LONDON (Alliance News) - Pharmaceuticals and services company Clinigen Group PLC said Wednesday it is trading in line with expectations, as it reported a fall in pretax profit for its first half and said it had bought the drug Totect from Biocodex USA.
Totect is used to reverse the toxic effects of anthracycline anti-cancer treatment. It is administered when anthracyclines accidentally leak outside of the vein into surrounding tissue, causing damage, and Totect reverses this damage, Clinigen said.
Clinigen acquired Totect for an upfront payment, which will be followed by milestone-based instalments over a year. It did not disclose further financial terms of the deal.
For the half year to end-December Clinigen reported a pretax profit of GBP2.2 million, down from GBP9.9 million a year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP155.9 million from GBP72.6 million was offset by exceptional costs of GBP16.5 million.
These exceptional costs comprise acquisition and restructuring costs, along with some charges related to redundancies and an office closure, and amortisation of assets it acquired.
Clinigen's administrative expenses also tripled to GBP36.5 million from GBP12.1 million.
Clinigen said that following its recent acquisitions of Link Healthcare and Idis, 2016 will be a "year of consolidation", and in its second half it will work to complete "key parts" of integrating the assets and drive organic growth.
Clinigen proposed an interim dividend of 1.3 pence, up from 1.1 pence a year before.
The company said that its second half has started positively, and it is trading in line with its expectations.
"Our strategic priorities are focused on completing the integration of both Idis and Link, driving organic growth across all our divisions, and developing the international potential of our Global Access business to take advantage of the growing demand for unlicensed medicines around the world. We will also continue the search for niche hospital only products to add to and strengthen our Specialty Pharmaceuticals division," said Chief Executive Officer Peter George in a statement.
Shares in Clinigen were up 0.3% at 637.00 pence Wednesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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