Shire’s share price climbs as sales boosted by Baxalta acquisition
Shire's share price climbed four per cent today after it announced healthy sales growth on the back of its acquisition of Baxalta.
The figures
Shire's product sales jumped 78 per cent to $11bn for the full year ending 31 December, which the company said was driven by both its own products and the inclusion of sales from newly-acquired Baxalta.
Underlying profit increased 47 per cent year-on-year to $3.5bn.
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In the year, Shire launched four new products including Xiidra (for dry eyes), and Onivyde (for pancreatic cancer).
Why it's interesting
The integration of pharmaceutical company Baxalta, which Shire bought at the beginning of June last year, was running "ahead of schedule", Shire said today, and had given the company a significant boost to its overall product sales. Excluding legacy Baxalta sales, revenues were up by 15 per cent to $7bn.
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Shire also acquired Dyax last year, and said that integration of this new arm of the business was complete.
What Shire said
Shire chief executive officer Flemming Ornskov said: "With multiple product launches planned in 2017, we remain focused on execution and expect to generate strong top- and bottom-line growth.
"We remain extremely optimistic about Shire's long-term growth prospects."
What analysts said
Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The Baxalta and Dyax deals mean that the headline numbers were always going to look good at Shire this year.
"However, the strong performance among legacy products, particularly Shire's own back catalogue, has made today's numbers even better than expected. The strong launch of dry eye disease treatment Xiidra in the US is also welcome, and bodes well for its continued roll-out to the rest of the world."