A week after Perrigo Company (Nasdaq:PRGO; TASE:PRGO) published its financial report for its third fiscal quarter of 2009, and the announcement of the planned sale of its Israeli cosmetics unit, Careline Ltd., the company met Israeli analysts and correspondents.
Perrigo's figures indicate that sales for over-the-counter drugs in the US fell in all categories, and Perrigo Israel president Rafi Lebel says, "The recession is affecting people's willingness to buy medication. A study in the US found that more than 35 million people who obtained a prescription did not buy the medication."
Lebel is nevertheless optimistic about the rest of the year. Among other points, he presented a 7% increase in store brand drug sales. He also related a new phenomenon in the preceding quarter: a 10% rise in the company's prescription drug prices. "I cannot remember any such phenomenon in recent years," he said.
Perrigo was able to raise its prescription drug prices because of quality problems of Indian suppliers, such as Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. (BSE: 500359). Lebel said that these quality problems drove US customers to accept higher prices for the products of other companies, Perrigo included.
Commenting on Perrigo's future growth engines, Lebel said that in fiscal 2010 and 2011 (June 2009 through May 2011), the company planned to launch a large number of products, subject to final regulatory approval, including generic Nasacort, a cold treatment made by Sanofi-Aventis SA (NYSE: SNY; Euronext: SAN) that has hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 13, 2009
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