Almirall awards dividend payments of 52 million euros to its shareholders

Jorge Gallardo, Chairman-Chief Executive Officer, states: “We are pleased that our shareholders will be able to participate in Almirall’s successful business strategy. The confidence they have placed in us leads us to continue to work as a reference for the pharmaceutical sector”.

Points on the agenda included examining and approving annual accounts for financial year 2008, when Almirall obtained net income of 136.1 million euros and 1,056 million euros in total revenues.

The EBITDA totalled 230 million euros, 35% more than in 2007. Net sales increased by 13.9% to total 902.8 million euros and other income stood at 153.1 million euros, 22.6% more than in 2007 and linked to the partner agreements strategy.

These results have afforded Almirall sustained growth and enabled it to allocate over 105 million euros to voluntary reserves and over 52 million euros to dividend payments. According to Jorge Gallardo, “these figures are a reflection of Almirall’s hard work in 2008, which laid the groundwork in 2009 for achieving excellent results in the first quarter of this year, with normalised net income of 49.5 million euros and 245 million euros in net sales”.

In 2009 the company will continue its research and development strategy, for which it has set aside resources amounting to 33.4 million euros during the first quarter of 2009.

One of the most relevant company projects for this year is the recent pan-European agreement for linaclotide. This new gastrointestinal compound, which will start phase III in 2009 to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation, is under licence from Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

 

New clinical trials for aclidinium bromide will also be carried out in 2009 within the respiratory pipeline, while the dermatology projects section is aiming to file for registration a compound for skin inflammation and another for actinic keratosis.

Almirall is still pursuing discussions regarding alliances or marketing associations in key areas for both aclidinium bromide and LAS100977.

Almirall also continues to selectively assess new acquisitions and is open to considering new business opportunities.

About Almirall

Almirall is an international pharmaceutical company based on innovation and committed to health. Headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, it researches, develops, manufactures and commercialises its own R&D and licensed drugs with the aim of improving people’s health and wellbeing.

 

The therapeutic areas on which Almirall focuses its research resources are related to the treatment of asthma, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and dermatology.

 

Almirall’s products are currently present in over 70 countries while it has direct presence in Europe and Latin America through 11 affiliates.