Aug 28 2009
Drug sales in line with full year objective of 7.0% to 9.0% growth
- First half 2009 drug sales up 6.3% year-on-year at constant currency
- Dynamic Specialty care franchise: 11.5% sales growth at constant currency
Sustained profitability
- First semester impacted by the full consolidation of US acquisitions
- Group operating income1 reaches 25.0% of sales
Strong cash flow generation
- €147 million generated from operating activities during the first half 2009
- €119 million positive net cash position as of June 30, 2009
The Board of Directors of Ipsen (Paris:IPN), chaired by Jean-Luc Bélingard, met on 27 August 2009 to review the Group’s results for the first half 2009, published today. The full 2009 half year financial report is available on the Group’s web site, www.ipsen.com, under the Regulated Information heading in the Investor Relations pages.
Commenting on the performance in the first half 2009, Jean-Luc Bélingard, Chairman and CEO of the Ipsen Group, said: “The approval of Dysport™ during the first half 2009 in both its therapeutic and aesthetic indications in the US is undoubtedly a major step forward for Ipsen. After Somatuline® in 2007, it is the Group’s second FDA approval in a short period of time. Dysport™ therefore becomes, alongside Somatuline® and Increlex®, the Group’s third global product. Even though Ipsen’s results temporarily bear some dilution, corresponding to the preparation or support of the launch activities of 4 products in the US, these approvals fully substantiate – in a tough macroeconomic environment – the timing of its acquisitions. And if - in the short term - the pharmaceutical environment holds more uncertainty, we remain fully convinced that our endocrinology and neurology franchises will be successful in the long term in this region”. Jean-Luc Bélingard added: “In parallel to the globalization of our operations, our unique R&D pipeline has considerably grown, notably with the addition of ‘Combo’ (combination of GH and IGF-I) following the Tercica acquisition, the entry in Phase II of BN-83495 in several indications in oncology, the entry of BIM-23A760, Somatuline®’s successor, in phase II, or with the imminent entry of OBI-1 in phase III. This remarkable momentum is notably the fruit of a genuinely innovating and productive R&D, an active partnership policy and an exceptionally high success rate of our R&D projects. In the future, beyond the quality of its commercial performances and its constant productivity efforts, the Group will continue to assert its unique positioning based on cutting-edge technologies, generating an important value-creating flow of innovations. In this context, we shall ensure the means necessary to develop certain of these new chemical entities match their potential, as they target high unmet medical needs”.