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Speciality drugs company ProStrakan Group sees US sales fuelling 2009 profits despite a first-half loss of £11.8 million.

The fully listed company increased total revenues 26 per cent to £26.4 million in the six months to June, with European sales up 73 per cent on the strength of a strong Euro and increased market penetration of products such as the UK market’s leading calcium vitamin D deficiency supplement Adcal D3 and Rectogesic anal fissure treatment. But Galashiels-based ProStrakan, steered by chief executive Dr Wilson Totten, sees brightest future prospects in the major US market, where margins are better and a new sales force is in place to push products with serious potential.

These include Sancuso, a treatment for chemotherapy-induced nausea, which the company hopes to launch this year, subject to approval from the US Food & Drugs Administration, and Rapinyl, known as Abstral in Europe, described by ProStrakan as a ‘breakthrough’ treatment for cancer pain. The company obtained the European rights to Abstral/Rapinyl from Sweden’s Orexo in 2006 and has recently won the right to market it in the USA, subject to filing a new drug application next year.

Totten argues Rapinyl alone could take ProStrakan’s annual sales from £45.6 million last year to more than £200 million and says the company has three other products lined up for the USA. If all goes to plan, he reckons the company, which recently drew down £10 million of a £50 million banking facility and has £20 million left, should move into the black in 2009.

ProStrakan shares, which fell from 125.5p to 46p between October 2005 and last December, have since rallied to 91.5p, valuing the company at £184 million. If the US campaign succeeds, they should prosper the medium to long term. 

ProStrakan	LSE	£174.07m	86.50p	1.50p
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Other company articles:
US approves ProStrakan patch			15/09/2008
ProStrakan targets USA			21/08/2008
Baron exits ProStrakan			29/12/2005