Aspen revenue up, but warns of ‘inevitable’ Covid-19 threat

JOHANNESBURG – JSE-listed drug maker Aspen Pharmacare reported a 3percent increase in revenue to R18.4billion for the six months to end December and warned that the coronavirus would inevitably impact its performance.

It said the outbreak of Covid-19 had created uncertainty and resulted in its Chinese commercial team being largely inactive for a month, which would impact performance.

However, Aspen said to date its inventory holdings had been sufficient to prevent any negative impact, but this risk remained under close assessment.

The regional brands increased its revenue by 6percent to R8.3bn, with positive growth well spread across the group while the overall Commercial Pharma business was only up by 2percent.

In the regional brands, gross profit percentage was negatively impacted by the decline in revenues from the oncology portfolio in Europe CIS and the recall of Zantac in Australia.