French drugmaker Ipsen says that first-quarter 2007 group sales reached 226.7 million euros, a rise of 7%, although its performance on home soil is still suffering as a result of price cuts there.
Combined revenues from France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK were stable at 138.8 million euros, with sales in the latter two countries making up for flat turnover in Spain and Germany, while France declined again, impacted by a poor showing from firm’s gingko biloba extract. In other European countries, sales reached 52.7 million euros, up 17.3%, while in the rest of the world they amounted to 35.2 million euros, up 26.1%.
In terms of products, Decapeptyl (triptorelin pamoate) for prostate cancer, reached 61.1 million euros, up 10.1%, while Dysport (botulinum toxin type A) for wrinkles increased 6% to 28.5 million euros, while the Somatuline (lanreotide) range of drugs for acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumours, rose 15.9% to 25.2 million euros and the diarrhoea treatment Smecta (dioctahedral smectite) increased 7.6% to 22.9 million euros.
The antihypertensive drugs Nisis (valsartan) and Nisisco (valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide) contributed 11.8 million euros, up 7.1% “despite high competitive pressure,” said Ipsen, while revenues from the recombinant human growth hormone NutropinAq (controlled-release somatropin)) reached 5.7 million euros, almost doubling year-on-year.
Ipsen’s chief executive, Jean-Luc Belingard, said that sales growth was impressive and the highlights of the quarter involved the agreement with Galderma for the development and commercialisation of Dysport in aesthetic medicine use in Europe and other territories and licensing the French marketing rights to Adrovance (alendronate/cholecalciferol) for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis in patients at risk of vitamin D deficiency from Merck Sharp & Dohme.
