Less Profit but Still Good First Half Year for Richter

The decline in sales of some contraceptives, the absence of major acquisitions and the exchange rate movements reduced the profit at the Hungarian pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter Plc.

The after-tax profit of Gedeon Richter Plc. fell by 9.3% to HUF 54.9 billion in the first half of this year. Yet the company's revenue rose to HUF 296 billion, exceeding all analyst expectations, a 6.5% increase compared to the beginning of 2020 – but it is considered realistic that it will still manage to bring last year's result from here. Of course, this was only a decline compared to the very strong first half of last year – the three most profitable quarters in Richter's history were the first and second quarters last year and the second quarter this year.

Richter’s CEO, Gábor Orbán evaluated the first half results by stating that “partly in response to limitations caused by the pandemic, we kept our marketing and admin expenses in check while further raising our R&D spending to develop our portfolio. Those R&D efforts are starting to bear fruit: by mid-year we reached very important regulatory and technical milestones in building the product portfolio across all business focus areas. Most importantly, we are now wholly prepared for the planned innovative product launches in the Women’s Health Care space in the coming months, while Evra® integration is well on track. We are also very excited about the steps we have taken to extend the cariprazine franchise to Japan by deepening our collaboration with AbbVie.”