London, Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (LSE: HIK) (NASDAQ Dubai: HIK), the fast growing multinational pharmaceutical group, will hold its Annual General Meeting today where the following statement will be made regarding its current trading and financial position. This constitutes its Interim Management Statement relating to the period from 1 January 2010 to 12 May 2010 as required by the UK Listing Authority’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules.
Hikma is performing well in the year to date, benefitting from the strength of its diversified business model. We therefore maintain our guidance for 2010 Group revenue growth in the low teens and gross margin broadly in line with 2009.
Branded
We continue to expect Branded sales growth in the low double digits for the full year. As expected, we saw some disruption in the Algerian market in the beginning of the year. Sales in Algeria have since accelerated and the outlook for the year remains in line with our expectations. As we stated in our preliminary results announcement in March, we expect Branded sales will be more evenly spread across the year, due to a shift in geographic and product mix. We are very pleased with the progress we have made since the beginning of the year in strengthening our long‐term strategic position in the MENA region, through both acquisitions and new partnering agreements.
In March we agreed to acquire a further stake in, and control of, the Tunisian pharmaceutical company, Industries Pharmaceutiques Ibn Al Baytar. This will enable us to increase our penetration of the Tunisian market and provides us an excellent platform for developing sales to neighbouring and French speaking African countries. In April, we announced, and have now completed, the acquisition of Al Dar Al Arabia Manufacturing Company in Algeria. Through this acquisition we will accelerate our capacity expansion plans in Algeria, helping us to meet future demand for high quality pharmaceuticals in Algeria and across all of our MENA markets.
In addition to these acquisitions, we have been active in developing our product portfolio through partnerships. In April we announced a strategic investment in biosimilars through our partnership with the South Korean company Celltrion. Under this agreement Hikma has the exclusive rights for the distribution and marketing of nine biosimilar products throughout the MENA region under its own brand. Other agreements signed since the beginning of the year include a partnership agreement with the US company BioCryst for the anti‐viral peramivir. These agreements demonstrate our position as the partner of choice in the MENA region.
Injectables
Our Injectables business is performing well, driven by strong demand in the US for our line of antiinfectives and for new product launches, a good performance from our recently launched products in 2 Europe, and increasing demand for contract manufacturing. We expect a stronger performance in the second half, as we see the benefits of new tenders and order deliveries in the MENA region. We are extremely pleased to announce that our injectable facility in Germany, which manufactures lyophilized and liquid injectables for both oncological and non‐oncological uses, has been inspected and approved by the US FDA. This is an important step in the process of registering our oncology products in both the US and the MENA region. Hikma is committed to operating to the highest levels of cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practices) and this approval reinforces our excellent track record of quality.
Generics
Our Generics business continues to perform very well, driven by an increase in prices and volumes across a number of products in our portfolio and by an increase in new customers. We also continue to see an increase in demand for the anti‐infectives that we manufacture in our FDA approved facilities in the MENA region. Financing position Our financing position remains very strong, allowing us to actively pursue acquisition opportunities across our business. We remain confident of continuing to grow our business through acquisitions, partnerships and organic growth. We will announce our interim results for the six months to 30 June 2010 on 26 August 2010.