Clinical trials group Icon said the outlook for 2006 was very positive at its agm yesterday, following a recovery in operating profits over the second half of last year.

Icon chief executive Peter Gray said the company had emerged from a difficult period and had begun to recover over the last six months.

He attributed the turnaround to a healthy market for its services, with pharmaceutical companies showing stronger pipelines of new drugs coming onto the market and growing investment in biotech companies such as AGI Therapeutics, which yesterday began trading on the Irish Stock Exchange's IEX market.

"These are two very strong factors that are driving the market," Mr Gray said.

At the agm, Mr Gray and Dr Ronan Lambe, who co-founded the company with chairman Dr John Climax, were re-elected to the Icon board.

The company has changed its financial year so that it coincides with the financial year.

Figures for the seven-month period from the start of June 2005 to the end of December 2005 will be reported in the summer, while first quarter figures will be published in April.

Icon's annual report for the financial year ending May 31st, 2005, shows a 47.7 per cent fall in profits, from $30.9 million (€26 million) to $16.1 million (€13.6 million).

However, in the three months to the end of last November, profits increased 29 per cent on the same quarter the previous year.