Drug company Amarin said yesterday that it had built a "valuable" development pipeline for new drugs, despite the recent publication of disappointing data for its Huntington's disease drug.

Amarin chief executive Rick Stewart said the company intended to develop its pipeline of drugs for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, epilepsy seizures and other central nervous system disorders.

He made the comments as Amarin reported an operating loss of $9.7 million (€7.2 million) in the first quarter of 2007, compared with an operating loss of $6.6 million for the same period in 2006. The higher losses were mainly due to higher research and development costs and share-based compensation expenses.

Mr Stewart admitted that the phase-three data for its Huntington's disease drug, Miraxion, was "very disappointing for the company, our shareholders and the Huntington's disease community". The company will continue to evaluate Miraxion's potential in treating central nervous system disorders, he added.

Research and development costs amounted to $4.4 million during the quarter. This was $1.6 million higher than the sum spent in the first quarter of 2006 and was largely due to the costs of the two unsuccessful phase-three trials with Miraxion on Huntington's disease.

Almost €200 million was wiped off the value of Amarin's shares in April, when data was published showing that the drug had failed to improve the conditions of patients who took the drug, compared with patients who took a placebo.

As of March 31st, Amarin had cash of $29 million, compared to $36.8 million on December 31st, 2006. Davy analyst Jack Gorman said the company had enough cash for at least 12 months.

Although Amarin has a listing on the Irish Stock Exchange's IEX market, the shares are mainly traded in the UK and US markets.

Former Elan finance director Tom Lynch has an 18 per cent stake in the company.