SYNTEX "A COMPANY ON THE MOVE"

US drugmaker Syntex Corp is boosting its capital spending by about 27% to $315 million for the year ending July 31. The increase will contribute to six new or expanded pharmaceutical research and manufacturing facilities. The company is also expecting to exceed capital outlays of $300 million in fiscal 1993, but this should decline in the following years.

"We're a company on the move. We're doing well and I think we have a great future," Syntex chairman Paul Freiman commented at a meeting of securities analysts. And he added that the second half of fiscal 1992 should be stronger than the first half, with the latter part of the second half stronger than the first because the company is incurring expenses in connection with product introductions and expanding its sales force.

He told those attending the meeting that the company will be able to achieve its goal of sales and earnings growth in the top 50% of the industry in the 1990s. The coming decade will be "triphasic," he said. The first phase, which at the present time is a very rich one, has new products coming in a wave rather than a trickle, and with old products doing very well. There's new life throughout the organization," said Mr Freiman.