(Alliance News) - Medical device company Circassia Group PLC on Friday said trading at the start of 2021 has been slightly ahead of internal expectations.
The Oxford-based company reported a 9% increase in sales for the four months to April when compared to a year ago. Sales in the period totalled GBP9.3 million, compared to GBP8.5 million year-on-year. Sales have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with this year's sales remaining 7% lower than normalised sales in the same period in 2019.
Circassia has now transitioned two inhaled respiratory medicines for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Tudorza and Duaklir, back to AstraZeneca PLC. The return was designed to assist Circassia through the difficulties of the pandemic. As Executive Chair Ian Johnson noted in June 2020: "the return of Tudorza and Duaklir assets to AstraZeneca has completed removing all debt from our balance sheet."
The medical company, which focuses on the treatment of respiratory diseases, is now exclusively focussed on its Niox product, providing medical devices to diagnose and treat asthma.
Excluding head office costs, the Niox business traded at close to breakeven on an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation level for the first four months of 2021. This result reflected tight cost control measures from management and increased emphasis on third party distribution.
"I am pleased to be able to report a resilient trading performance year to date, with sales recovering well after the disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic which affected several of our major markets in 2020. The improvement in Ebitda is particularly pleasing and we look forward to updating shareholders further at the half year," said Chair Johnson.
Shares in Circassia were down 4.0% at 33.35 pence in London on Friday.
By Scarlett Butler; scarlettbutler@alliancenews.com
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