CPEX reports loss, higher revenues.

CPEX Pharmaceuticals Inc. posted a quarterly net loss of $1.2 million, or 48 cents a share, despite a revenue increase and no longer having to pay expenses related to its spinoff in June 2008 from Bentley Pharmaceuticals.

The Exeter-based specialty pharmaceutical company had about $500,000 more in sales than the same quarter last year, when it was still part of Bentley, a generic drug company that was swallowed up by the Israeli-based TEVA.

CPEX's quarterly sales on its only product--Testim, a topical application of the male hormone--increased by $600,000 to $4.5 million. And it no longer had $1.6 million in expenses related to the spinoff.

But research and development expenses rose $762,000, thanks to nearly a million dollars more spent to develop Nasulin--an insulin product nose spray. The Nasulin R&D increase was partly offset by lower employee-related expenses.

The possible payoff on Nasulin--which is still in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials--is the main reason investors are interested in CPEX. Thus far, the company reports the trials have showed that it better mimics the natural insulin response to meals.

The company also spent $645,000 on legal costs related to its patent infringement suit against Upsher-Smith Laboratories.

Despite the continued losses, the company still has $14.8 million in cash--less than $400,000 than at the beginning of the quarter--and virtually no debt.