Ipsen sales up 5% in 2012, though hemophilia exit hits profits; deputy CEO appointed

French biopharma company Ipsen (Euronext: IPN) posted a 5% increase in drug sales in 2012 to 1.19 billion euros ($1.57 billion), with gains for its specialty medicine business offsetting lower sales into primary care in its home market. Ipsen posted a loss of 29 million euros for the year, thanks in part to write-off costs related to its unsuccessful hemophilia venture with Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals.

Prostate cancer treatment Decapeptyl (triptorelin pamoate) was once again Ipsen's biggest product, with sales up almost 6% to 306 million euros. The biggest gains came for anti-wrinkle and neck pain treatment Dysport (abobotulinumtoxinA) and Somatuline (lanreotide) for acromegaly, however, which grew 14% to 236 million euros and 17% to 225 million euros, respectively.

The picture was less rosy for Ipsen's primary care business, with a 13% decline in revenues to 325 million euros caused largely by lower sales of Ginkgo biloba extract Tanakan which fell almost 19% to 79 million euros.