ProStrakan's early-2008 sales exceed projections

Scottish drugmaker ProStrakan says that trading in the first four months of 2008 has been at the upper end of management expectations, with total product revenues increasing 38% over the like period in 2007, with the stronger euro accounting for 8% of that growth.

In its interim management statement, the company noted that it saw continued growth of its pan-European products. Combined sales of Tostran (testosterone gel), Rectogesic (glyceryl trinitrate ointment), sold as Cellgesic in the USA, and Xomolix (droperidol), which is indicated as a pre-medication for anesthesia, nausea after anesthesia or for the sedation of agitated patients, rose 75%. The strength of the euro accounted for 16% of this uplift.

Sales of ProStrakan's best-selling product, the vitamin D formulation Adcal-D3, grew by 17% in the UK (the only country in which it is marketed) as the benefits of the 2007 launch of its lemon-flavored chewable tablet and soluble variants began to feed through. In addition, the company received a one-off payment of $120,000 from Dutch drug delivery firm Galapagos NV as part of the earn-out amounts agreed at the time of the sale of the Proskelia discovery unit in December 2006.