Takeover pushes Warner Chilcott into the red with €34.1m losses

WARNER Chilcott, the Northern Ireland drug company, made a loss in the second quarter of the year.

The company, formerly called Galen Holdings, made a loss of $42.2 million (€34.1m) in the three months ending June, compared to a profit of almost $40m a year ago.

The company said it fell into the red because of the impact of increased amortisation and net interest expense resulting from the takeover of the company.

Warner Chilcott, which focuses on female healthcare products, was taken private last year by a consortium of investors headed by Bain Capital Partners, DLJ Merchant Banking, JP Morgan and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Revenue in the quarter totaled $114m, flat on the previous quarter.

For the first half of the year, the company reported a net loss of $403.9m, compared with net profit of $75.8m on revenues of $237m last year.

“The most significant factor affecting revenue in the quarter and six month periods was the contraction of inventories of our products held by our customers,” the company stated.

“In late March 2005 we entered into a new distribution agreement with one of our major customers. During the quarter ended June 30, 2005 the customer substantially reduced its investment in inventories of our products.

“We estimate that the contraction of the customer’s pipeline inventory of our products reduced our net sales in both the quarter and six month periods to June 30, 2005 by approximately $9.0 million.”

However, key products, including oral contraceptives and pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder products - were strongly ahead.