....cont.
Cima is on track to post significant revenue and income gains this year. For the first nine months, revenue rose nearly 80 percent to $55.3 million, while operating income hit $9 million, up from $5.8 million the previous year. This year's profits would have been even better were it not for $3.7 million in advisory, investment banking and legal merger-related expenses. The growth has been powered mostly by strong sales of Remeron Sol Tabs, an antidepressant Cima has made for Organon Pharmaceuticals since 2001, and Alavert, an antihistamine it began making for Wyeth late last year as a competitor to Schering-Plough's Claritin. Earlier this year, Wyeth indicated it xhad high hopes for Alavert, saying it could be its most successful over-the-counter new product, surpassing Advil and Robitussin.
So far, Alavert appears to be living up to those high expectations. "The Cima detractors thought Alavert would be a flash in the pan, but that has not been the case," Green said. In addition, generic competition to Remeron has yet to materialize, he said.
Cima expects to launch two undisclosed products for partners late this year or early next year. By the end of 2004 it should be making four to six new products for partners, including a fast-dissolve version of Allegra, a non-drowsy antihistamine marketed by the French drugmaker Aventis, that will compete with Alavert.
Ian Sanderson, an analyst at SG Cowen Securities in Boston, said Cima has done a good job of collaborating with pharmaceutical partners to develop and manufacture products. "It's a business model that teaches you how to do these things on somebody else's nickel. You can use the cash flow to develop your own products," Sanderson said.
Last year, Cima said it had identified five different drug compounds already on the market but not yet in fast-dissolve form.
The first, which Cima calls oravescent fentanyl, is expected to be launched in late 2005 or early 2006. Fentanyl is used to treat cancer pain.
Besides dissolving quickly, Cima's oravescent product is absorbed into the bloodstream faster than other dissovable forms of the painkiller now on the market.
Earlier this year, the company boasted about oravescent fentanyl's superiority in tests against a competitor's version of the drug. The other product was Actiq, produced by Cephalon, which by acquiring Cima will gain a commanding market share of quick-dissolve fentanyl products.
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