Vaccine maker Adimmune Corp (國光生技) is likely to remain profitable this quarter on expectations that revenue contributions from flu vaccines will rise this month, spokesman Pan Fei (潘飛) told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday.
Revenue is forecast to be higher month-on-month and year-on-year, which would likely lead to the net profit in the fourth quarter being higher than in the third quarter, Pan said.
“We are confident that we can continue making a profit this quarter, but we are still uncertain whether fourth-quarter profit will be big enough to erase the losses in the first half of the year,” he said.
In the first three quarters, Adimmune booked net losses of NT$258 million (US$8.46 million), company data showed.
Revenue increased 34.42 percent annually to NT$189.77 million last month, with cumulative revenue increasing 27.34 percent to NT$1.03 billion, data showed.
If the company finishes delivering all of its flu vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) by the end of this year and obtains full payment from the center, it would likely stay in the black this year, Pan said.
Adimmune was earlier this year awarded a contract to supply CDC with a total of 4.1 million doses of quadrivalent flu vaccines under the brand name AdimFlu.
As of yesterday, the company had provided about 50 percent of that amount, with most of the vaccines being distributed from the beginning of this month, Pan said.
The CDC began the first phase of its free flu vaccination program in the middle of last month and is expected to ask Adimmune and other vaccine makers for more deliveries later this month, as the second vaccination phase began on Sunday, Pan said.
The company finished manufacturing all 4.1 million doses of vaccines at its plant in Taichung last month, which would generate revenue of NT$984 million, he said.
The government required Adimmune to provide the vaccines in five stages from October to January next year, with the number of vaccines to be offered varying for each stage, Pan said, adding that it has reached the third stage.
Adimmune also provides AdimFlu for citizens to purchase on their own, but the number is not big —less than 100,000 — given that only about 300,000 to 500,000 people in the nation are willing to buy the vaccines themselves, he said.
The biggest uncertainty next year for Adimmune would be how many flu vaccines it would supply to the CDC, as the company has to estimate how many eggs it must use and place orders to chicken farms at least six months ahead of production, Pan said.
This year, the company consumed approximately 10 million eggs to produce the 4.1 million vaccine doses, Pan said, adding that on average, it takes six months to produce the vaccines.
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