Healthy first-half earnings growth for Germany's Schwarz Pharma

German drugmaker Schwarz Pharma has posted a 4.5% increase in sales forthe first half of 2001 to 382.1 million euros ($334.1 million), while gross profits climbed 9% to 233.9 million euros.

At first glance, the most startling set of figures are the company's pretax and net profits which rose 105.8% and 81.9% to 60.7 million euros and 36.2 million euros, respectively. However, Schwarz noted that these increases were principally due to the receipt of an early payment of 43 million euros from Canada's Axcan Pharma as a result of the latter's decision to buy the 50% stake held by Schwarz in the companies' joint venture (Marketletters passim).

R&D spending rose 31.5%