Profits at United Drug in line with last year

HEALTH SERVICES provider United Drug says its profits for the nine months to the end of June were in line with last year, as cash flows remain strong across the group’s main business divisions.

In an interim management statement yesterday, the Dublin-based company said its wholesale pharmaceutical businesses in the Republic and the North made additional market share gains during the period.

It said overall revenues in this sector fell on the back of a further reduction in the price of off-patent medicines in the Republic, implemented in February.

The group’s medical and scientific business, part of its healthcare supply chain division, was still experiencing “very difficult market conditions and trading below prior year levels”, it said.

Capital spending in hospitals remained slow in Britain and Ireland, with major investment decisions still being deferred, it added.

Besides Ireland, United Drug operates in Britain, the US, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands. Its new medical and scientific operation in Sweden was making a positive contribution in its first year of trading, it said.

Its contract sales and marketing services division also continued to trade strongly, with profits over the year to date well ahead of last year in what the company termed a “buoyant market”.

The group’s package and speciality division also performed strongly, with profits in packaging well ahead of last year, particularly in the US, the company added.

Based on trading for the year to date and the outlook for the rest of the year, United Drug said it expected profit before tax for the year ending in September to be “broadly in line” with the previous year, excluding fluctuations in currency. The group will issue full-year results on November 17th.