Antibiotice boasts double profit, 7% higher turnover

Drugmaker Antibiotice Iasi did not post the same high performance in Q3 as in the previous two quarters, but the nine-month financial results are still far better than those reported in 2001.
The company, which is the second-largest domestic drugmaker posted 10bn ROL ($330,000) in net profit throughout July-September. Quarterly profit amounted to $1.3 million on the average in the first half.
In spite of the Q3 decline, net profit for the first nine months reached $3 million, more than double the same time last year, when it amounted to $1.3 million.
Sales figures were also high this year. Q1-Q3 turnover reached $23.3 million, up 7.3% since the same time last year.
Considering the full-year market growth estimates of 5%-10%, Antibiotice will maintain or even improve its current market share (4.5%). The company management says the better results are due to the investment programme (that cut production costs) and to the expansion of the new product range.
“We have attached special importance to increasing the activity volume, cutting production costs and completing investments. However, we are still having trouble collecting the receivables from the healthcare system,” Ioan Nani, Antibiotice general manager said.
The collection of the bills issued for the sale of drugs to hospitals and of compensated drugs is the main problem that drugmakers and distributors are facing. This problem pushed some of the companies to set up their own distribution networks to get better control over the money circuit.
“Although we have lobbied the authorised institutions, the collection of the bills issued to hospitals is still stuck in the December 2001-January 2002 interval,” the Antibiotice management says.
The company at the end of September was registering account receivables of 490.02bn ROL ($14.6 million), that is 63.3% of the total turnover for the first nine months.