Clinical trials firm Icon grows revenue by 7% in first quarter

Revenue at Dublin-headquartered clinical trials company Icon, which employs more than 1,000 people in the Republic, increased 7.1 per cent during the first quarter, the company has said.

Revenue for the period ended March 31st increased to $462.6 million (€356m) from $432 million in the same quarter last year.

Gross “business wins” – or new clients – in the first quarter amounted to $703 million, while cancellations came to $113 million. This resulted in net business wins of $590 million (€492m).

Income from operations increased 8.3 per cent to $92.8 million, as compared with $85.7 million during the same period last year.

Cancer drug Keytruda drives profit at Merck

---

Chinese biopharma firm to create 400 jobs in Dundalk

---

Newer drugs help Pfizer beat profit forecast

---

Allergan tops estimates as botox drives gains

---

Net income grew 10.7 per cent to $79 million, compared with $71.4 million in the same quarter last year.

The company continued its share repurchase programme in the quarter, buying $38.2 million worth of stock at an average price of $110.71 per share.

Cash generated from operating activities for the quarter was $40.5 million. Capital expenditure for the quarter was $8.3 million.

As a result, the company had net cash of $4.6 million on March 31st, compared to net cash of $11.6 million on December 31st, 2017, and net debt of $29.6 million at the end of March 2017.

‘Solid start’

Icon chief executive Dr Steve Cutler said he was "very pleased with the solid start" the company has made to 2018.

“Revenue grew by over 7 per cent year-on-year and, along with the continued leverage of our best in industry support departments, we delivered further value to our shareholders with earnings per share increasing by 11.6 per cent to $1.44.

“During the quarter we completed a further $38 million of our share repurchase programme, and as a result we are increasing our earnings guidance by $0.02 to $5.91– $6.11, and reconfirming our revenue in the range of $2.5billion–$2.6 billion.”

Icon operates from 98 locations in 38 countries, and has some 13,380 employees.