Update: A&D Pharma profit almost doubles, sales reach EUR 303 million

Pharmaceutical group A&D Pharma posted a sales figure of EUR 303 million in the first half of this year, up 30 percent on the same period last year, the company has announced. Its net profit went up even more – by 90 percent, to EUR 17.45 million. Update: The good financial results came despite a challenging economic and legislative environment, said Robert Popescu, the company's CEO (in picture). The company's retail division, which runs the Sensiblu chain of pharmacies reported a growth in sales of 37 percent, to EUR 119.5 million, while its operational profit went up four-fold to EUR 6.6 million. "Our Wholesale division saw a strong increase in hospital market share growth to 20.6%, contributing to an impressive 51% increase in revenue growth to EUR 249.0 million. Streamlined logistics and increased synergies with our retail operation lead to a healthy operating profit of EUR 20.1 million for this division. Our Marketing & Sales division continues to be at the heart of our expansion plans and the Group will continue to benefit from the opportunities it presents," the company has said. “We remain cautious about the outlook for the Romanian pharmaceutical market for 2010, particularly in light of the scale of the operational and regulatory challenges facing the industry, a special area of concern being the overall liquidity in the market. However, we continue to believe in its long-term growth prospects and A&D Pharma is very well placed to capture the growth we expect from this market," said the company's CEO.