Losses mount at Bioanalytical Systems-WEB ONLY

One of Indiana’s pioneering life sciences companies is ailing badly.

Bioanalytical Systems Inc. said last week it lost money for a fifth straight quarter as revenue plummeted.

The West Lafayette-based company lost nearly $1.6 million in its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, a loss 10 times as large as it recorded in the same quarter a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, Bioanalytical Systems lost 32 cents in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Since 1974, Bioanalytical has sold lab equipment and provided drug testing and development services on contract for pharmaceutical companies, such as Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co.

Contract delays and cancellations have become commonplace in the contract research industry, according to industry trade publications. Bioanalytical’s contract revenue fell 25 percent in the fourth quarter, to about $6 million.

The company’s sales of laboratory equipment also tanked, dropping 18 percent to $2.1 million.

Chief Financial Officer Michael Cox tried to sound an upbeat note in a statement, saying, “We believe we serve a market that will continue to invest in new product development, employing our services, but we are anxious about the impacts the current economic conditions will have on our customers and our business as we strive to control costs and conserve cash.”

Bioanalytical eliminated jobs throughout 2008, including cuts as part of its sale of its Phase 1 trial clinic in Baltimore in June. Bioanalytical sold those operations to a subsidiary of Canadian firm Algorithme Pharma for $850,000 – including all operating assets and the lease for the site where the facility is located.

“Our primary market, the contract research organization market, is under pressure,” Bioanalytical wrote in a securities filing on Monday. It expects further consolidation among large pharmaceutical companies to further squeeze its business.

“Pfizer [a New York drugmaker] and Lilly have announced significant acquisitions indicating that consolidation continues in the market for CRO services,” the filing added. “As consolidation continues in the CRO sector, competition among remaining companies continues to be more intense and our operating results could be adversely affected.”