Firm hit by declining North America revenues and a two-year overall sales slump.

Two years of declining revenues have led preclinical drug discovery and development services firm Cerep to shut its headquarters in Paris and relocate all of its French operations to its main lab near Poitiers. The overall reorganization in France could lead to the loss of 41 out of 205 jobs, but should allow the company to post an operating profit by the second half of 2011, the firm claims. The firm has not stated whether there will be any changes at its sales offices in Tokyo, or its labs in Seattle or Shanghai.

Cerep anticipates a drop in 2010 sales revenues of 8% compared with 2009. Sales revenues in 2009 were themselves nearly 15% lower than 2008. For the first half of 2010 (to June 30), Cerep recorded sales revenue from continuing service activities of €11.64 million, down 5.7 % (or 7.5% at constant currency rates) from the €12.34 million recorded during the same period in 2009.

It said activities were particularly affected in U.S dollar zones. Increased competition meant North American sales revenues were down 19.6% to €5.2 million in the first half of 2010, and accounted for just shy of 45% of Cerep’s overall sales revenues during the period. Significantly decreased revenues from North Americam sales contrasted with a 7.8% increase in Europe, where sales revenues reached €5.4 million, and the 21.1% rise in sales revenues in Asia, which reached €946,000. European sales accounted for nearly 46.5% of Cerep’s global sales revenues in the first half of 2010.

Previous articleProlor Licenses Reversible PEGylation Technology from Weizmann Institute
Next articleArrowhead Inks Deals that Focus Firm on Nanomedicines