ProStrakan first-half earnings jump 28%

WILSON TOTTEN, head of Scottish pharmaceuticals business ProStrakan, said his company had made "first-rate progress" over the first half of 2007.

The Galashiels-based group made headway in European markets and secured a key product filing in the United States, the world's biggest drugs market.

Over the period, ProStrakan saw total revenues rise by 28 per cent with product sales rising 15 per cent, the company said in an update ahead of its interim results, due on September 12.

Within the overall sales jump was a 43 per cent climb in sales among recently launched pan-European products, including testosterone treatment Tostran; Rectogesic, a drug to treat chronic anal fissures; and Droperidol, an injectable drug used primarily for the treatment of post-operative nausea and vomiting.

ProStrakan - which recently obtained a new £50 million secured debt facility - also said it had just signed a distribution agreement with privately held Italian pharmaceutical company Keryos.

The deal gives Keryos exclusive distribution rights to Tostran and Rectogesic in Italy, boosting Pro-Strakan's ability to commercialise its products in the major EU markets. Further distribution agreements with Keryos are planned as new product approvals are received, ProStrakan said.

Last month, ProStrakan launched Tostran - a gel-based prescription medicine hailed as a "cure" for the male menopause - in the UK, a move described by Dr Totten as a "major milestone" in the company's development.

June also saw the group submit a new drug application (NDA) with the US Food and Drug Administration for chemotherapy-induced nausea treatment Sancuso, with a similar submission to EU medicine regulators expected "in coming weeks".

Pending the filing's successful approval, ProStrakan hopes to launch Sancuso in the US in the second half of next year, seeing it as "the trigger for our commercialisation plans in the USA".

"ProStrakan has performed strongly in the first half of 2007," said Dr Totten, noting that the firm had continued to see good growth for its UK market-leading product Adcal D3, used to treat osteoporosis.

The firm saw other revenues, including deferred milestone payments from agreements signed in the first half of 2006, rise to more than £2m, from £212,000.

Dr Totten said the strategic benefit of the many transactions the firm has completed in the last two years was now "bearing fruit".

"We have a well-funded business in the transformational stages of launching well-differentiated pan-EU products, which are expected to be the main drivers of revenue growth and margin improvement in coming years.

"The filing of our first NDA is a further milestone, and signals our intent to extend our commercial presence into the USA, the world's largest pharmaceutical market.

source:business.scotsman.com