TechMARK movers: Elan narrows loss

21st Jul 2009 13:08

Irish drug firm Elan saw net losses narrow to $68.2m from $71.5m in the second quarter thanks to a rise in revenues.Revenues were up by 14%, led by a 30% increase in sales from Tysabri and a 10% increase in revenues from EDT. "For the full year 2009, we remain on target to record double-digit revenue growth and to be profitable on an Adjusted EBITDA basis," said executive vice president and chief financial officer Shane Cooke.Pharmaceutical firm Vernalis today announced it has selected a new development candidate, V158411, from its Checkpoint Kinase 1 (Chk1) research programme in oncology. Following treatment with cytotoxic drugs, some cancer cells use the Chk1 pathway to increase cell survival by pausing DNA replication and allowing repair of the damaged DNA before completing cell division. Inhibition of the Chk1 enzyme blocks this pathway, forcing cells to divide (mitosis), causing substantial DNA damage that result in their death. "The selection of a second development candidate this year from our in-house research activities underscores our research team's expertise and provides us with another potential high value development programme," said chief executive Ian Garland.FTSE TechMARK - RisersTotal Systems (TTS) 31.50p +10.53%Phytopharm (PYM) 5.50p +4.76%Parity Group (PTY) 13.25p +3.92%Sinclair Pharma (SPH) 26.50p +2.91%Elan Corporation (ELA) € 5.79 +2.84%Puricore (PURI) 19.50p +2.63%Vernalis (VER) 80.00p +2.56%ProStrakan (PSK) 100.00p +2.04%Microgen (MCGN) 70.00p +1.45%Sepura (SEPU) 47.50p +1.06%FTSE TechMARK - FallersPsion (PON) 67.25p -4.61%Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 10.50p -4.55%Skyepharma (SKP) 100.25p -4.52%Emblaze (BLZ) 35.25p -3.42%Filtronic (FTC) 35.50p -2.07%XP Power (XPP) 205.00p -1.91%Imagination Technologies (IMG) 144.00p -1.03%Axis-Shield (ASD) 340.00p -0.87%Kofax (KFX) 150.00p -0.66%BATM Advanced (BVC) 38.75p -0.64%