Officials of Starwin Products, a pharmaceutical company, said the fast depreciation of the cedi against major international currencies was negatively affecting their operations leading to higher cost.

Speaking at the Facts Behind the Figures programme on the Ghana Stock Exchange, Mr. William Sakyiama, General Manager of Starwin said the company’s import bill for the first six months to June had gone up about 17 per cent from the initial bill due to depreciation of the cedi.

“The depreciation is having adverse effects on our operations and all players in the pharmaceutical industry” he said, and called on government to find solutions to the depreciation of the cedi to save businesses from incurring more cost.

He said besides the depreciation of the cedi, players in the industry were grappling with the influx of cheap pharmaceutical products from Asia and other emerging economies, eroding the market share of local companies.

In addition, the long delay for refund of withholding taxes was also a major challenge facing the industry.

The company posted an annual turnover of GH¢4.245 million in 2011 up from GH¢3.761 million while net profit went up to GH¢472,227.

“Turnover recorded an increase of 13 per cent operating profit, 65 per cent and net profit of whopping 474 per cent,” he said.

Mr. Sekyiamah attributed the impressive performance in net profit to lower cost of sales and net finance expense.

He said the company’s ability to reduce its short-term stock from GH¢626, 388 in 2010 to GH¢299,983 in 2011, reflected in the increase of return on equity from 4.46 per cent to 20.39 per cent.

On the operational performance, he said the company’s strength in its popular products continued to impact positively on its performance in the year under review.

“The key branded products, namely, Rapinol, Asmardrin, Painoff and Starwin’s Milk of Magnesia, contributed almost 85 per cent to total revenue,” he said.

Mr. Sakyiama said Starwin had plans to boost its stated capital from the current level of GH¢1.98 million to GH¢6.00 million through a rights issue to help in the company’s expansion drive to acquire high capacity machines.**