Julphar’s H1 Revenue Up 13.5%

The UAE’s leading pharmaceutical company, Julphar, has announced revenue figures of Dhs630 million for the first half of the year, an increase of 13.5 per cent year on year.

Gross profit stood at Dhs380.6 million, a rise of 5.6 per cent from the same period last year while operating profit was Dhs123 million, up 11 per cent.

The results were driven by tender market sales, which saw growth of 19.5 per cent.

The largest private market major sales were registered in Saudi Arabia with Dhs119.1 million and UAE with Dhs123 million.

Raghu Sarma, head of investments at Julphar, said: “Julphar continues to see a consistent growth across all major markets and the results remain on track with our forecasts.

“Therapeutic segments such as Endocrine System, Central Nervous System and Respiratory System have demonstrated the strongest performance and we expect this to continue until the year-end.”

Last month, the Ras Al Khaimah-based company announced an agreement with global healthcare company MSD.

The new partnership is expected to be a merchandising collaboration on several pharmaceutical products with cardiovascular disease the main health problem to be targeted.

Dr Ajay Kumar Sharma, head of pharma practice at Frost & Sullivan Middle East, offered some perspective on Julphar’s financial results.

“The increase in volume of sales of the Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries (Julphar) is attributed to the tender sales. This is evident from the figures posted wherein the top line has grown by almost 19.5 per cent while the bottom line has grown only by 5.6 per cent,” said Sharma.

“The increasing profits are also owing to the reduced margins that one has to settle for while competing in the tender market.

“Additionally the majority of the growth seen in the profits of Julphur comes from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Libya. With the political scenario improving in Egypt and Libya, this growth in profits was anticipated and the two markets are further expected to grow enormously in the next three years.”