Choosing the Right Dimension of Purity
Croda
Revenues for Alpharma's active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) division went up by around $30m over fiscal 2006, over half of which was generated by products previously part of the company's divested generics business.
Revenues for the division totalled $168.7m, up from $138.4m the previous year. The company said that approximately $17m of the increased revenue was due to low margin sales of products that were previously reported as sales of its US and International Generics businesses, sold to Actavis Group in 2005 for $810m.
Revenues for the API division excluding the ex-generics business products increased by 10 per cent on the previous year's figures, largely down to increased sales of vancomycin, which also represented the unit's largest product in terms of sales.
In June 2006 the company announced that it had reached an agreement with Chinese firm Hisun Pharmaceutical that would allow them to double manufacturing capacity of vancomycin over the next three years. The company is now preparing the site for regulatory approval, which it anticipates to obtain in late 2007.
During the fourth quarter 2006, the API division also began production of mupirocin acid, used to treat infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus and beta-hemolytic streptococci, which resulted in the business hitting its target of introducing three new products during the year.
The API division, which specialises in fermented antibiotics, manufactures 10 antibiotic products at three production sites in Europe.
As a whole, Alpharma reported full year revenues of $653.8m, up $100m (18 per cent) on 2005. This increase reflected strong revenue gains in the company's three business segments (Pharmaceuticals, API, and Animal Health) according to Alpharma. Operating income remained flat as a result of increased research and development spending in the pharmaceutical business unit.
The company is predicting revenue growth in the range of 15-20 per cent for its pharmaceutical division over 2007, but more modest growth in the API division of 6-8 per cent.
