Strong 1st qtr for Rhein Biotech

Rhein Biotech, which runs its major operations out of the Netherlandsand Germany, has posted a strong increase in sales to 17.4 million euros ($15.5 million) for first-quarter 2001, compared with 2.6 million euros in the like, year-earlier period. Net income went up from just 30,000 euros to 2.1 million euros.

Growth was driven by the firm's Korean subsidiary GreenCross Vaccine Corp, which was acquired in a $110 million deal last year (Marketletter March 13, 2000). Rhein noted that the increased demand from international health organizations for its vaccines has led to a rise in production of hepatitis B antigen at GreenCross, and capacity at the Seoul plant will be doubled by the end of the fourth quarter of this year and tripled by the second quarter of 2002.

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