Cancer drug maker reports loss of $0.23 per share; SARS vaccine update.

2003 MAY 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- GenVec, Inc., (GNVC) announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2003.

GenVec reported a net loss of $5.2 million or ($0.23) per share, a 19% reduction compared to a net loss of $6.4 million or ($0.29) per share in the comparable quarter of 2002 as growth in revenues outpaced expenses. GenVec ended the first quarter of 2003 with $14.3 million in cash and investments.

Revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, 2003, increased 5-fold, to $3.2 million from $628,000 for the same period last year. Revenue for the current quarter was derived from vaccine development activities under the company's collaborations with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United States Navy Medical Research Center, both of which are using GenVec's proprietary adenovector technology for the development and manufacture of clinical grade vaccine candidates against HIV, malaria, and dengue viruses, and an expanded collaboration with Fuso Pharmaceuticals.

Operating expenses for the quarter ended March 31, 2003, increased 14%, to $8.3 million from $7.3 million in the first quarter of 2002 due primarily to continued clinical development of the company's TNFerade product program and increased activity in funded vaccine development programs.

Consistent with GenVec's previously announced plans to reduce expenses and focus resources on the development and commercialization of TNFerade, currently in phase II clinical trials for pancreatic and esophageal cancer, as well as its growing, cash positive vaccine business, the company also announced a 25% reduction in workforce.

The 24 employees affected by the reduction have been offered severance and outplacement support. This cost reduction program is expected to lower GenVec's stand alone operating losses by 25 to 30% beginning in the second half of 2003, and will result in an estimated $1.3 million charge for severance and related termination costs in the second quarter of the year.

In other news, GenVec, Inc. announced that it has signed an expansion to its existing ...