Genzyme sees 21% increase in group revenue

GENZYME — the US biotechnology company that has invested more than €300 million (€227m) in its Irish operations in Co Waterford since establishing an Irish base in 2001 — has reported a 21% rise in group revenue, to $4.6 billion (€3.5bn) for 2008.

Fourth-quarter revenue for the year amounted to $1.17bn, which represented a year-on-year rise of 13%.

The company — which employs more than 450 people in its Irish manufacturing facility — said revenues for this year should come in between $5.2bn (€3.9bn) and $5.4bn (€4.1bn) and should reach $7bn (€5.3bn) by the end of 2011.

Between now and 2012, the company is expecting 16 regulatory approvals to be granted for treatments in test phase and some of these could benefit its Irish operation, ranked as one of the company’s largest manufacturing facilities in Europe. Once the expansion work on its Waterford plant is finished, Genzyme’s investment in Ireland will have topped the €400m (€303m) mark.

The Waterford plant manufactures nine of Genzyme’s products — including Myozyme, which boosted sales from $201m (€152m) to $296m (€224m) last year and is one of the strongest performing drugs in the company’s portfolio. Sales of Genzyme’s two other headline drugs manufactured in Ireland — Cerezyme and Renagel — totalled $305m (a rise of $3m) and $169m (a rise of $3m) respectively.

Genzyme group chief executive and chairman Henri Termeer said: “We made great progress during 2008 in a number of areas — we delivered strong financial results, continued to grow our existing products, secured new product approvals, advanced pivotal clinical trials and significantly strengthened our late-stage pipeline.”

The company — which is debt free — sells to about 100 countries worldwide and operates 17 manufacturing sites in nine countries. Half of its overall annual revenues are generated from outside of the US.