ProStrakan's partnering on drugs production boosts revenue to cut losses in half to £9.6m

Published on Thursday 18 March 2010 20:16

SPECIALITY pharmaceuticals group ProStrakan slashed its operating losses by 50 per cent in 2009, with City analysts now believing it may be profitable at the operating level this year.

The Borders-based company, which offers a suite of products, from anti-cancer to testosterone treatments, yesterday revealed operating losses fell to 9.6 million from 21.1m. Annual revenues jumped 41 per cent to 79m.

Wilson Totten, group chief executive, said Europe remained the main centre of sales, about two-thirds of the total.

In its first full year of commercial operations, ProStrakan's US business had revenues of 7.3m, powered by its drug Sancuso (granisetron), a patch designed to alleviate the nausea associated with chemotherapy.

Totten said he hoped the American market would be equal to Europe for the company in scale "within four to five years".

But he said there are no plans for the group, floated in 2005, to seek a separate listing via American Depositary Receipts to create a platform for acquisitions.

Instead, organic growth allied to continued partnering with other major drugs companies remained the priority, Totten added.

"Acquisitions can be not all they're cracked up to be," he said. "We would far rather license or acquire product (than companies]. ProStrakan has got the infrastructure it needs. We don't need to buy companies to get infrastructure."

During last year, the firm's European revenues rose 25 per cent, while revenues from "partnering" with bigger pharma groups jumped 93 per cent to 5.2m.

The company has about 40 outlicensing deals around the world. One analyst said: "These results suggest an operating profit for 2010. The revenue growth is impressive."