BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Specialty pharma company Medios is facing the start of a difficult year due to stricter price regulation for certain drugs. In 2023, the Berlin-based company would be "short" by around 6.6 million euros in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted Ebitda) compared to 2022, company CEO Matthias Gärtner said in an interview with financial news agency dpa-AFX. "We have to think about what measures we can take to make up for that. To add to that will be difficult, but not impossible." In the medium term, the manager is counting on a broader positioning, acquisitions and expansion abroad. Currently, Medios is still fine-tuning its strategy, Gärtner said.

Thanks in part to these measures, Medios aims to increase operating profit more than sales in the medium term. "That is precisely our focus," Gärtner assured. In doing so, he trusts himself to "at least keep up" with the expected strong market growth in the coming years.

Medios AG, which went public in 2016, focuses on the market for so-called specialty drugs. These are high-priced and novel therapies for complex and mostly chronic diseases such as hemophilia (bleeding disorder) or cancer.

Last year, an arbitration ruling had already resulted in price reductions for cytostatics, i.e. drugs that inhibit the division and growth of cells - and left its mark on Medios' business. Most recently, the Management Board forecast adjusted operating profit for 2022 to be only the lower half of the original range of 52 to 58 million euros.

Medios is likely to have met this forecast, as well as the sales target it specified in the summer, which envisages the upper range of 1.45 to 1.6 billion euros. "I am very confident that we have closed comfortably within guidance," Gärtner said, without being specific./tav/stw/mis