Subject: Repligen Corp. Expects to Post Narrower Loss
Date: Published: 5/21/92 (95 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Repligen Corp. 
    Expects to Post
    Narrower Loss
    ---
    Firm Says Revenue Rose 75%
    In 4th Quarter, Helped
    By Partnership Funding
    ----
    By David Stipp
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  -- Repligen Corp. expects to report
 sharply higher revenue and a narrowed loss for the fourth
 quarter, ended March 31, Ramesh L. Ratan, senior vice
 president and chief financial officer, said.
    The biotechnology company expects to report a
 fourth-quarter loss of about $850,000, or seven cents a
 share, compared with a loss of $1.5 million, or 16 cents a
 share, a year ago, Mr. Ratan said in an interview.  Revenue,
 boosted by funding from a research and development
 partnership the company formed earlier this year, rose about
 75% to more than $4.5 million from $2.6 million a year
 earlier.
    For fiscal 1992, Repligen expects to report a loss of
 about $12.8 million, or $1.14 a share, including a charge of
 $5.8 million from the acquisition of Amira Inc. last fall,
 Mr. Ratan said.  The fiscal 1992 loss compares with a
 year-earlier loss of $5.7 million, or 63 cents a share.
 Revenue rose 12% to 17% to between $11.5 million and $12
 million, compared with $10.3 million a year earlier.
    Repligen is a development-phase company that conducts
 research on vaccines and drugs, mostly in partnerships with
 large pharmaceutical companies.  But in the current fiscal
 year, Repligen "will be moving from a company doing research
 to one getting products into the clinic," Mr. Ratan said.  The
 change will be accompanied by rapidly escalating revenue,
 rising expenses and major expansion of the work force and
 facilities, he added.
    "Repligen is known mainly as an AIDS vaccine company"
 because of a research program it is conducting with Merck &
 Co. to develop such vaccines, Mr. Ratan said.  "But our
 product portfolio is now more diverse."
    Repligen's revenue is expected to more than double in
 fiscal 1993 to about $26 million, Mr. Ratan said.  The rise
 will stem mainly from a research collaboration Repligen
 announced yesterday with Eli Lilly & Co., under which Lilly
 will provide $10 million of funding to Repligen during the
 first year of the three-year program to develop
 anti-inflammation drugs, he said.
    The companies plan to develop molecules called monoclonal
 antibodies that are designed to stick to and deactivate
 immune-system cells called neutrophils.  The antibodies
 eventually may be used as drugs to block harmful inflammatory
 reactions in the body that occur, for example, when
 transfusions are given to patients who have lost blood in
 traumas.  Repligen, which holds two U. S. patents covering the
 antibodies, plans to begin clinical trials on a drug based on
 the molecules within 12 months, Mr. Ratan said.
    Repligen also expects to begin clinical trials at San
 Francisco General Hospital within 30 days on its recombinant
 platelet factor-4, or rPF-4, a genetically engineered drug to
 treat cancer and other disorders, Mr. Ratan said.  The company
 recently raised $45 million for a research partnership to
 finance development of the drug, which promises to block the
 proliferation of blood vessels that accompanies and promotes
 tumor growth.  The drug initially will be tested as a
 treatment for Kaposi's sarcoma, a kind of skin cancer
 associated with AIDS.  During the next year, the company also
 plans to begin clinical tests of the drug as a treatment for
 brain tumors and psoriasis, Mr. Ratan said.
    Repligen also plans within a year to begin clinical trials
 of rPF-4 to reverse the effects of heparin, a drug widely
 given to patients undergoing heart surgery and in other
 situations to prevent blood clots from forming.  Repligen's
 drug, a form of a naturally occurring protein in human blood,
 promises to have fewer side effects than protamine, a fish
 protein currently used to neutralize heparin, Mr. Ratan said.
    Repligen's expenses in the current fiscal year are
 expected to rise to about $37 million from $24 million in
 fiscal 1992, Mr. Ratan said.  The company is expected to
 report a loss of $11 million to $12 million for fiscal 1993,
 he added.
    Repligen soon will complete its previously announced $5.5
 million purchase from Abbott Laboratories Inc. of a facility
 in Needham Heights, Mass., for making monoclonal antibodies,
 Mr. Ratan said.  The facility will make monoclonals for the
 company's program with Lilly and for other companies.

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