Hikma Pharmaceuticals today said it expects its full year performance to be closer to the top end of its guidance after its global vaccine products delivered strong growth.

Delivering a trading update this morning, the London-based manufacturer projected full year generic pharmaceuticals revenue to be in the range of $810m to $830m.

It also expects its core operating margin to reach the top end of its previous guidance range off 22 per cent to 24 per cent, driven by a “more favourable product mix”, which now includes over 120 products, 14 of which were launched this year.

In Europe, Hikma said its vaccine business is delivering strong growth from its own products, which includes some Covid-19 medicines.

The business also continues to expect global injectables revenue to grow in the mid-single digits and core operating margin to be in the range of 37 per cent to 38 per cent.

Hikma was also confident in its branded business performance, which it said was trading in line with expectations and would chart revenue growth in constant currency in the mid-single digits for 2021, after seeing good demand in most of its markets.

“We have made excellent progress year to date, including launching new specialty products, establishing new partnerships and using our robust balance sheet to expand our portfolio and pipeline,” said Siggi Olafsson, Hikma’s CEO.

“While the global pandemic continues to bring some volatility, we are leveraging our resilient commercial and operational capabilities to drive growth and to reliably deliver medicines to our customers and patients.”