Senomyx, Inc. provided a corporate update and reported financial results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2011, with revenues of $7.1 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2011, compared to $5.8 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2010, a 22% increase. Net loss was $2.6 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2011, compared to $3.7 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2010, a 30% improvement. Additionally, revenues were $22.8 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2011, compared to $19.2 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2010, an increase of 19%. Net loss was $7.1 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2011, compared to $10.2 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2010, a 31% improvement. The company is also reporting significant progress with its collaboration with Firmenich in the marketing and promotion of the S6973 sucrose enhancer.
"Senomyx continues to realize significant accomplishments in the discovery, development and commercialization of our flavor ingredients," stated Kent Snyder, the company’s CEO. "We are very encouraged by Firmenich's progress with their commercialization activities for our S6973 sucrose enhancer. Major food and beverage companies have achieved positive consumer acceptance testing results, and Firmenich has been notified of clients' plans to launch reformulated established brands that contain S6973 during the first quarter of 2012 and throughout the year. Firmenich is also conducting marketing activities with Senomyx's S2383 sucralose enhancer. Client feedback from top-tier companies regarding S2383 continues to be positive, and Firmenich has expanded the geographic scope of their business from North America with new orders for S2383 in Latin America. “
Describing other company initiatives, Snyder noted, "In addition to our commercialized flavor ingredients, which include our savory flavors as well as the sweet taste enhancers, Senomyx is building a deep, longer-term pipeline of new ingredients with competitive advantages. Development activities are ongoing with S9632, a new sucrose enhancer. The current activities are intended to support future regulatory filings for S9632 in the US and elsewhere. We have further strengthened our sweet taste program pipeline with the recent discovery of new enhancers of high fructose corn syrup that enable up to a 33% HFCS reduction while retaining the desired sweetness profile. We are also very pleased to announce today that Senomyx has expanded our savory flavor offerings with S9229 and S5456, both of which have received GRAS regulatory status. Unlike Senomyx's GRAS sweet enhancers that have no inherent taste but are used to amplify the characteristics of a specific sweetener, each of our savory flavors provides a new savory taste sensation. The taste profiles of the new savory flavors closely mimic MSG (monosodium glutamate), which makes them applicable for potentially a total replacement of MSG as well as the creation of new savory blends.” The GRAS status for S9229 and/or S5456 allows usage in an array of applications including snack foods, beverages, soups, seasonings, gravies, condiments and relishes, cereals, baked goods, gelatins and puddings, meat, poultry, fish, milk, and egg products.
"In addition to the ingredients from our sweet, savory and bitter blocker programs, we recently began safety profiling of a promising new cooling flavor in preparation for potential regulatory-focused development activities, and we are continuing discovery efforts for our salt taste program," Snyder added. Also, as of Sept. 30, 2011, the company is the owner or exclusive licensee of 260 issued patents and several hundred pending patent applications related to proprietary taste receptor technologies in the US, Europe and elsewhere.
In its collaboration with Senomyx, Nestlé has been conducting marketing activities with products that incorporate one of Senomyx's savory flavors intended to reduce or replace added MSG in foods. Nestlé is currently marketing both new and reformulated established products that contain this flavor ingredient. Ongoing commercialization activities include launches of new and reformulated products that incorporate a Senomyx savory flavor in countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Nestlé has expanded its marketing efforts into additional countries in these regions during 2011. As announced previously, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) provided a "favorable opinion" for Senomyx's S336 and S807 savory flavors, which means that no further evaluation is required. Final regulatory approval and commercialization in the European Union is contingent upon the ingredients being included in the EFSA Union List of Flavouring Substances.
Also in collaboration with Senomyx, Ajinomoto, Co., Inc. launched products that contain a Senomyx flavor ingredient in several regions, including China, North America, and an emerging country with large growth potential.
