Beximco Pharmaceuticals, which has been having an incredible run at the bourses amid the pandemic, saw its net profit soar more than 41 per cent in the first nine months of FY21 (July’20-March’21) to Tk 370.60 crore.
The organic growth of business and hence the profit, part of this attributable to the income from vaccine distribution and increased cash incentive from export, the drug-marker said on Sunday.
Their profit in the third quarter of its 2020-21 financial year stood at Tk370.60 crore, a 41.28 per cent increase from Tk 262.31 crore for the same period of the last year.
The leading pharmaceutical company’s Earnings Per Share (EPS) was Tk 8.23 for Jul’20-Mar’21 against Tk 5.84 for the same period last year.
In the last three months (Jan-Mar’21), the company's net profit stood at Tk 147 crore as against Tk 90.92 crore for the same period last year.
Its consolidated EPS stood at Tk 3.28, against Tk 2.02 for the same period last year.
The pharmaceutical giant informed that they have entered into a tripartite agreement with the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and the Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (SII), for the supply of 30 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca, in Bangladesh.
According to the official disclosure, the company delivered 5 million vaccines during the reported quarter.
As per the agreement, the company is to receive fees for import, storage and delivery of the vaccine to the GOB warehouses across the country.
A net amount of Tk 383.70 million after deduction of related expenses from fees, has been reported as income from vaccine distribution.
This is a one-off contract and any future earning from this source is dependent on the delivery of the committed quantity of vaccine under the agreement.
This takes its total sales in the first half (Jul’-Dec’20) of the financial year to Tk1,440 crore, up 15.2% from a year earlier.
The sales of pharmaceutical products went higher in the pandemic period despite the economic downturn.
Back in May last year, when the world was gripped by fear of the rogue virus that jumped out of Wuhan, China, the company grabbed headlines globally for being the first company to market remdesivir, the antiviral drug that showed promise in treating Covid-19 patients.
The company exported the drug as well as other medicines to treat Covid-19 to a host of countries. It has been supplying the drug to local hospitals, too.
Subsequently, its profit and sales scaled up.
It is no surprise then that shares of Beximco Pharma have been on the rise since June after the Dhaka bourse resumed from the 66-day general holiday in line with the government’s countrywide general shutdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.
The Beximco Pharma’s stock price soared nearly three times. On Sunday, they closed at Tk 192.50, in contrast to Tk 70.3 on June 1, 2020, when trading resumed at the DSE after a 66-day general holiday.
