He also said in an interview with the Financial Times that he is more confident than before about the firm being able to achieve a net profit of €600 million for the current year.
For the first half of this year, Altana beat analysts expectations by posting a 7 per cent rise in profit to €194 million and sales up 9 per cent to €1.5 billion. The company is still overly reliant on its antiulcer drug Pantozol/Protonix (pantoprazole), turnover of which rose 8 per cent in the first half of 2004 to €605 million.
However, it has a couple of likely blockbusters coming through the pipeline, including the corticosteroid Alvesco (ciclesonide), an asthma drug approved in the UK and which is due to roll out in Europe in the first quarter of 2005; and a late-stage phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, Daxas (roflumilast), developed in partnership with Pfizer.
Schweickert said that any acquisition will be in the chemicals industry and will be in the €100m to €500m range.