A MASSIVE increase in dividend income pushed pretax profit at Allergan’s main Irish subsidiary to $315.4 million (€238 million) last year. That compared with a 2008 pretax profit of $87.1 million at the company best known as the maker of botox.
However, the company warned figures for the current year would be affected by the $600 million settlement Allergan made in the US over an investigation of sales and marketing practices in relation to botox. Allergan Pharmaceuticals Holdings (Ireland) Ltd will take a charge of $368.4 million as its share of the settlement costs. Another subsidiary, Allergan Botox Ltd, which holds the intellectual property rights for botox, said it would take a $92.1 million charge in this year’s accounts.
In accounts just filed, Dublin-based Allergan Pharmaceuticals Holdings (Ireland) Ltd said turnover in 2009 decreased by 7 per cent to $341.2 million from $369.3 million the previous year.
US-owned Allergan employs 840 people in Ireland – 780 of them at its main manufacturing plant in Westport, Co Mayo, where botox is one of a number of pharmaceutical products made.
Allergan also employs an additional 60 people at its European and emerging markets supply chain centre based in Dublin.
The filings show that the Irish holding company’s operating profits last year more than halved, going down from $61.4 million to $30.2 million.
The company’s profits were hit by a $4.5 million loss on the sale of an investment.
