(By Balachander) Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN), a biotechnology company, reported a loss for the fourth quarter amid an increase in net product revenue.
Net loss was $38.7 million or $0.26 per share for the fourth quarter, compared with profit of $38.1 million or $0.26 per share in the comparable period of last year. Non-GAAP net loss per share narrowed to 30 cents from 40 cents.
Net product revenue rose 11 percent to $85.45 million. Excluding a $3.8 million favorable adjustment to Dendreon's chargebacks reserve due to a change in estimate, net product revenue was $81.6 million.
Wall Street analysts, on average, expected a loss of $0.56 per share on revenue of $82.9 million.
Royalty payment related to sale of VICTRELIS was nil versus $125 million in the year-ago quarter.
Seattle, Washington-based Dendreon's first product, PROVENGE, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2010.
The company said 61 net new accounts were added in the fourth quarter, bringing total number of infusing accounts to 802.
Dendreon also said community accounts represented 71 percent of total sales, up from 58 percent in the comparable quarter of last year.
Total operating expenses decreased 27 percent.
As of December 31, 2012, Dendreon said it had roughly $429.8 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term and long-term investments, compared to $617.7 million as of December 31, 2011.
The stock, which has been trading in the 52-week range of $3.69 to $15.20, ended at $5.67 on Friday.