DUBLIN: Profits and revenues surged last year at the Irish unit of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, which employs over 450 in Ireland.
Newly filed accounts for Novartis Ireland Ltd show pretax profits jumped from €2.5 million to €4.9 million in 2015.
Turnover rose 37 per cent over the same period from €106 million to €148 million, with the company attributing revenue growth to the acquisition of GSk’s oncology portfolio and the growth of its global services centre.
The company said sales of pharmaceutical products grew 13.9 per cent versus the previous year, although gross margins decreased 1.7 percentage points over the same period. The subsidiary ended 2015 with net assets of €12.4 million versus €10 million a year earlier.
Novartis, the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company with revenues of $49.4 billion last year, was created in 1996 through a merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz. Group companies employ 118,000 worldwide, and its products are available in more than 180 countries.
According to the latest accounts, Novartis, which operates across three locations in Cork and Dublin, saw a sharp rise in employee-related expenses which jumped from €27.3 million to €47.1 million. The increase came after staff numbers increased to 451 from 267 following an expansion at the group’s Dublin-based business solutions centre.
