New Products Drive Strong Growth At SB

All the numbers are moving in the right direction and targets for 1996have been reached, said Jan Leschly, chief executive of Anglo-American drug company SmithKline Beecham. He announced double-digit growth driven by sales of new products in 1996, and said the firm is investing in pharmaceutical R&D, which will drive the business through pharmaceuticals and then on to the consumer business as products are switched from prescription-only to over-the-counter sales.

Group sales advanced 13%, or 14% excluding the currency effect, to L7.93 billion ($12.75 billion). Trading profits were L1.64 billion, up 11%, or 13% excluding currency effects. Pretax profits grew 14%, or 16% excluding the effects of currency exchange, to L1.55 billion, and earnings per share were 37.9 pence, advancing 12%, or 14%.

The impact over the full year of currency exchange was 2%. Hugh Collum, chief financial officer at SB, commented that a large part of the firm's business is in Europe, and that European currencies weakened considerably in the last few months of 1996. However, there was little currency impact in the first nine months of the year.