Alliance Pharma Share News (APH)

Speciality pharmaceutical company Alliance Pharma has started paying dividends after interim profits almost tripled.Profit before tax in the first half of 2009 rose to £2.89m from £1.02m in the first half of 2008.Revenue surged to £13.27m from £9.90m, with growth principally driven by sales of Deltacortril, the company’s enteric coated prednisolone tablets.Excluding the sales of Deltacortil and Nu-Seals, sales growth across the rest of the portfolio was 7%.‘We expect our performance in the second half to be strong - not least because in August we acquired two significant products, Buccastem and Timodine, which complement our existing portfolio,’ the company’s chairman and chief executive said in a joint statement.As foreshadowed at the time of the company’s full year results, the company has started paying dividends, commencing with an interim payment of 0.07p.In future the company expects the interim dividend payment in a typical year to be half that of the final dividend.