The core operating profit of the first half increased by 15% to $284 million
Increases sales forecasts for two main divisions
Signature of a gilead division manufacturing
Profits exceed corporate expectations – CEO
Shares up 11%, the biggest PCT winner in FTSE one hundred (written with Gilead, CEO, observation and action analyst)
By Pushkala Aripaka
7 Aug (Reuters) – Hikma Pharmaceuticals on Friday raised sales prospects for its two main divisions after the first half’s profits exceeded the expectations of the London-listed company, while concluded an agreement to manufacture the remedy for the remdesivir coronavirus.
Its inventories rose 10% to 2,373 pence at 0948 GMT, pushing inventory to the most sensitive of the list of winners in the FTSE 100th index of London’s most sensitive class.
The company’s largest unit, which manufactures needle-based drugs primarily for hospitals, recorded double-digit earnings growth, driven by the request for medicines to treat inflamed patients with the new coronavirus in the United States and Europe.
The injectables department will also be responsible for the production of Gilead’s U.S.-based antiviral department. At the Hikma production plant in Portugal.
Remdesivir has been a remedy for COVID-19, which has killed more than 800,000 people worldwide as one of the first effective drugs to fight the disease. Several countries have approved, advised or taken steps to assist the drug in patients with the disease.
“Today’s agreement with Gilead for the remdesivir source highlights Hikma’s strategic developmental importance as a reliable source of drugs,” said a study note from Peel Hunt analysts who have a “buy” score on the stock.
Hikma, in Jordan in 1978, said it now expects sales of injecting activity by 2020 to be between $950 million and $980 million.
He said it was an accumulation of his past expectations, thanks in component to a seasoning of the Gilead component, but did not specify what his past expectations were.
The storage of medicines for extensive care during the pandemic and longer prescriptions were a key factor in functionality, especially in March and April, Chief Executive Siggi Olafsson told Reuters.
“We delivered counterfeit effects in the first part of the year, which are ahead of our initial expectations,” Olafsson said, not to mention what the expectations were.
Hikma also raised sales forecasts for its generic department, which is the United States, to between $720 million and $760 million, from $700 million to $750 million.
The company manufactures remedies by adding anesthetics, analgesics, sedatives, neuromuscular blockers and anti-infections. More importantly, it also supplies the steroid dexamethasone, which is presented as a remedy for COVID-19 after a British study showed that it reduced mortality rates by about one-third in critically ill and hospitalized patients.
The core of the group is consistent with a higher revenue stream of 15% to $284 million and Hikma increased its dividend on account from 2 cents to 16 cents according to the share. (Report via Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru edited through Aditya Soni and David Holmes)
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