the previous fiscal year.
LION increased its sales in the second quarter of the current fiscal year by 127% to euro 10.2 million -- up from euro 4.5 million compared to the same period of FY 2001. This increase is primarily due to positive developments in LION's research and development fees, where revenues more than tripled to euro 6.0 million (compared to euro 1.4 million in the same quarter last fiscal year). Compared to the first quarter of FY 2002 a 9% increase -- euro 0.5 million -- has been achieved for R&D services for the three months ended September 2001. Compared to the second quarter last year, revenues for software licenses increased by 38% from euro 3.1 million to euro 4.3 million. This is a 23% increase compared to the first quarter of FY 2002, where revenues for software licenses were euro 3.5 million.
At the same time, LION decreased its operating loss by 10% in the second quarter of fiscal year 2002 -- to euro (11.8 million) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2002 from euro (13.1 million) in the first quarter of fiscal year 2002. Earnings per share also improved to euro (0.55) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2002 compared to euro (0.60) in the first quarter of fiscal year 2002.
Positive half year figures reported
For the first six months (April 1 to September 30, 2001) of fiscal year 2002, LION reported revenues of euro 19.2 million -- up from euro 7.8 million for the same period of the previous fiscal year, which represents an increase of 146%. Net loss for the period rose to euro (21.5 million) during the six month period ending September 30, 2001, compared to euro (18.1 million) for the same period of the previous fiscal year (excluding the non-cash conversion charges incurred in connection with the transfer of preferred shares into common shares during the first six months of 2001, which totaled euro 9.4 million). Research and development expenses increased during the first six months of fiscal year 2002 to euro 25.1 million, compared to euro 10.7 million for the same period of the previous fiscal year.
``LION managed to deliver on its promises for the first half of the current fiscal year, despite the more difficult market conditions within the biotechnology sector,'' said Dr. Friedrich von Bohlen, CEO of LION bioscience. ``Nevertheless we continue to review our business and projects on a regular basis. As in the past, this allows us to carefully monitor market activities and changes and react accordingly to them. Despite the very successful first half year of our current business year we will carefully monitor the developments in our industry.''
First success of IT-driven drug discovery after only 16 months
In August 2001, LION filed applications for patent protection on the first lead series in the field of nuclear receptors. This is the first success of LION's internal drug discovery, which commenced its internal R&D activities after only 16 months ago and is based on the company's in-house, IT-based information and knowledge management solution, i-biology®. With that, LION has demonstrated that IT-based drug discovery can considerably shorten the R&D cycle in pre-clinical research from up to the industry average of 5.5 years to, in this case, 16 months. LION reported in April of this year, that more than 250 targets have been identified for Bayer using a larger scale i-biology® solution for Bayer in only about half of the agreed upon time frame, with one target having already progressed into pre-clinical trials. These results clearly demonstrate the acceleration that can be achieved by applying integrated information and knowledge management solutions to drug discovery.
Expanding customer base
In the second quarter of the current fiscal year, LION secured 13 additional contracts with customers ranging from pharmaceutical, animal health to biotechnology companies, as well as research associations. Customers included: Hoffman-LaRoche, Intervet, UCB Pharma and the German Cancer Research Institute (DKFZ). The strongest growth in revenue has been achieved in the United States, an important market globally for life sciences. As a result, LION's products and solutions are now used by more than 80 industrial and more than 120 academic customers worldwide.
Expansion of product offering into the field of cheminformatics
In July, LION and MDL Information Systems, Inc. entered into a software licensing and reselling agreement. LION has licensed a wide range of MDL's industry-standard informatics applications and databases for both, in-house drug discovery and in order to develop and commercialize software applications that interface with MDL's widely deployed products to integrate them into LION's information and knowledge management systems for the life sciences. In addition, MDL received an exclusive reseller license for LION's predictive ADME-software suite, iDEA(TM). The partnership extends LION's product offering in the field of cheminformatics and further strengthens LION's position as the standard for integrated IT solutions for the life sciences.
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