Sirtex sales defy global economic woes

Sirtex Medical (ASX:SRX) has revealed it increased dose sales of its SIR-Spheres liver cancer treatment by 23% for the just-concluded financial year.

The company also reported a 26% increase in June quarter dose sales, when compared to the same period a year earlier.

This growth follows a 34% year-on-year increase in dose sales during the third quarter.

Asia-Pacific eclipsed the US as the fastest growing market for the products during Q4. Sales in APAC increased 48% year-on-year, compared to 31% growth for the US.

The quarterly growth helped ensure that APAC was also the strongest-growing market during the full year.

Sales in Europe continued to be affected by the Eurozone crisis, with sales up just 4% for the full year and 11% for the fourth quarter. But this is an improvement from the mere 1% growth recorded from the region in Q2.

SIR-Sphere sales during the first two quarters helped the company boost its 1H12 profit by 69.7% to $6.1 million.

But Sirtex CEO Gilman Wong said despite the global growth, its sales still represent less than 1% of the addressable market for liver cancer treatments. “This means that Sirtex still has significant growth potential,” Wong said.

SIR-Spheres microspheres are targeted radioactive treatments designed to be injected into the hepatic artery via a catheter. The spheres then lodge into the vasculature of a tumour, then transmit radiation into the tumour tissue to damage or, in the best case scenario, eliminate it.

Sirtex (ASX:SRX) shares were trading 3.07% higher at $6.380 as of around 2:30pm on Wednesday, the day the sales update was announced.