Human Genome Sciences, Inc., (HGSI) was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. It is a biopharmaceutical company in the United States with 880 full-time employees, specializing in the research and development of cures for hepatitis-C, inhalation anthrax, cancer, and lupus, and are also in possession of patents covering several antibiotics, proteins, and discoveries and inventions.
The company has made progress in trials of new drugs that have been developed and have reported that a Phase Three trial of a drug for those who have been fighting systemic lupus, has been fairly successful. They are also working with the company Novartis Ag (NVS), which was created in 1996 through the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, and have been successful in pre-submission meetings with the FDA. Novartis has also agreed with HGSI for $8.9 million on their agreement on the drug ZALBIN. HGSI has been very successful with the drug Raxibacumab (ABthrax), a drug to fight the toxins released by antibiotics in the treatment of inhalation anthrax. In fact, HGSI delivered 20,000 doses for the U.S. National Strategic Stockpile in case of an anthrax attack, earning a further $8.9 million. Also HGSI received a second order from the U.S. government, and they expect $151 million over the period of three years for these orders as deliveries will be completed.
Furthermore, HGSI was able to generate $7.2 million in revenues for manufacturing and development services, and $1.0 million for an agreement on BENLYSTA with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in the United Kingdom, and had a 24 billion pound turnover in 2008. GSK has also initialized Phase Three trials for a drug for men and women with chronic coronary heart disease. Also, Syncria (albiglutide), manufactured to reduce blood glucose levels and to aid in weight loss, was created by HGSI, and licensed to GSK in 2004.
HGSI is entitled to fees and milestone payments that could amount to as much as $183 million – including $33.0 million received to date. Thus HGSI reports that revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, increased to $26.7 million in comparison to the previous year, when revenues for the same quarter were $11.6 million, and for the first six months of 2009 HGSI reported revenues of $204.0 million. Tim Barabe, senior vice president and chief financial officer, assures that the company has made substantial progress in the second quarter of 2009, and that the value of the company remains strong, and is sufficient to take the company through the availability of Phase Three data and the launch of our late-stage products. The company is now pushing for the commercialization of its two lead drugs, manufactured to fight lupus and hepatitis-C, and hopefully this will lead in more revenues to date. Certainly the company is succeeding greatly in its attempts to apply science and medicine to bring helpful drugs to patients with medical needs.
Information taken from:
finance.yahoo.com/q/co?s=gsk
finance.yahoo.com/q?s=nvs
finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=hgsi
HGSI home website.
