Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI announces the financial results obtained in the first quarter of 2024, that is critically important in establishing the bases for ROVI’s future growth.
The company closed the first quarter of 2024 with operating revenue of 151.2 million euros, EBITDA of 25.9 million euros and a net profit of 15.0 million.
Revenue from the CDMO business decreased 48% to 50.1 million, mainly due to lower revenue from manufacture of the COVID-19 vaccine in comparison with the first quarter of 2023, when ROVI booked higher revenue from production of the ”pandemic” vaccine and lower revenue related to the activities to prepare the plant for production of the vaccine under the agreement with Moderna.
Sales of the heparin franchise (low-molecular-weight heparins and other heparins) fell 8% to 56.3 million euros in the first quarter of 2024, due to a lower volume of orders from partners, since they held a higher level of stocks of these products from the fourth quarter of 2023. Sales of Risperidone ISM® evolved positively upwards to 5.4 million euros in the first quarter of the year, multiplying the 2023 first quarter figure by 2.4. In March 2024, ROVI received FDA approval for the marketing of Risperidone ISM® in the United States to treat schizophrenia in adults.
This is a historic milestone for the company as this is the first of its own product to receive marketing authorisation in the United States, the most important market worldwide for long-acting injectable antipsychotics.
Additionally, in the first quarter of 2024, ROVI approved marketing authorisation for this product in Canada and Australia. Research and development expenses rose 17% to 6.1 million euros and were mainly related to the development of phase 1 of Letrozole LEBE and the development of phase 1 of the new formulation of Risperidone ISM® for a three-monthly injection. Additionally, we were able to decrease operating expenses, excluding R&D and employee benefit expenses, by 11% as the result of an efficient cost containment policy.
Regarding guidance for 2024, ROVI expects its operating revenue to decrease by a mid-single-digit percentage, although this guidance considers certain factors that could affect the estimates but are difficult to specify at the present time. ROVI is in a new phase of growth and has confidence in the development potential of its specialty pharmaceuticals division and its CDMO business.