Kyowa's fiscal 2007 net income surges 58%

Japanese drugmaker Kyowa Hakko Kogyo says that its net sales for the 12 months ended March 31, 2008, jumped 10.7% year-on-year to 392.1 billion  yen ($3.73 billion), while consolidated operating income advanced 28.3%  to 39.3 billion yen.

Recurring income rose 23.0% to 37.9 billion yen while profit surged  84.9% to 23.4 billion yen. Operating income in the pharmaceuticals  segment grew 26.8%, supported by higher sales of anti-allergy and other  products, while in the bio-chemicals business strong demand for amino  acids overseas and the consolidation of Daiichi Fine Chemical resulted  in an operating income increase of 135.6%.

R&D spending in the fiscal year was up 2.3% to 34.1 billion yen,  representing 8.7% of net sales, 0.7 percentage points lower than in the  previous fiscal year. For the coming fiscal year Kyowa Hakko forecasts a  25% increase in net sales, and a 44.7% increase in operating income,  while recurring income and net profit are forecast to grow by 47.4% and  19.3% respectively.