Biotech company Pharming booked first-quarter 2018 net profit of €3.3m, its first-ever quarterly profit, the Leiden-based company said on Thursday.  Pharming, which has been listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange since 1998, posted losses of €5.7m in the year-earlier period.

CEO Sijmen de Vries said the earnings figures were an ‘important milestone’ in the company’s development. Pharming booked operating profit of €21.9m in 2017 reversing losses of €11.5m in the previous year. Now the company is beginning to retain part of earnings as it breaks into net profit.

Turnover in the first three months of this year soared by 93% to €29.3m. Operating profit was 110% higher at €8.2m in the same period.

Investment in a new commercial team combined with a sharp increase in US sales of Pharming’s Rhucin drug used to treat allergic swelling reactions helped boost earnings, Pharming said.

Rhucin is produced using milk of genetically modified rabbits and is approved in Europe to treat acute attacks in patients with a hereditary angioedema