Actelion warns of no growth for two years
EUROPE’S biggest biotech company, Actelion, yesterday said its earnings would not grow again until 2014, as new medicines and cost cuts would take time to offset falling sales of the drug that brings in most of its revenue.
The Swiss group, which received a boost last week from positive trial results of a new-generation heart and lung disease treatment, said it expected stable core earnings next year in local currencies, followed by a return to growth in 2014 and double digit percentage growth in 2015.
Actelion has already forecast flat core earnings in 2012 as it braces for a decline in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) drug Tracleer, which accounts for around 90 per cent of group sales, but goes off patent in 2015 and faces growing competition from Gilead’s rival treatment Letairis.
Actelion said its priority was to expand its leadership in the market for treating PAH, with its pipeline in immunomodulation and antibiotics a second focus.
The company, which makes 90 per cent of its sales in Europe, the United States and Japan, said it had only scratched the surface of big markets like Russia and China, which could provide further opportunities for growth.