Navamedic: Improved earnings as Company prepares new launches

Navamedic ASA (OSE: NAVA), the Norwegian pharmaceutical products company, today announced its first quarter 2012 results. Sales reached yet another all time high in the first quarter and Navamedic is now preparing for eight product launches later this year.

"Our Vitaflo business area continues its high growth and further improvement of profitability. We are now preparing for massive launches of new generic drugs later this year. We have received marketing authorizations for the entire 2012 pipeline in all our markets in the Nordic and Benelux regions. We start rolling out the new products from July," said Navamedic CEO Olof Milveden.

Navamedic sales in the first quarter were NOK 20.6 million, which is a 22 per cent growth over the previous year's first quarter. Sales were mainly attributable to the Vitaflo business area. While Vitaflo profitability continues to improve, Navamedic's group results are affected by costs related to the build-up of its new generics business. The Group's consolidated EBITDA came in slightly above the zero mark in the first quarter, against an EBITDA of NOK -1.0 million in the corresponding quarter last year.

Navamedic's net result in the first quarter was NOK -1.0 million, against NOK -1.8 million last year.  

Navamedic launched its two first generic drugs on the Finnish and Dutch markets in October last year and is well underway towards building a position in this fast growing segment. The Company currently has 11 generic products filed for approval and expects to launch eight of these in the market during 2012, starting in July.

The Vitaflo business area, which is a distributor of health care products and patented drugs in the Nordic markets, experienced high sales growth also in the first quarter 2012. Over the last eight quarters, Vitaflo sales have seen organic growth of more than 60 per cent. Profitability continued to improve also in the first months of 2012 and the EBITDA margin went above 10 per cent in the first quarter.

Navamedic forecasts continued double digit sales growth and attractive margins in its Vitaflo business area. As additional generic products are rolled out in the second half of 2012, the Company expects results improvement also in this area towards the end of the year. Navamedic targets a positive EBITDA for the entire group for the full year 2012.

For further information, please call Olof Milveden, CEO, telephone +46 733 463 736 or Bjørn Lindholt, CFO, telephone +47 9300 6601.

Navamedic ASA is a Norwegian pharmaceutical products company. Through its subsidiary Vitaflo Scandinavia the Company is a distributor of a broad range of nutrition and pharmaceutical products in the Nordic markets. Navamedic is currently building up a generic pharmaceutical business for the Nordic, Dutch and Belgian markets based on its partnership with Aspen Healthcare of South Africa. Navamedic is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker: NAVA).