Cambrex operating income up 61% in Q2

05-Aug-2009 - Last updated on 06-Aug-2009 at 09:39 GMT

Cambrex has posted a positive set of Q2 results, recording an operating income of $9m (€6.3m), but warned that the second half of the year is likely to be down on the corresponding six months of last year.

The results cite the timing of orders for two long term active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) supply contracts as helping Cambrex’s operating income increase by 61 per cent.

Furthermore, revenues were generated by sales of an API that incorporates Cambrex’s polymeric drug delivery technology.

These gains were partially offset by lower sales of generic APIs. Total sales were down by 9.8 per cent compared to Q2 2008 but Cambrex believes this is a consequence of unfavourable foreign exchange.

Excluding the influence of the stronger US dollar, Cambrex claims that sales increased by 2.1 per cent and consequently Steven Klosk, CEO of Cambrex, was pleased with the results.

However, Klosk warned that the company is unlikely to be as successful in the second half of 2009. This outlook is based on weakness in the custom development sector, in particular the market for production of materials for early-stage clinical trials.

Furthermore, Klosk says that Cambrex is experiencing price and volume pressures on its generic APIs because of “competitive supply chain dynamics”.

R&D still a priority

Despite the difficulties Cambrex is anticipating over the next six months it is continuing to expand its portfolio and is planning to launch two generic APIs in the beginning of 2010.

In addition Klosk said that Cambrex it will “continue to aggressively develop new products in support of our controlled substances and drug delivery initiatives”.

This statement is supported by Cambrex’s R&D expenditure, which rose from $1.9m in Q2 2008 to $2.2m in the same period of this year. Cambrex attributed the increase to higher costs related to the development of new products and technology platforms.