Shionogi Posts Good Interim Sales

Shionogi has reported a rise in six- month sales for the year ending March 1995, to 113.3 billion yen ($1.15 billion), a slight decline on the first half last year, but a rise on company and Lehman Brothers' estimated earnings of 111 billion yen for the half year. Net profit dropped 6.7% to 4.68 billion yen. This was also a better than forecast figure for the company.

The weakness in sales of its leading products, such as Flumarin (flomoxef Na) and Kefral (cefaclor), were the chief cause for the decline in overall sales, says the company. However, demand for other products pushed sales higher than had initially been forecast by the company.

As a result of the fall in sales, gross profit levels fell back 0.6% to 11.03 billion yen ($112.1 million) compared to the same period last year. However, operating profit margins improved by 0.1% in line with cost cutting for sales promotion and personnel-related expenditures.