Antibiotice profit up, receivables outrun sales

Drugmaker Antibiotice Iasi posted significant profit and turnover growth in real terms in H1, albeit failing to overcome the existing financial difficulties caused by the Romanian healthcare system crisis. Antibiotice sold $19.17 million’s (623.2bn ROL) worth in H1, up 10% from the same time last year. The growth in ROL was 16%, above the 14% inflation in the same period. H1 net profit was of $3.4 million, 21% higher than in H1, 2002. Higher sales and rising profit, however, did not succeed in fixing Antibiotice’s biggest problem for a few years now – the difficulty to recover the money from the healthcare system, especially the payment for the drugs sold to hospitals. The arrearage in the system is currently hurting drug producers or importers alike: the State owes more than $250 million to them, part of which are the debts accumulated in 2001. “Not collecting our bills has led to accumulating 782.3bn ROL receivables by mid year, that is more than our turnover. We were forced to ask the banks we work with to increase the lines of credit by $2 million so that we could maintain our financial balance,” Constantin Nicuta, Antibiotice financial manager told Ziarul Financiar. ZF