British pharmaceuticals group GlaxoSmithKline said today that its net profit sank 13.5% in the first quarter of 2009 and blamed fierce competition from generic drugmakers.
GSK said net profit tumbled to £1.13 billion in the three months to March, compared with the same time in 2008.
'First-quarter profit performance was adversely impacted by gross margin decline due to US generic competition, one-off research and development write-offs and other back-office costs', GSK said in a statement.
Large pharmaceutical companies are increasingly under pressure from rivals who make generic treatments, those drugs which no longer have patent protection.
Revenues, however, increased by 19% to £6.769 billion in the reporting period.
'This quarter has shown divergent performances in our pharmaceutical business with US sales declining 22% to £2.3 billion but strong sales performances reported in other regions, GSK chief executive Andrew Witty said.
