KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): Pharmaceutical company Duopharma Biotech Bhd said on Thursday its quarterly net profit more than halved to its lowest in seven years, hurt by lower margins and higher finance costs.

Net profit for the final quarter of 2023 was RM8.5 million, its lowest since the April-June 2017 period, compared to RM17.16 million over the same period in 2022, Duopharma said in an exchange filing.

Revenue for the quarter, however, rose 10.23% to RM167.5 million from RM151.96 million thanks to higher sales in the private prescription market, private ethical specialty sector and export segment.

Looking ahead, Duopharma said it is finalising a new supply agreement with state-owned distributor and manufacturer Pharmaniaga Bhd, and “this will be captured in 2024”.

In 2017, Pharmaniaga had awarded an approved product purchase list (APPL) contract to Duopharma to supply pharmaceutical or non-pharmaceutical products to government hospitals and clinics.

The contract initially covered a three-year period from Dec 1, 2017 to Nov 30, 2019, before it was extended four times to Dec 31, 2023, and contributes about 20% of Duopharma’s annual revenue.

Duopharma declared a 1.8 sen dividend per share for the quarter, to be paid on March 21.

For the full FY2023, the group’s net profit declined 24.91% to RM52.65 million from RM70.11 million while revenue increased 1.1% to RM704.73 million versus RM696.72 million in FY2022.

Shares of Duopharma slipped one sen or 0.82% to RM1.21 on Thursday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM1.16 billion.