BioWhittaker Inc. said its earnings rose 111 percent during JTC the first quarter of its fiscal year, even before counting a $1 million boost from a settlement of a patent infringement suit.
The Walkersville-based company said it earned $2.1 million during the three months that ended Jan. 31, compared with year-ago profit of $502,000. The latest quarter's earnings include the settlement it won from Pharmacia, a company BioWhittaker charged infringed its patents on products that let doctors diagnose allergies from blood tests. The total Pharmacia settlement is expected to be worth $5.2 million between now and 1999.
Company Chief Financial Officer Philip L. Rohrer said the results, which worked out to 10 cents a share from the operating business and another nine cents a share from the settlement, were about 10 percent to 20 percent better than analysts anticipated. The company earned 5 cents a share a year ago.
The company's stock rose 25 cents to close at $7.50 a share on the New York Stock Exchange after the earnings report was released.
Mr. Rohrer said the company saw 20 percent-plus sales gains for its cell culture products and its endotox in protection products. The cell culture products are live cells and "food" that sustains the cells. Both are used in drug development research, and Mr. Rohrer said sales picked up because of biotechnology companies that use BioWhittaker products are reaching later stages of research on drugs they are still developing.
"Drugs are slowly making their way out of the laboratory and into the marketplace," Mr. Rohrer said.
The endotoxin detection products are developed from the blood of horseshoe crabs, which Mr. Rohrer said the company catches, draws blood from, and releases at a plant in Chincoteague, Va.
An agent in the blood helps researchers detect endotoxins, which can cause septic shock or toxic shock syndrome if they are in drugs or medical devices, Mr. Rohrer said.