ViroPharma grows cash balance to $224 million during third quarter

By Jennifer Lanning Drey

Portland, Ore., Nov. 2 - ViroPharma Inc. grew its cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments by $48 million during the third quarter to a total of $224 million, according to a company news release.

Additionally, the company ended the quarter with no debt, which puts ViroPharma in a strong position for continuing its current operations and carrying out its goal of completing an acquisition, chief executive officer Michel de Rosen said during the company's quarterly earnings conference call held Thursday.

"We do not have to raise capital to continue and fund our current operations," de Rosen said.

The company reported working capital of $242 million at the end of the third quarter.

ViroPharma's cash balance grew during the quarter in part due to a $10 million milestone payment the company received from Wyeth for proof of concept with HCV-796, its orally dosed non-nucleoside hepatitis C virus polymerase inhibitor.

In addition, de Rosen said third-quarter cash flow, revenue and net earnings were each boosted by record net sales of Vancocin, which grew to $55.1 million during the period.

ViroPharma reported net income of $23.3 million, or $0.33 per diluted share, for the third quarter, compared with net income of $18.7 million, or $0.31 per diluted share, for the same period of 2005.

The company has a phase 3 clinical trial underway evaluating its product candidate maribavir for the prevention of cytomegalovirus disease in stem cell transplant patients, and ViroPharma plans to begin a second phase 3 study of maribavir in liver transplant patients in the first quarter of 2007, chief scientific officer Colin Broom said Thursday.

Additional phase 2 trials to study maribavir in populations including renal transplant patients are planned for 2007, as is a phase 2 study in preemptive treatment of stem cell transplantation.

The company expects to file a New Drug Application for maribavir in 2009, Broom said.

In its HCV-796 program, ViroPharma has begun dosing in a phase 2 evaluation of the compound in combination with pegylated interferon and ribavirin and plans to provide an update on the trial during its fourth-quarter earnings call, Broom said.

ViroPharma is a biopharmaceutical company based in Exton, Pa.

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