Icon hopeful as profit jumps 6% to €16.7m

PHARMACEUTICAL services company Icon has reported a 6% year-on-year increase in first quarter net profits to $22.2 million (€16.7m).

The Dublin-based clinical trials research company – which has its shares listed on New York’s Nasdaq exchange – said, yesterday, that it now hopes to see renewed growth earlier this year than initially anticipated.

Despite the fact that operating profit ($26.8m) and net revenue ($219.1m) were largely unchanged, management said the company had started the year “solidly” and that the results bode well for this year as a whole.