Immunomedics Reports 4Q Profit On Payment

MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. (AP) — Biopharmaceutical company Immunomedics Inc., which focuses on developing monoclonal antibodies for cancer and other diseases, reported Thursday a fiscal 2009 fourth-quarter profit, mainly on a hefty licensing payment from partner Nycomed.

The company earned $854,695, or 1 cent per share, compared with a loss of $6.9 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue surged to $8.3 million from $963,344 a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 1 cent per share on revenue of $8.3 million.

Immunomedics licenses its antibody candidates to Nycomed and other companies. The antibody candidates are being studied as potential treatments for lupus, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and leukemia.

For the full year, the company earned $2.3 million, or 3 cents per share, compared with a loss of $22.9 million, or 31 cents per share, a year prior. Revenue rose to $30 million from $3.7 million.

Earlier in the day, shares of Immunomedics rocketed to a five-year high of $7.16, following successful clinical trial results for epratuzumab, a drug Immunomedics developed and licensed to UCB Pharma. The drug treats symptoms of systematic lupus.

In after-hours trading, shares of Immunomedics fell 15 cents to $6.69. It finished the regular session up $2.58, or 60.6 percent, to $6.84.