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Biotech / Medical : ENZON, Inc. - New Chairman -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer who wrote (90)	8/13/2002 3:17:57 PM
From: tuck	Respond to of 96

"Break out?" Could be . . . Watching with renewed interest. Wondering if Gilead is going after Hep C as well as B, will have to check. >>NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Enzon Inc. (NasdaqNM:ENZN - News) said on Tuesday fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose amid higher sales of drugs that use its technology to make them last longer in the bloodstream. Enzon, based in Piscataway, New Jersey, said net income in the three months ended June 30 rose to $20.8 million, or 47 cents a share, from $3.3 million, or 8 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding an $8.8 million tax benefit, Enzon earned 27 cents a share in the quarter. Analysts on average had expected 24 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call. Revenue rose to $25.2 million from $10.5 million as sales soared for Peg-Intron, a long-acting treatment for hepatitis C marketed by partner Schering-Plough Corp. (NYSE:SGP - News). Total company royalties more than quadrupled to $19.6 million from $4.5 million in the fourth quarter of last year -- almost all from Peg-Intron. Enzon is best known for its "pegylation" technology, in which drugs are fused with the chemical polyethylene glycol, or PEG, to make them work longer -- thereby reducing the frequency of doses. Peg-Intron, approved by U.S. regulators early last year, is a pegylated form of Schering-Plough's older interferon drug called Intron A. It needs to be injected only once a week for a year, instead of three times a week as required for the original drug. Schering-Plough garnered estimated sales of about $260 million from Peg-Intron in the quarter ending June 30, for which Enzon received an estimated 7.5 percent royalty. Patients with hepatitis C are given the injections as well as a pill called ribavirin, which is also sold by Schering-Plough. Health officials believe 4 million Americans are infected with the hepatitis C virus, the biggest cause of liver transplants. The virus typically attacks the liver for decades before symptoms of liver damage appear. About 60 percent of patients taking both Peg-Intron and ribavirin for a year are able to eliminate the virus from their bloodstreams, far better results than seen with the previous "gold standard" treatment of Intron A and ribavirin. Enzon Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Zuerblis said Peg-Intron's greater effectiveness will likely prompt more patients to find out if they have been infected with the virus, and to seek treatment. "Of the 4 million Americans infected with the virus, 2.4 million are expected to eventually develop symptoms. But we may see more asymptomatic people seek early and aggressive treatment to prevent symptoms," Zuerblis said.<< Cheers, Tuck