PARIS Third-quarter revenues for Paris-based Cerep SA amounted to FFr13.3 million (US$2.3 million), representing a 23 percent rise compared to the corresponding period of 1997.

This followed increases of 109 percent in the first quarter of 1998 and 44 percent in the second quarter, with the result that, in the first nine months as a whole, Cerep¿s turnover was up 50 percent, to FFr44.8 million. In the 12 months of 1997, the company¿s revenues rose by 95 percent to FFr48.4 million.

Chairman Thierry Jean said the increase was mainly due to growth in the company¿s high-throughput pharmacological screening activities, which he described as ¿satisfactory, despite a fall in demand in Asia.¿ He added that the company expects to conclude ¿at least one strategic drug discovery agreement and several pluri-annual joint marketing agreements in the coming months.¿ James Etheridge