Shares in ProStrakan surged 3.3% after the Borders-based specialist pharmaceutical company reported a 40% rise in sales across its product portfolio during the first four months of the year and said it was confident of break-even within months.
The company, which has its headquarters in Galashiels, described its performance as a "strong start" to 2009 in terms of both trading and business development.
Dr Wilson Totten, chief executive, said: "We've been saying for some time now that we expect to break even during the closing months of 2009, and we're absolutely on track to do that over the next six to nine months."
Analysts at broker Numis agreed in a research note. "With promises kept, everything is on track for ProStrakan to achieve break-even towards the end of 2009," it said In its interim management statement to the London Stock Exchange yesterday, ProStrakan said that 24% of the growth occurred in Europe, and that sales of its pan-EU products - Tostran, Rectogesic, Xomolix and Abstral - had climbed by 50%.
Shares in the company rose 2.5p to 78p, valuing the Scottish pharma at around £159m.
Richard Parkes, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said: "Investor confidence should grow as investments deliver revenues and profits over 2009 and 2010.
"ProStrakan is coming to the end of its investment phase, and we expect 2009 to be the year of commercial execution."
Meanwhile, the company said sales of its top-selling calcium and vitamin D3 supplement Adcal-D3, which is marketed in the UK only, climbed 20% - in spite of the impact of the UK Department of Health's Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, which forced a 3.9% price decrease in February.
ProStrakan noted that it was also pleased with US sales of Sancuso, its novel skin patch for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and reported that about 850 patches a week were being sold.
Totten said: "We expect Sancuso to reach its potential of $100m in about four or five years, but later this year we already expect it to overtake sales of Adcal."
The company said it had recently increased its sales staff levels in the US by seven to 82, and Totten said the new staff were being funded by its US partner NovaQuest. In late 2007, ProStrakan struck a potential multi-million-pound deal with NovaQuest, a subsidiary of pharmaceuticals giant Quintiles Transnational, to sell its products in the US.
At the time Totten described it as "probably one of the most significant steps the company will ever take".
Meanwhile Rapinyl, marketed as Abstral in Europe - its fast-dissolving tablet for under-the-tongue administration of fentanyl and intended for the management of cancer pain - was launched in the UK and Germany in January and Totten said it was selling about 7200 tablets a week.
The drug has also received marketing authorisation for France and Spain, with launches planned for later this year.
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