MedImmune Inc., the Gaithersburg maker of FluMist, yesterday reported a bigger loss for 2005 than in the previous year, citing increased research costs and lower-than-expected sales for its nasal flu vaccine.
The biotechnology company’s loss for the year widened to $16.6 million (7 cents per share) from $3.8 million (2 cents) in 2004. For the fourth quarter, the company posted a loss of $22.4 million (9 cents) compared with a profit of $50.5 million (20 cents) a year earlier.
“We want to acknowledge while we had a lot of good things happen in 2005, we still have a lot of work to do,” said MedImmune President and Chief Executive Officer David Mott.
FluMist sales reached $21 million in 2005, down 56 percent from the previous year. Synagis, an antibody that treats lower respiratory tract disease, brought in the majority of MedImmune’s annual revenue with $1.06 billion in sales.
Last year’s sales jumped 9 percent to $1.24 billion from $1.14 billion in 2004. Fourth-quarter sales climbed 6 percent to $492 million from $465.8 million a year earlier.
MedImmune partly blamed the drop in FluMist sales on the re-emergence of Emeryville, Calif., vaccine manufacturer Chiron Corp. in the flu-vaccine market this year after being shut down during the 2004-2005 flu season.
The company said it is considering the long-term potential of FluMist as it prepares to seek market approval for its liquid flu vaccine, trivalent cold-adapted influenza vaccine, Mr. Mott said.
The new vaccine, which is expected to reach market shelves by 2007 pending Food and Drug Administration approval, was shown to be 55 percent more effective than traditional flu shots, according to a phase-three clinical study of the vaccine.
Rates rise more slowly
Health insurance rates accelerated at a reduced rate last year, according to a study released this week by America’s Health Insurance Plans, a Washington trade group for the insurance industry.
Insurance rates rose 8.8 percent in 2005, lower than a 13.7 percent increase in 2002, said the report, which was done by New York accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Most of last year’s rate increase came from higher use of health care, which accounted for 43 percent of the increase, the report said. The remaining factors included more expensive medical care and inflation.
McDonald’s introduces nutritional labels
New nutritional packaging by McDonald’s Corp. already is being distributed in at least in one Northeast restaurant.
The location this week sold four-piece Chicken McNuggets in the new packaging, which lists nutritional information such as calories, carbohydrates, fat, protein and sodium on the box or wrapper.
The reformatted packaging was scheduled to debut in Turin, Italy, during the Olympic Games, which starts next Friday, the Oak Brook, Ill., burger chain said late last year. The company had said its roughly 13,000 U.S. restaurants would begin using the new packaging shortly after the Olympics.
Spokeswoman Lisa Howard called the sale an isolated incident and probably was the result of the store testing the initiative.
“The entire [packaging] line is still slated to be unveiled” in Turin, Ms. Howard said. It will be phased in U.S. locations during the first half of the year.
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