(Headline adjusted.)

GRÜNWALD (dpa-AFX) - The pharmaceutical manufacturer Dermapharm has started the new year with lower sales and profits due to the declining Covid vaccine business with Biontech. The integration of the new subsidiary Montavit and Arkopharma is going according to plan, said CEO Hans-Georg Feldmeier in a statement on Wednesday. This shows that the company can grow on its own even without a vaccine. In addition, the Group's product availability is back to pre-pandemic levels. The pharmaceutical manufacturer had experienced a special boom during the pandemic due to the contract production of corona vaccines for the manufacturer Biontech from Mainz.

In the first three months, sales fell by 6.4 percent year-on-year to just under 299 million euros and the operating result adjusted for special effects (adjusted EBITDA) fell by 16.2 percent to 88.7 million euros, as the company announced in Grünwald. The bottom line was a profit of 43.1 million euros after 49.1 million euros in the previous year.

Dermapharm confirmed its targets for the year as a whole. Turnover is expected to rise to between 1.17 and 1.21 billion euros this year. The Group is also relying on its latest acquisitions, the French pharmaceutical and food supplement manufacturer Arkopharma and the Austrian pharmaceutical company Montavit. The Group is aiming for an adjusted operating result of 305 to 315 million euros. This means that earnings in day-to-day business could rise or fall./mne/stk