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Biotech / Medical : Trickle Portfolio -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: tuck who wrote (1059)2/12/2002 9:44:24 AM
From: tuck  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 1784
 
DPII hits guidance (edit: EBIO also hit estimates; with revenue being $100K better than estimated). They "invested" in the mArcs HTS technology. It used to be called uArcs. This (4th) quarter they were allowed to sell Nanokan systems to folks other than BMS or Aventis, the early development partners. I'll have to check to see if they got any bites.

>>SAN DIEGO, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Discovery Partners International, Inc. (Nasdaq: DPII - news) today reported financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2001. The reported results included record revenues of $41.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2001.

During the fourth quarter 2001, the Company had revenues of $10.9 million, slightly over the previously issued financial guidance of $10.5 million. The Company reported a net loss for the fourth quarter 2001 of $1.6 million or $0.068 per share, in line with previously issued guidance.

Expenditures on Research and Development for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 were $3.0 million compared to $3.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2000, a 16% decrease which is primarily attributed to infrastructure consolidation programs instituted in the first quarter 2001. Selling, General and Administrative expenses for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 were $2.8 million compared to $2.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2000.

``The year 2001 ended on an upbeat note at Discovery Partners,'' said Riccardo Pigliucci, president and chief executive officer. ``In December 2001, we announced the signing of a multi-year, multi-million dollar chemistry collaborative agreement with Pfizer Inc. This, combined with the signing of a major chemistry collaborative agreement with Merck in October, provides Discovery Partners with a healthy backlog for 2002 and beyond.''

``During the year, Discovery Partners invested in the development of Micro ARrayed Compound Screening, or mARCS, a new high throughput screening technology,'' continued Pigliucci. ``In addition, we continued to build our customer base, signing contracts with 34 companies, including 13 new customers. Our ongoing business development efforts are focused on developing drug discovery collaborations, integrating the broad range of Discovery Partners' services and products.''

Revenues for the year ended December 31, 2001 were a record $41.1 million compared to $36.3 million in 2000. Net loss for the year ended December 31, 2001 was $11.1 million or $0.464 per share, which includes a one-time $4.4 million charge for obsolete inventory reserve, compared to $11.7 million or $0.888 per share for the year ended December 31, 2000, which includes a $9.0 million non-recurring charge for the write-off of in-process research and development related to the acquisition of Axys Advanced Technologies in April 2000.

Expenditures on Research and Development for the year ended December 31, 2001 were $13.0 million compared to $8.9 million for the same period in 2000. Selling, General and Administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2001 were $11.0 million compared to $8.4 million for the same period in 2000. Both of these expense increases are primarily due to the impact of acquisitions made during 2000 and 2001.

As of December 31, 2001, Discovery Partners had approximately $77.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Discovery Partners expects to remain cash flow neutral for 2002, excluding minor fluctuations in working capital, the impact of acquisitions, if any, and any stock repurchases under the Company's stock repurchase program.

In January 2002, Discovery Partners implemented the new FASB 141 and 142 accounting standards for business combinations and other intangible assets. As a result, the Company will no longer amortize goodwill and certain other intangibles. Due to the number and size of historical acquisitions completed by Discovery Partners, these new accounting standards will have a material impact on Discovery Partners' financial results beginning in 2002. For example, in 2001, Discovery Partners recorded $6.4 million in amortization expense, which is equivalent to $0.26 per share on a pre-tax basis.

A conference call discussing fourth quarter and year end 2001 financial results as well as the financial guidance for 2002 will be publicly available via the Company's Web site, discoverypartners.com. The live webcast will begin at 11:00 am Eastern Time, on Tuesday, February 12, 2002. In addition to the live webcast, replays will be available to the public on DPII's website and by calling 800-428-6051 (domestic) and 973-709-2089 (international), access code: 230679 through Tuesday, February 19, 2002.

About Discovery Partners

Discovery Partners International, Inc. has become a leader in drug discovery collaborations by offering integrated services and products that span the drug discovery continuum including target characterization, high throughput screening, lead generation, lead optimization, high throughput synthesis automation, and gene expression analysis. DPII is headquartered in San Diego, California and has operations in the United States and Europe. For more information on Discovery Partners International, Inc., please visit the company's Web site at discoverypartners.com .

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are ``forward-looking'' statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty. Discovery Partners' actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements due to risks and uncertainties that exist in Discovery Partners' operations, development efforts and business environment, including integration of acquired businesses, the trend toward consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry, quarterly sales variability, technological advances by competitors, and other risks and uncertainties more fully described in Discovery Partners' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Discovery Partners' other SEC reports.


DISCOVERY PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL, INC.
SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA
(In thousands, except per share amounts)

Consolidated Statement of Three months ended Twelve months ended
Operations Data: December 31, December 31,
2001 2000 2001 2000
(Unaudited) (Unaudited)

Revenue $10,918 $11,403 $41,134 $36,264
Cost of revenue 5,527 5,531 20,460 18,343
Obsolete inventory reserve -- -- 4,397 --
Gross margin 5,391 5,872 16,277 17,921
Operating expenses:
Research and development 3,025 3,617 12,982 8,934
Selling, general and
administrative 2,841 2,405 11,019 8,414
Amortization of deferred
compensation and other
non-cash compensation
charges 231 390 1,074 1,376
Amortization of goodwill 1,472 1,188 5,848 3,379
Write-off of in-process
research and development -- -- -- 9,000
Total operating expenses 7,569 7,600 30,923 31,103
Loss from operations (2,178) (1,728) (14,646) (13,182)
Interest and other income,
net 541 1,607 3,498 1,485
Net loss $(1,637) $(121) $(11,148) $(11,697)

Historical net loss
per share,
basic and diluted $(0.068) $(0.005) $(0.464) $(0.888)
Shares used in
calculating historical
net loss per share,
basic and diluted 24,154 23,629 24,016 13,176

Pro forma net loss
per share, basic and diluted $(0.666)
Shares used in calculating
pro forma net loss per share,
basic and diluted 17,551

Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: December 31, 2001 December 31, 2000
(Unaudited)

Cash and cash equivalents and
short-term investments $77,265 $97,690
Working capital 88,550 106,987
Total assets 167,022 178,849
Long term debt, less current portion 1,082 944
Total stockholders' equity 157,042 166,562<<

Cheers, Tuck



To: tuck who wrote (1059)2/24/2002 11:44:45 AM
From: tuck  Respond to of 1784
 
In the better late than never department, my take on EBIO's earnings release and CC.

Epoch has suffered because of ABI's difficulties. First, ABI had manufacturing problems with the MGB TaqMan probes last year. Once those got straightened out, 9/11 happened, and the softness persisted into the early part of the 4th quarter. In fact, the 16% revenue increase comes mostly from contractual minimum royalties from ABI. Product sales were down 30%.

However, things are looking up on the ABI front. On ABI's 4th quarter CC, CEO Michael Hunkapiller called the TaqMan probes potentially ABI's biggest opportunity, and further noted that while sales of these were down a bit in the fourth quarter, sales in the first quarter had picked up strongly (their call was 1/23/02). ABI had been selling these chiefly in the U.S., but now their worldwide sales force is selling them, too. Both Celera and Celera Diagnostics (j.v. with ABI) are starting to use them, too. EBIO expects the sell through to these two to ramp in the second half of '02.

While the improving picture with ABI is good, it is even better that other revenue streams are starting to flow. EBIO got its first significant revenue from Third Wave in this quarter. TWTI reports on Tuesday, I believe; though I note its stock has been pummeled hard of late. Is it just a young stock in hard times or has the quarter been weak? We'll see pretty soon.

Moreover, EBIO is shipping the first of the Eclipse probes to Incyte as noted in the PR (hit the "previous" link to see it). A footnote to the other distribution agreements mentioned in the PR is that Eurogentech is the 4th largest supplier of oligos in Europe, and has a j.v. with Nippon in Japan. Back to the INCY deal . . . INCY is shipping its latest versions of LifeSeq and ZooSeq, which include EBIO design software for Eclipse probes.

The recent hires actually seem to be contributing (contrast with Synthetech, for example, which hired a new business development guy several quarters ago, and seems to have developed little business (in fairness, NZYM had a slightly better most recent quarter, which caused me to keep holding a bit longer)). In addition, the latest addition to the BOD is Mike Lucero, who is the SVP of Marketing at Fluidigm, a private microfluidics company that may have the best technology in the field. He also was at ABI overseeing the TaqMan deal with EBIO before joining Fluidigm.

I'm not sure what to make of the DNA Anchor business for microarrays, as there are plenty of players in this space, and it is unclear to me what advantage DNA Anchor has. In any case, more products for that line will be launched in '02, in the form of oligo libraries for arrays. Ditto on new products for the Eclipse line, which will be in the form of both off-the-shelf and custom kits. There is very little DNA Anchor revenue in the guidance, thank goodness; I'm happy to take that as an upside wild card.

Most of the questions I incorporated into the above narrative, but there was one about large shareholder Brad Whitmore of Grace Brothers. EBIO simply said that he was a long time supporter who had a personal stake as well as one on behalf of Grace Brothers, but he has no board seat.

Another question was about marketing initiatives. EBIO said that they had hired an advertising manager for the eclipse line, and would be doubling their sales force as well as going to more trade shows. These expenses would hit hardest in the first part of this year, increasing the burn rate from its current $500K for a couple of quarters.

In sum, I expect EBIO to turn around steadily this year, though I wonder about the DNA Anchor line. EBIO is priced very cheaply, IMO, and I will be trying to accumulate a little more.

Cheers, Tuck