Biotech Values

[mcbio]

FOLD - Shire ends pact

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idCNBNG43282720091029?rpc=44

UPDATE 1-Amicus Q3 loss narrower than view; ends Shire pact
Thu Oct 29, 2009 6:03pm EDT

* Says ends collaboration deal with Shire, CFO to quit

* Says to cut 20 pct jobs, or 26 employees

* Says to get $5.4 mln from Shire in Q4

* Q3 loss/shr $0.51 vs est loss $0.69/shr

* Q3 rev $4.9 mln vs est $10.2 mln

Oct 29 (Reuters) - Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD.O) posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss and said its chief financial officer will quit, and that it ended a collaboration deal with Shire Plc (SHP.L) (SHPGY.O).

The company also said it will cut about 26 jobs, or 20 percent of its workforce, apart from terminating its relationship with about 17 contractors.

Amicus and Shire mutually ended a marketing deal, for developing compounds to treat lysosomal storage disorders, effective immediately, gaining back the rights to those compounds, the company said in a statement.

Amicus will get $5.2 million from Shire in the fourth quarter as full and final payment for any amounts that may be due under the agreement.

Amicus, which said Chief Financial Officer Jim Dentzer will leave the company, expects to incur severance charges of about $0.9 million in the fourth quarter.

For the third quarter, the company's net loss was $13.4 million, or 59 cents a share, compared with net loss of $8.2 million, or 36 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding special items, the company posted a loss of 51 cents a share. Total revenue rose 32 percent to $4.9 million.

Analysts on average had expected Amicus to report a loss of 69 cents a share, before special items, on revenue view of $10.2 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company closed at $4.21 Thursday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Anuradha Ramanathan in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)