French drugmaker Ipsen says that full-year 2006 group sales reached 861.7 million euros although its performance in the five major western European markets was flat as a result of price cuts there.

Combined revenues from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK sneaked up just 0.8% to 551.7 million euros but in other European countries, sales reached 184.8 million euros, up 18.5%, while in the rest of the world they amounted to 125.2 million euros, up 20.5%.

In terms of products, Decapeptyl (triptorelin pamoate) for prostate cancer, reached 221.9 million euros, up 5.4%, and the company noted that negative price movements were offset by strong volume growth especially in Germany, the UK, Ireland, Greece and China as well as eastern and central Europe.

Dysport (botulinum toxin type A) for wrinkles was up 22.5% to 113 million euros, while the Somatuline (lanreotide) range of drugs for acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumours, rose 12.8% to 92.2 million euros and the diarrhoea treatment Smecta (dioctahedral smectite) increased 19.1% to 80.3 million euros.

The antihypertensive drugs Nisis (valsartan) and Nisisco (valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide) contributed 50.7 million euros, up 22% which “was well above the market despite high competitive pressure,” said Ipsen, while revenues from the recombinant human growth hormone NutropinAq (controlled-release somatropin)) reached 14.7 million euros compared to 5.7 million euros last year.

Ipsen's chief executive, Jean-Luc Belingard, said that “this sound performance illustrates the quality of Ipsen's portfolio of molecules and of its international footprint and market coverage” and confirmed sales growth estimates of 6.5%- 7.5% sales in 2007 before the impact of a future price reduction in France of the firm’s gingko biloba extract.

He added that the “international performance of our specialist care franchise (oncology, endocrinology and neuromuscular disorders…further validates our strategic focus” and went on to praise “the resilience our primary care products have shown in a very difficult environment.”