Wilson Totten, chief executive of ProStrakan, yesterday said he was confident the Scottish specialist drug company would break into the black during 2009, following its push into the lucrative US market.

Wilson Totten, chief executive of ProStrakan, yesterday said he was confident the Scottish specialist drug company would break into the black during 2009, following its push into the lucrative US market.

The chief executive said: "We will certainly become profitable during the course of next year at the operating level, and probably also at the pre-tax level."

At the same time, the Galashiels-based company yesterday reported a 26% rise in revenue to £26.4m for the six months to the end of June, while its operating loss before a £2.2m impairment charge came in at £7.6m, compared with £8.7m the year before.

Revenue was primarily driven by sales of its pan-EU products, which surged by 73%.

However, thanks to the impairment charge - linked to the sale of its stake in Galapagos, acquired at the end of 2006 when it sold its Paris-based drug development business, ProSkelia - and costs related to the US push, pre-tax losses widened to £11.8m, compared with £8.5m last time.

Nomura Code Securities said the results were better than expected. It had forecast sales of £24.6m and an operating loss of £10.5m.

Shawn Manning, an analyst at Landsbanki, described the half-year operating loss as "considerably ahead of expectations". He added: "A strong set of results with revenues broadly in line and earnings ahead of expectations, reflecting an extremely active six months accompanied by impressive cost control."

Meanwhile, Totten's upbeat forecast came as the company announced it had regained the licence for Abstral, its rapidly-dissolving oral drug for the management of cancer pain, and that the treatment was expected to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration during 2010.

"Our own estimates for US Abstral sales, which are pretty conservative, are in the $75m to $100m (£40m to £53m) range - but it could be a lot higher," Totten said yesterday in a telephone interview with The Herald. "We're addressing an $800m market, and that's growing at 20% a year."

The US rights for Abstral were transferred to Pro-Strakan after the previous licence holder, Endo Pharmaceuticals, embarked on a change of direction on the oncology market and returned the US licence to its original holder Orexo, ProStrakan's Swedish partner.

Orexo, in turn, sold the rights to ProStrakan for a $2m signing fee.

Totten added: "This is a fantastic opportunity for us and as near a perfect deal as possible.

"Endo has also already invested around $40m into the development of Abstral, and we're getting it for an upfront payment of $2m and some future milestone payments to Orexo."

Abstral recently gained approval from the European regulatory authorities, and the company said that a number of national launches were planned on the continent before the end of the year.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley yesterday said they expected "peak sales" of around £40m for Abstral in Europe.

Although the company's growth to date has come entirely from sales in Europe, ProStrakan remains engaged in its major push in the US and has been recruiting a sales and marketing team at new offices near Newark, New Jersey.

Industry observers say that entering the US would mark the biggest transformation in the company's history.

In October last year, ProStrakan struck a potential multi-million-pound deal with pharmaceuticals giant Quintiles Transnational to sell its products in the US, and Totten described it as "probably one of the most significant steps the company will ever take".

At the time, he said: "It gives us our own salesforce in the largest pharmaceuticals market in the world.

Yesterday, he added: "We are on the crest of moving from a $100m company to a $400m company."

In the near term, Pro-Strakan is also awaiting US approval - expected "imminently" - for Sancuso, its novel skin patch treatment to prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea. "We have resolved all the issues that we are aware of with the FDA and we are very optimistic of approval in the near future," Totten said yesterday.

The company anticipates two other US approvals - its testosterone-deficiency treatment gel Tostran and anal-fissures ointment Rectogesic - before the end of next year.

Shares in ProStrakan yesterday climbed 2.25%, or 2.5p, to 91.5p.