Acquisitions spur Clinigen to profit and revenue growth

Clinigen Group on Tuesday reported that, following a series of acquisitions, it expects to report a sharp rise in revenue and profit when it publishes its half-year results next month.

For the six months ended 31 December, Clinigen, which is the market leader in the supply of drugs for clinical trials and the distribution of unlicensed pharmaceuticals, expects to see revenues increase by around 24% compared to last year on a reported basis and by around 25% on a constant currency basis.

Meanwhile, gross profit increased by around 25% on a reported basis, implying first half gross profit of around £80m and keeping pace with the board's expectations.

Shaun Chilton, chief executive of Clinigen, said: "The Unlicensed Medicines portfolio performed well as anticipated, starting a number of new programs, and we have diversified our Commercial Medicines portfolio with the purchase of two specialty medicines."

The AIM-traded company struck deals with Horizon Pharma and Novartis in July to acquire the rights to new drugs Imukin and Proleukin, while it also acquired packaging, labelling, warehousing and distribution services provider CSM and Swiss based speciality pharmaceutical business iQone in October.

"We are already seeing the operational benefit of combining CTS (Clinical Trial Service) with the clinical trial capabilities of the recently acquired CSM, which when combined with iQone, also acquired in October 2018, enhance our European and US infrastructure for the benefit of all our businesses. We are well positioned to deliver another good year of progress," said Chilton.

Peel Hunt stated that as full year consensus forecasts saw gross profit at £178m and it had forecasted £189m, second half gross profit should reach between £98m and £109m to remain on target, enjoying further growth of around 28%.

"We think this suggests that at the group level Clinigen is well positioned to meet market expectations; our own above-consensus forecasts represent a stretch target, but contributions from the acquired businesses and products should provide further scope for potential positive surprise vs the very achievable consensus forecasts," said a note from the broker.

Clinigen’s shares were up 1.07% at 758.00p at 0925 GMT.