Steady set of results for Spain's Almirall

Almirall has posted financials for the first nine months of the year which show that earnings have declined, though sales edged up 2.4% to 701.3 million euros.

The Spanish drugmaker said that “normalised” net income was down 5.2% at 127 million euros. However revenues were boosted by a 15.6% rise in sales of the antihistamine Ebastel (ebastine) to 94.2 million euros.

Among the products Almirall sells under licence in Spain, there were strong performances for the cholesterol drug Prevencor (atorvastatin), ie Pfizer’s Lipitor, up 15.3% to 89.6 million euros and the antidepressant Esertia (escitalopram), licensed from Lundbeck, sales of which increased 16.1% to 48.0 million euros. Revenues from Almirall’s own migraine treatment Almorgran (almotriptan) were up 10.3% at 39.6 million euros. The company also gave special mention to Solaraze (diclofenac) for actinic keratosis, which is licensed from SkyePharma and enjoyed a 48.7% sales rise to 17.1 million euros.

All eyes are now on Almirall’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease drug Eklira (aclidinium bromide) and the company said it aims to file an application for marketing authorisation with the European Medicines Agency in early 2010.