Richter's 2007 sales up 7% in difficult climate

Hungarian drugmaker Richter Gedeon has reported 2007 operating profit of 36.61 billion forint ($202.8 million), down 26.1% on the previous year. The firm's earnings per share fell 34.8% to 1,795.0 forint, while its operating margin for the period was 16.4%, having been around 23.7% in 2006.

Despite this, revenues for the period rose 6.9% to 223.7 billion forint, with those from the European Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the USA achieving year-on-year growth of 31.1%, 6.2% and 1.9%, respectively.

In contrast, turnover from Hungary was down some 13.4% at 47.48 billion forint for the year. Erik Bogsch, the company's chief executive, told the Financial Times that moves by the Hungarian government to curb state drug costs and an increase in taxes had hurt sales. He predicted that domestic revenues for 2008 would drop a further 5%, but added that the "fall off in sales volumes [has] finally come to an end."