Genzyme puts its money into cancer drugs this year.

Byline: Jeffrey Krasner

Jan. 4--When Genzyme Inc. breaks down its revenue this year, there's a big hole: treatment of cancer.

That will change this year. The Cambridge firm completed its $1 billion acquisition of Ilex Oncology Inc. of San Antonio Dec. 21. Ilex brings with it one cancer drug on the market -- Campath -- and another, Clolar, that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last Tuesday.

Henri A. Termeer, Genzyme's chairman and chief executive, said in an interview that those two drugs are just the beginning. Within a few years, he hopes, Genzyme will be known primarily for cancer treatments.

"When we announced last year our intent to acquire Ilex, and later said we were going to auire an oncology diagnostic provider, we were saying that we are going to be in the oncology field in a significant and strategic way," Termeer said. "We want to develop an entry point to grow over the next 20 years."

Launched in 1981, Genzyme predicts it will reach revenues of more than $2 billion and earnings of around $430 million for 2004. Most of that came primarily from enzyme treatments to treat genetic diseases. Treatments for orthopedic and kidney ailments and diagnostic services accounted for most of the rest.

With a market capitalization of $14.4 billion, Genzyme is the third-largest life sciences company in Massachusetts. Termeer has said he wants Genzyme to achieve sustainable earnings growth of 20 percent a year. It is an ambitious target the company has yet to reach consistently. For instance, between 2000 and 2003, the company's earnings from continuing operations grew a total of just 23 percent.