UCB Pharma reports 5% sales increase in first nine months of 2012

Hannah Blake

pharmaphorum

UCB Pharma has released an interim report for the first three quarters of 2012, which showcases the company’s strong performance. During the first nine months, revenues came to €2.57 billion, up 5% largely due to the growth of its key products, including rheumatoid arthritis treatmeant, cimzia (certolizumab pegol), epilepsy medication vimpat (lacosamide) and Parkinson's disease drug neupro (rotigotine).

The growth in each of these products helped to compensate for the increased generic competition of UCB Pharma’s epilepsy medication Keppra (levetiracetam), following its patent expiry back in November 2008.

"In the first nine months, Cimzia®, Vimpat® and Neupro® reached more than 382 000 patients with a strong growth of 50% net sales of EUR 665 million. UCB has now reached the inflection point where net sales of our new core medicines are higher than those of the Keppra® franchise – the 'cross-over'. This performance confirms our ambition to reach more than 1.5 million patients with Cimzia®, Vimpat® and Neupro®, with a combined peak sales target of at least EUR 3.1 billion in the second half of this decade."

Roch Doliveux, Chief Executive Officer of UCB.

Anna Richo was announced as the company’s new executive vice-president and general counsel earlier this month. UCB Pharma expects its revenue for the full year of 2012 to exceed €3.2 billion, driven by continued growth of its key products.

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