VLI Corp.

VLI Corp. of Irvine, maker of the contraceptive sponge Today, announced Monday that it expects an expanded advertising budget to widen its fourth-quarter loss significantly, to $3.3 million from $32,817 in the year-ago quarter. It also expects losses for 1984 to reach $6.2 million.

The anticipated fourth-quarter loss comes on a 28% increase in sales during the quarter, which are expected to reach $3.8 million, up from $2.35 million in the last quarter of 1983.

The company anticipates its 1984 sales to total $12.4 million. The company went public in mid-1983 and thus has no comparable annual results. It began selling the Today sponge in June, 1983.

VLI blamed the widened fourth-quarter losses on the costs of an advertising campaign undertaken in the third quarter of 1984. Robert A. Elliott, president of VLI, said that the company expects the promotion expense to lead to increased sales and possibly a profit in 1985.

Since 9-year-old VLI Corp. began marketing Today, the sponge has become the leading over-the-counter female contraceptive in the United States. The company recently announced it would begin selling the sponge in Great Britain Feb. 1 and in Switzerland and other European countries by the end of the year.