Repligen swings to a profit

Repligen Corp., a Waltham clinical-stage biotechnology company, today said it swung to a profit in its fiscal 2008 second quarter, due to a hefty litigation gain and higher demand for its protein product.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company earned $40.3 million, or $1.29 per share, compared with a loss of $863 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier. The most recent quarter benefited from a gain of $40.1 million from a legal settlement.

The company said revenue rose 87 percent to $5.4 million, mainly driven by revenue from its Protein A product, used to produce certain antibodies. Protein A sales partially fund the advancement of the company’s development of treatments for nervous-system diseases.

In September, the company said it reached a legal settlement with ImClone Systems Inc. in a patent dispute related to ImClone’s Erbitux drug.
(AP)