BTG lifts full-year guidance, boosted by acquisitions

3rd Oct 2013 07:46

Healthcare company BTG lifted its full-year revenue expectations following the strong performance of newly acquired businesses. The group said it has made good progress on integrating the Targeted Therapies division of Nordion Inc. and EKOS Corporation - which were purchased in July at a combined cost of $380m. Following the acquisitions, revenue guidance for year to end of September 2013 has been raised from a range of £235m to £245m to £275m to £285m.The newly acquired businesses complement BTG's Interventional Medicine arm.Noridon's radiation product TheraSphere, for the treatment of liver cancer, is complementary to BTG's chemo-embolising beads, which are also used to treat liver tumours.Nordion is a health science company that provides products used for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease while EKOS is a vascular business that produces advanced treatments for severe blood clots.The company also made progress with Varisolve, an investigational comprehensive treatment for moderate to severe varicose veins. Its New Drug Application is being reviewed in the US following approval of the file for full review by the Food and Drug Administration in April. Commercial preparations are continuing ahead of a potential US launch in the first half of 2014.Its subsidiary Genzyme and Sanofi have also received European marketing authorisation for Lemtrada for the treatment of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. BTG will receive an undisclosed royalty on all sales of Lemtrada following any regulatory approval.In September, BTG announced the sale of its brachytherapy business to Germany's Eckert & Ziegler for $5m plus a 30% share of revenues from the transferring products for a period of 12 months."We have made a strong start to the year with a good financial performance across our operating segments," said Chief Executive Officer, Louise Makin."We expanded our portfolio with the acquisitions of TheraSphere and EKOS and the integration of both businesses is on track. In anticipation of the potential US approval of Varisolve, we continue to prepare for a first half 2014 launch in the US reimbursed sector. Overall, the business is in great shape and we look forward to continued progress in the second half year."Shares rose 0.66% to 383p at 08:12 on Thursday. RD