Bioton Sees Swing to Profit on Higher Insulin Sales

(Bloomberg) -- Bioton SA, Poland’s largest insulin maker, said it will report net income this year after a record loss in 2009, helped by higher sales in China, Russia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Bioton, which today reported a 2009 loss of 466.5 million zloty ($160.6 million) on asset write-offs, forecasts profit of 94 million zloty this year, the Warsaw-based company said in separate regulatory statements today.

The company expects to benefit from an agreement last year with Bayer Schering Pharma AG under which the German drugmaker will distribute Bioton’s insulin in China. The Polish company reiterated plans to sign similar deals this year for Russia and countries in the Asia-Pacific region it didn’t name, and said sales are set to rise 26 percent to 363 million zloty this year.

In another statement today, Bioton, controlled by Polish investor Ryszard Krauze, said it signed an earlier announced deal to sell its antibiotics unit to Poland’s Polpharma SA for 80 million zloty. Polpharma will pay 25 million zloty within three days from yesterday and the remaining part once the transaction, subject Polpharma meeting legal requirements to produce the drugs, is completed.