Senomyx heralds Nestlé agreement in results round-up
for the first quarter of 2005, focusing attention on its FEMA GRAS
certification and its recently extended contract with Nestle.
Senomyx - which has set itself the challenge of trying to help reduce the over-consumption of food additives such as salt and food additive E621, otherwise known as monosodium glutamate or MSG - reported revenues of $3 million, an increase of 32 percent over the same quarter last year.
"The increase is primarily due to revenues related to the achievement of the company's fourth savory program milestone and the reimbursement by a collaborator of certain product candidate development cost," said the company.
As regards the rest of the year, the US bio-tech firm reiterated previous financial guidance.
"We continue to closely watch our rate of spending, while seeking additional collaborations," said chief financial and business officer, John Poyhonen.
The main agreement highlighted today was the extension of the research contract with Nestle for a futher three years as announced on Wednesday.
This contract is focused on the discovery and commercialization of novel flavors and flavor enhancers, particularly in the dehydrated and culinary food and frozen food fields.
The new contract holds Nestle to pay Senomyx incremental discovery and development funding of up to $6.6 million over a period of up to an additional three years. Upon commercialization, Senomyx will receive royalty payments based on sales of products containing flavors and flavor enhancers developed under the agreement.
Senomyx also has a second collaboration with Nestle, which was entered into in 2004, for the discovery and commercialization of novel flavor ingredients in the coffee and coffee whitener fields.
"Our goal is to continue to leverage our discovery and development capabilities by establishing additional collaborations with market leading companies seeking to improve the nutritional profile of their products," said Kent Snyder, chief executive officer of Senomyx.
In March, Senomyx received Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) determination from the Food and Extract Manufactures Association (FEMA) - a regulatory body of the FDA - for four of its savory enhancers.
Savory enhancers S807 and S336, in addition to enhancers S263 and S976, which are closely related to S336, were determined as GRAS.
