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Reflecting on 2014

Posted by
Antje Witte, Investor Relations
27-Feb-2015
For us Investor Relations professionals, preparation of the full-year financial results are a time for reflection as well. The numbers, and the story they tell, are a wide-angle lens through which to view the company's performance in the year gone by and of course serve as a basis for the future.

As we analyse the numbers, we can see which of our medicines are driving revenues, review progress in our development pipeline, and see whether the company is on track to meet the targets we set ourselves.

In 2014, sales of UCB's three core medicines grew by 24% and now account for 50% of our net sales.

You might recall that in 2012 we reached an inflection point which saw sales of these products eclipse those of UCB's established epilepsy drug. Now their combined sales are as great as the sales of all of our other medicines.

Of our € 3 344 million in total revenue, € 1 468 million came from these three drugs. While our total revenue grew by 7%, growth was much stronger for our core products.

These medicines are now reaching more patients than ever before and tracking towards our long-term sales targets. We are also on track to achieve competitive profitability in 2018.

Meanwhile, we are advancing the next wave of new potential solutions for patients. We invested € 928 million, or 28% of our revenue, in research and development into potential solutions in epilepsy, lupus and osteoporosis as well as in our early clinical pipeline which now comprises five new molecules in early stage. Among them is a new potential compound to treat lupus which reported positive phase 1 results at the end of 2014.

At the same time, we recorded a lower overall operating expenses ratio, hence improving profitability.

To me, all of this means we are meeting our commitments to deliver value to patients through innovative medicines and patient solutions as well as meeting our commitment to deliver value to our shareholders.

I hope the flu is behind you or has not touched you and yours – stay healthy!

If you have a comment or question on our 2014 financial results, please let me know: Antje.Witte@ucb.com

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