At March 31, 2005, Eyetech had $265.7 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. Accounts receivable and inventory totaled $25.5 million and $6.5 million, respectively, at March 31, 2005.
First Quarter 2005 Operations Highlights
* On January 20, 2005, we launched Macugen and it became available through three distributors: McKesson Specialty, Priority Healthcare and Besse Medical.
* In January 2005, Pfizer paid Eyetech a $90 million license fee after the approval in December 2004 by the FDA of Macugen for the treatment of neovascular AMD.
* In February 2005, Pfizer purchased 344,000 shares of our common stock at a purchase price of approximately $43.60 per share for total proceeds of $15 million in connection with the approval by the FDA of Macugen for the treatment of neovascular AMD.
* In February 2005, Eyetech announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services posted, effective January 1, 2005, that the Medicare part B allowable for Macugen is 106% of average sales price.
* During the first quarter, Eyetech verified the receipt of paid claims with the Medicare carriers responsible for beneficiaries in all 50 states. Medicare eligibility for Macugen is without restrictions based on lesion location, subtype, size or a patient's visual acuity.
* In March 2005, Eyetech and Pfizer enrolled the first patient in a Phase 4 combination trial with Macugen and Visudyne® versus Macugen alone, to determine if patients with the predominantly classic form of neovascular AMD benefit from combination therapy.
Outlook For the year ending December 31, 2005, we are raising our forward-looking guidance for Net product revenue from the sale of Macugen to a range of $135- $150 million. We also reaffirm that we do not expect to be profitable in 2005 but that we expect a trend toward profitability in the latter half of 2005, excluding the impact of potential early adoption of new accounting standards regarding equity compensation.