UCB 2019 Financial Results: Strong growth while preparing for the future

UCB recorded a year of strong delivery and growth in 2019, as you can see from our latest financial results. The performance of some of our core products was so strong last year that it has prompted us to update the peak sales guidance for our two key products in both immunology and neurology.

At the same time, thanks to our promising late-stage pipeline and the pending acquisition of Ra Pharma (closing expected by the end of this quarter), we could launch up to seven new products by 2025 – with two of them already reaching out to patients since 2019. This puts us in a very strong position to create even more patient value for specific populations in the years ahead.

With one eye always on the future, we have also advanced our focus on four areas of sustainability - Innovation in R&D, Access to medicines, Employees’ health and well-being, and Environmental footprint - which are all critical to our long-term success, and to our broader contribution to society.

We are continuing this new phase in our evolution. Following six consecutive years of growth, we are now accelerating and expanding on the delivery of our Patient Value ambition.

It has been a busy period for our Investor Relations team preparing this report and they remain on hand to answer any questions you may have. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the IR team and the Finance team at UCB for this great experience of collaboration. I wish you all a very happy Carnival week, and will leave you with these key figures from 2019, meeting our financial outlook for the past year:

• Revenue reached € 4.9 billion (+6%, +7% CER) net sales increased to € 4.7 billion (+6%)
• Underlying profitability (rEBITDA) was € 1.4 billion (+2%, +11% CER) or 29.1% of revenue
• Financial outlook for 2020: Revenue expected to reach € 5.05 – 5.15 billion, rEBITDA 28 - 29% of revenue, Core EPS of € 4.80 – 5.20 expected
• New peak sales guidance for Cimzia® € 2.0 bn by 2024 and for Vimpat® € 1.5 bn by 2022.