Orion's 1st-qtr profit falls 2.3%, but sales up 3.2%

Finnish drugmaker Orion says that, for the first quarter of 2007, its profit fell 2.3% to 61.9 million euros ($84.3 million) from the 63.3 million euros it recorded in the year-earlier comparable period. This equates to a 3.9% drop in the firm's earnings per share, to 0.32 euros.

Orion, which was set up in a demerger that also established the wholesale and distribution business Oriola-KD in July last year (Marketletters passim), said that, while its total revenues increased 3.2% to 179.2 million kroner, a reduced contribution from the sale of proprietary products, down 4.5% to 76.9 million euros, had cut its profits.

Orion added that revenues from its partnership with Swiss major Novartis, with which it co-markets the Parkinson's disease treatment Stalevo (levodopa, entacapone, carbidopa), fell 9% to 32.9 million euros. The firm said, however, that the decline was the result of delivery timings, and forecast that full-year turnover from the deal would be equivalent to 2006 levels.