Full Year 2017 Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI SA Earnings Call
Feb 20, 2018 PM UTC
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ROVI.MC - Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI SA
Full Year 2017 Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI SA Earnings Call
Feb 20, 2018 / 02:00PM GMT
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Corporate Participants
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* Javier López-Belmonte Encina
Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO
* Juan López-Belmonte López
Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Chairman & Chief Executive Manager
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Conference Call Participants
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* Francisco Ruiz
Exane BNP Paribas, Research Division - Research Analyst
* Ignacio Ortiz de Mendivil Arrate
JB Capital Markets, Sociedad de Valores, S.A., Research Division - VP
* Samir Devani
Rx Securities Limited, Research Division - Research Analyst
* Susie Jana
Edison Investment Research Limited - Analyst
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Presentation
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Operator [1]
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Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the ROVI Full Year 2017 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today, Tuesday, 20th of February, 2018. Without any further ado, I would like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. Javier López-Belmonte. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.
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Javier López-Belmonte Encina, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO [2]
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Thank you very much, Andrea, and good afternoon to everyone. This is Javier López-Belmonte, CFO of ROVI. At this time, I would like to welcome everybody to this full year 2017 results conference call, which will start in a moment. Let me please introduce ROVI's attendees today, Juan López-Belmonte, CEO; Marta Campos, Investor Relations; and myself. (Operator Instructions) Let me now turn the call over to the CEO, Mr. Juan López-Belmonte for the highlights of this full year 2017 results.
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Juan López-Belmonte López, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Chairman & Chief Executive Manager [3]
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Thank you, Javier, and welcome to everybody. I am glad to present our full year 2017 results. Performance this year has been in line with our expectations. Our 4% operating revenue growth in 2017 was driven by the strength of the toll manufacturing business, where sales rose 8% and by the specialty pharmaceutical business, which grew by 3%, slightly outperforming the market.
Data provided by QuintilesIMS indicate that the innovative product market in Spain increased 2% in 2017. However, sales of pharmaceutical products with prescriptions from ROVI rose 3% in 2017, exceeding the market by 1 percentage point. QuintilesIMS forecast a 1% to 4% growth in spending on medicine in Spain to 2021, and we expect to continue to grow above the growth estimates of the pharmaceutical expenditure. Regarding the classification of laboratories, using data from QuintilesIMS, ROVI was positioned 23rd in terms of value and was the fastest-growing company among the 23 top-ranked companies in 2017.
In the first half of 2016, a JV participated by ROVI and Enervit was created to distribute nutritional products and other nonpharmacological products in Spain and Portugal. This affects comparative figures of 2017. In 2017, we made an important investment effort in research and development, as we started a Phase III trial for risperidone and a Phase I study for Letrozole, both with our ISM technology.
EBITDA of the ongoing business, calculated excluding research and development expenses in 2017 and 2016 and the impact of the nonrecurring revenue in 2016, increased by 11% from EUR 52.8 million in 2016 to EUR 58.7 million this year, reflecting a 1.4-percentage-point rise in the EBITDA margin to 21.3% in 2017.
Likewise, net profit of the ongoing business increased by 16% from EUR 38.7 million in 2016 to EUR 45 million in 2017.
Prescription-based pharmaceutical specialities, which grew by 3% in 2017 are high strategic value products and contribute to give ROVI a wider scope for the coming years. ROVI counts as driving force with Bemiparin, which performed well in 2017, with sales up 5% to EUR 83.9 million. Sales of Bemiparin in Spain grew by 7% to EUR 58.8 million in 2017, while the low molecular weight heparin market increased 4.5% in the same period, beating the market by 2.5 percentage points and achieving a market share of 29% in 2017, compared to 28% in 2016.
In addition, we continue to be focused on taking our main product Bemiparin to international level, as one of the drivers of long-term growth. International sales increased by 1% to EUR 25.1 million. In 2017, ROVI started its internalization process, setting up subsidiaries in the main European countries, Germany, U.K., France, and Italy.
In September, we started marketing our Enoxaparin biosimilar in Germany, one of the top Enoxaparin markets in Europe in terms of volume and value with good sales prospects. Sales of Enoxaparin biosimilar amounted to EUR 1.5 million in 2017, of which EUR 1 million were registered in December.
Recent launches were again a strong driver of growth in 2017. Sales of Vytorin, Orvatez and Absorcol, the first of the 5 licenses of Merck Sharp & Dohme increased by 18% to EUR 39.4 million in 2017. Sales of Hirobriz Breezhaler and Ulunar Breezhaler both inhaled bronchodilators from Novartis increased by 17% to EUR 14.3 million.
Sales of Volutsa from Astellas Pharma increased by 30% to EUR 9 million. Sales of Neparvis from Novartis launched in December 2016, indicated for the treatment of adult patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure and reduced ejection fraction, reached EUR 4.7 million. All these recent product launches will lead us to extend the average life of our product portfolio by several years, and we expect it will provide us a sustainable and profitable growth opportunity in the coming years.
Other products such as Medikinet, Medicebran from Medice remained flat at EUR 7.5 million in 2017. Likewise, sales for -- sales of contrast imaging agents increased by 2% to EUR 28.5 million. ROVI continues to be the market leader in this segment.
Regarding toll manufacturing, sales increased by 8% to EUR 61.1 million in 2017, mainly because of the good performance of the injectable business and the Frosst Ibérica plant. Injectable plant revenue increased by 13% in 2017 to EUR 34.9 million due to higher volumes manufactured for some customers.
ROVI has one of the largest solid oral forms manufacturing plants in Europe and sales increased 2% in 2017 to EUR 26.2 million. The manufacturing plant at San Sebastián de los Reyes acquired in June 2015 started vial filling operation in September 2016. It is expected to start manufacture the prefilled syringes in this plant in the first quarter of 2018, thus expanding the production lines of injectables of the group.
Moving to research and development, ROVI firmly believes that research and development is one of the pillars of growth of the company in the future. As previously informed, ROVI has progressed in the development of DORIA, the first candidate for its leading-edge drug delivery technology, ISM, for a prolonged release of risperidone, a well-established second-generation antipsychotic medicine.
After successfully finishing the Phase I and II program of DORIA, ROVI started the pivotal Phase III trial PRISMA-3 with the recruitment of the first patient in May 2017. An update of the project with details of the design and cost of Phase III was released together with a presentation to analysts on October 24, 2017.
On the other hand, ROVI initiated the first Phase I clinical trial of Letrozole ISM in November 2017. Letrozole ISM is a long-acting injectable aromatase inhibitor intended for the treatment of hormone-dependent breast cancer. Regarding Enoxaparin biosimilar, ROVI informed that the decentralized procedure used for the company to submit in 26 countries of the European Union, the marketing authorization application of the Enoxaparin biosimilar was completed with positive outcome.
In September last year, ROVI informed that the national marketing authorization phase of the registration process for the Enoxaparin biosimilar was approved in Germany by local authorities and its marketing begun. As of 31st December, 2017, the countries with the national registration process approved are Germany, France, U.K., Italy, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and Bulgaria.
And finally, let me end with our guidance for 2018. ROVI expect a mid-single-digit growth rate for the operating revenue with a range of EUR 20 million to EUR 30 million sales of Enoxaparin biosimilar. Despite, as we mentioned before, a new reduction in health expenditure from 6% to 5.8% of GDP expected for 2018, the lowest health spending forecast since 2007, according to the 2018 Draft Budget Plan and as well to the 1% to 4% growth rate in spending on medicine in Spain to 2021 forecast by QuintilesIMS, we have stayed on the path of sustained growth. We increased sales in a difficult environment for the sector, growing first our pharmaceutical specialities area through the launch of Neparvis in 2017, which is expected to boost growth in the coming years and increase our toll manufacturing sales after a fall for 2 consecutive years. But the most important milestone achieved this year is without any doubt, the launch of Enoxaparin biosimilar in Germany. We led the groundwork to turn ROVI into an international company. We opened subsidiaries in the most important European markets, Germany, U.K., France and Italy, and we aim to become one of the leaders in the low molecular weight heparin field worldwide. Finally, we are making an effort to heavily invest in research and development to bring us sustainable growth opportunities in the future.
2017 was an important year for our research and development activities. We're very excited with the potential of our long-acting injectable technology, ISM. We started Phase III study of DORIA with the recruitment of the first patient in May after having shown that the technology work in more than 125 people. Likewise, we started Phase I trial of Letrozole ISM in November.
And now, I pass on to Javier, who will run you through the financials in more detail.
Thank you very much for your attention and for taking the time to participate in this telephone conference.
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Javier López-Belmonte Encina, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO [4]
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Thanks, Juan. We are very happy with our solid performance in 2017. Our operating revenue increased by 4% this year, and this growth is driven by the good performance of toll manufacturing business and the performance of Bemiparin and new products recently launched such as Neparvis, Orvatez, Volutsa and Ulunar.
Sales of prescription-based products increased by 3%, slightly outperforming the innovative product market in 1 percentage point in 2017. Regarding Bemiparin, our flagship product developed in-house, we achieved a 5% growth. Sales in Spain grew by 7%, while international sales increased 1%.
Gross profit increased by 8% to EUR 167.2 million in 2017, reflecting an increase of 2.3 percentage points in the gross margin to 60.7% from 58.3% in 2016, mainly due to first, the increase of toll manufacturing sales, especially of the injectable business, which added higher margins and second, the rise of Bemiparin sales.
ROVI's commitment to innovation has been reflected in the figures for 2017. R&D expenses rose 62% to EUR 28.3 million. These figures are mainly the result for focused investment in the ISM Risperidone project. Our investment effort in R&D is motivated by our firm commitment to market on quality and successful products in the immediate future.
Selling, general and administrative expenses, SG&A rose 6% to EUR 108.5 million in 2017, compared to 2016, mainly due to first, Neparvis and Mysimba launches, which added expenses of EUR 4.5 million. Second, international subsidiaries expenses, which amounted to EUR 1.6 million. And third, the start of the activity in the San Sebastián de los Reyes plant.
EBITDA decreased to EUR 30.5 million in 2017, a drop of 22% compared to the previous year, reflecting a 3.8-percentage-point fall in the EBITDA margin, which was down to 11.1% in 2017. However, EBITDA of the ongoing business, calculated excluding R&D expenses in 2017 and '16 and the impact of the nonrecurring revenue in 2016, increased by 11% to EUR 58.7 million in 2017, reflecting a 1.4-percentage-point rise in the EBITDA margin to 21.3% in 2017. Likewise, recognizing the same amount of R&D expenses in 2017 as in 2016 and excluding the impact of nonrecurring revenue in 2016, EBITDA would have increased by 17% to EUR 41.2 million, reflecting a 1.6-percentage-point rise in the EBITDA margin to 15% in 2017.
EBIT performance followed the same trend as EBITDA in 2017. It decreased by 33% to EUR 19 million. EBIT of the ongoing business increased by 13% to EUR 43 million in 2017, reflecting a 1.4-percentage-point rise in the EBIT margin to 17.1% in 2017. Likewise, recognizing the same amount of R&D expenses in 2017 as in 2016 and excluding the impact of the nonrecurring revenue in 2016, EBIT would have increased by 23% to EUR 29.8 million, reflecting a 1.6-percentage-point rise in the EBIT margin to 10.8% in 2017.
Net financial costs increased by 88% up to EUR 0.9 million, due to the increase in banking debt and the reduction of delay interest from court decision in 2017.
Net profit decreased to EUR 17.2 million in 2017, a 34% fall compared to 2016. However, net profit of the ongoing business, calculated excluding R&D expenses in 2017 and '16 and the impact of the nonrecurring revenue in 2016, increased by 16% to EUR 45 million in 2017. Likewise, recognizing the same amount of R&D expenses in 2017 as in 2016 and excluding the impact of the nonrecurring revenue in 2016, net profit growth increased by 25% to EUR 27.8 million.
The effective tax rate was 1.6% in 2017, compared to 6.4% in 2016. This favorable effective tax rate is due to the reduction of existing research and development expenses and the capitalization of negative tax bases from Frosst Ibérica. ROVI expects to maintain a mid-single-digit effective tax rate for the foreseeable future.
ROVI invested EUR 19.9 million in 2017, compared to EUR 18.1 million in the previous year. Of this amount, EUR 13.1 million relates to investment CapEx regarding our facilities and EUR 6.8 million relates to maintenance and other CapEx. These figures include capitalized expenses related to the Enoxaparin biosimilar project, which amounted to EUR 4.5 million. The soundness of our balance sheet and our cash generation capacity have allowed promoting the organic growth of the company.
Free cash flow decreased to minus EUR 1.6 million in 2017 from EUR 28.2 million in 2016, mainly due to increasing CapEx on working capital.
Regarding our debt, as of the end of 2017, ROVI had a total debt of EUR 43.2 million. Of that amount, EUR 30.9 million is debt with banks, representing 72% of total debt. While EUR 12.3 million correspond to debt with public administration related to the development of R&D projects, which is 0% interest rate debt, representing 28% of total debt.
ROVI had a gross cash position of EUR 42.1 million and net debt of EUR 1.1 million in 2017, compared to net cash of EUR 9 million as of 31st of December 2016. Finally, ROVI will propose to pay a gross dividend of EUR 0.1207 per share with dividend rights on 2017 earnings. This proposed dividend represents a 35% payout ratio.
Regarding news flow for 2018, we expect to announce additional new in-licensing products to be launched in the specialty pharma area, new contracts in the toll manufacturing division and new national marketing approvals for the Enoxaparin biosimilar in the rest of the 13 EU countries. With regards to R&D, we will continue recruiting patients for the Risperidone ISM Phase III study.
And that's all regarding our financial results of 2017. We can now start the Q&A session. Operator, you can open the line for any question, please.
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Questions and Answers
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Operator [1]
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(Operator Instructions) And your first question comes from the line of Samir Devani.
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Samir Devani, Rx Securities Limited, Research Division - Research Analyst [2]
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Kickoff with the ezetimibe, Absorcol patent expiry, just looking through from the date we have, we think it's looking like that could happen around April time. I just wanted to confirm that, that's how you're thinking about the patent expiry? And if you could also just tell us what were the sales of the Absorcol last year?
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Juan López-Belmonte López, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Chairman & Chief Executive Manager [3]
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Hi Samir, this is Juan. Yes, on the petitions in regards to the Absorcol patent, information we have is that it will -- the patent will go at the end of the first quarter. Anyhow in Spain, we have what is called reference price system. So in many cases, the patent expiry date is, I mean, second to when the reference price system is updated. But we are expecting that sales will start to be affected once generic products are launched, and we are expecting that around April next year should be an approximately the date that we are counting for that.
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Javier López-Belmonte Encina, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO [4]
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Samir, this is Javier. The sales of Absorcol last year was just above EUR 3 million, and we had a small decline of 5% compared to 2016.
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Samir Devani, Rx Securities Limited, Research Division - Research Analyst [5]
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Okay. That's great. My second question is just on the Merus Labs products. Could you tell us what the sales of those products were last year?
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Javier López-Belmonte Encina, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO [6]
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Hi, Samir, this is Javier, again. I'm just trying to check the information for you. The main product is Sintrom, which is acenocoumarol, and the sales were EUR 11.8 million last year. Then we have couple of minor products like such as Salagen and Estraderm and Cordiplast. I don't have the info right with me. I will send you an e-mail with the right amount of sales. I don't want to give you inaccurate...
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Samir Devani, Rx Securities Limited, Research Division - Research Analyst [7]
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That's fine. And then, I mean, just -- my final question is just on the guidance of CapEx for this year, if you could just give us a rough number for that, that will be great.
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Javier López-Belmonte Encina, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO [8]
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Yes. We are still working on the CapEx for this year, but our first estimate is that we will be slightly above last year. So around EUR 20 million. Again, as we are working on some projects, this figure will -- could change, but our main estimate right now is around EUR 20 million.
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Operator [9]
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And your next question comes from the line of (inaudible) Santoyo.
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Unidentified Analyst, [10]
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Can you please comment on the process of choice of the remaining 4 licenses of MSD? Namely, what are the scenarios going around the table and the potential implications? It is my first question. Then the second question regarding to, so can you provide us your thoughts on the short-term outlook for Bemiparin, especially after this strong quarter in Spain and also on the competitive environment in the Enoxaparin market and the potential implication for Bemiparin outlook for this year?
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Juan López-Belmonte López, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Chairman & Chief Executive Manager [11]
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Okay, hello, thank you. This is Juan. Regarding MSD, I mean, obviously, we are following very closely any update coming from the research and development portfolio. Unfortunately, the latest news has been negative in the latest 2 failures, developments and (inaudible) and couple weeks ago, there are similar products that has dropped in other Phase III clinical trial. We expect to have our meeting with MSD in the next coming months where we should be able to get an update of patent agreement that we have with them. But we do expect that there is still a couple of years remaining -- where we do have the right to claw back additional product from their research and development pipeline, and we still have hopes that either from potential acquisitions that they may perform in the future or for products they have already been launched in the market, we may be able to get another share of another product or two in the next 3 to 4 years. Regarding Bemiparin, I think we should always split regarding Bemiparin international level and Bemiparin Spain. Regarding the outlook of Bemiparin, I sort of explained, we don't expect make major changes. The markets where we have a stronger presence of Bemiparin, they have already generic Enoxaparin products for quite a while, that means Turkey and mainly North Africa, country like Algeria or like in the Middle East. So from international point of view, we expect that sales will remain flat, but we don't expect any major distortion to the market in regards to either our sales or any other company may launch an additional Enoxaparin biosimilars in those countries.
Regarding Spain, definitely, there is going to be -- either this year or beginning of next year, we are going to see 1 or 2 biosimilar Enoxaparin coming to the market. We believe that Bemiparin has already got an important position and stronghold with clear clinical differentiated features like the 6 post administration regime and 1 dose in the treatment indication. We're gaining market share pretty fast, especially on the treatment indication in the last coming years, and we do expect that this competitive advantages compared to Enoxaparin biosimilar will help us to remain and to defend existing market share. We believe that Enoxaparin biosimilar will get a significant market share of Clexane's sales today. We shouldn't forget that the Clexane market in Spain amounts to over EUR 120 million. So there is plenty of room to satisfy any biosimilar Enoxaparin launch, and we believe and that's what we are working and we have our plans already implemented to defend, and we're not increasing our market share of Bemiparin in Spain, mainly focus on the one daily dosage of the treatment indications, which in terms of value is really the most significant part of the business.
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Operator [12]
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And your next question comes from the line of Francisco Ruiz.
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Francisco Ruiz, Exane BNP Paribas, Research Division - Research Analyst [13]
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I have a couple of questions. First one is on your guidance. So you're targeting a mid-single-digit growth, so excluding Enoxaparin, you are mainly targeting a decrease on sales. Could you tell us what are the main headwinds on this? And although you have commented already on Bemiparin in Spain, could you explain what's the growth rate you expect on Bemiparin this year? And the second question is on toll manufacturing. Despite increase on capacity, do you expect some reduction of the revenues to third parties taking into account that you are going to produce a big part of your Enoxaparin here?
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Juan López-Belmonte López, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Chairman & Chief Executive Manager [14]
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Hello, Francisco, this is Juan. Regarding your first question, you are right. I mean, if we put aside the EUR 20 million to EUR 30 million range that we have guided for Enoxaparin biosimilar, we might see next year a decrease in terms of sales in the specialty business and that's mainly due to 2 major issues. The first one is that we have November last year stopped commercializing Thymanax, the antidepressant drug, which was a license from Servier. And second, we expect sometime at the end of the third quarter to stop commercializing the Merus Labs franchise that Javier before already outlined that only Sintrom accounts for almost EUR 12 million. Those 2 events are mainly behind the decline in sales that you have all mentioned. Regarding Bemiparin, again, we don't expect that this year any major interference from Enoxaparin biosimilar. Again, we are already ending February, beginning of March, no marketing authorization has yet been granted neither to us nor to (inaudible). So we don't expect any impact of any biosimilar Enoxaparin for this year or at least any significant impact. And again, as I mentioned before to the previous question that with the same question, we do feel that we have already strong strategic position in regards of where Bemiparin has been positioned in the last 5 years. We believe that the 6 hours postop regime, which is a unique administration dosage that only Bemiparin has got in its label as well as the once-daily dosage of treatment, I think that will -- is going to create opportunities. We do expect as well that once that Enoxaparin biosimilars are launched, Sanofi may decrease their promotional efforts, which as well that would provide another good opportunity for Bemiparin, which again promotional still counts in this type of business. Regarding second question of the manufacturing, again, right now our top priority is to launch biosimilar Enoxaparin throughout Europe and as well we are now involved in several registration process worldwide. Right now it's priority. So that means that even if we may not optimize our capacity this year, that's something that we have to devote all our efforts to. So right now, we are building stocks. We are preparing the manufacturing plant to really absorb the challenge of launching in 25 countries in Europe in the next 18 months. Once we have stabilized the biosimilar Enoxaparin launches, we will be able to have better information and an updated plan to once again to try to push the toll manufacturing operations on the injectable side. But right now although we may not make the most of toll manufacturing operations, we are right now giving the priority to the biosimilar Enoxaparin. And that is basically the rationale why we have guided that the injectable business may suffer in the next coming months.
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Javier López-Belmonte Encina, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO [15]
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Let me add. Francisco, just let me add from the Merus Labs perspective that we are going -- that we believe that we could start distributing at the end of this year and those products are very much here an old product and ROVI wasn't promoting them, but just distributing. So the gross margin and the added value of those products were lowered on the average of the company. Just to clarify that point.
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Francisco Ruiz, Exane BNP Paribas, Research Division - Research Analyst [16]
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Okay. Just one follow-up. Do you have in mind what is going to be -- when is going to be the approval in Spain of the biosimilar?
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Juan López-Belmonte López, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Chairman & Chief Executive Manager [17]
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To be honest, Francisco, this is Juan, we don't have yet a calendar that we can share with you. We believe it's going to happen sometime in the second half of this year, but right now we don't have information really to provide an accurate date.
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Operator [18]
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And your next question comes from the line of Susie Jana.
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Susie Jana, Edison Investment Research Limited - Analyst [19]
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I just wanted to have one follow-up question, which is really on the R&D spend. I see that it came in at EUR 28 million this year and that you had during your presentation alluded to EUR 30 million per year in '17, '18, '19. So just wanted to check -- and then reducing to EUR 22 million after that, just wanted to check those numbers still held?
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Javier López-Belmonte Encina, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO [20]
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Hi, Susie, this is Javier. I just wanted to confirm that all the numbers provided on the presentation are still valid. For us, it's always just too difficult to phase all the R&D expenditure. That depends on the recruitment speed and the speed of the other clinical trials, but I just wanted to confirm all the data that we provided last October.
(technical difficulty)
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Operator [21]
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And Susie's line is still having difficulty. So our next question comes from the line of Ignacio Mendivil.
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Ignacio Ortiz de Mendivil Arrate, JB Capital Markets, Sociedad de Valores, S.A., Research Division - VP [22]
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I had a couple of questions. Looking at the stronger half of Enoxaparin expected in 2018 and to the economics of the product, do you think it's reasonable to expect an expansion of the consolidated gross margin of the company from current levels? And can you give us some color you have on how your competitors are doing in the Enoxaparin market in Europe? And then the last question, what should we expect in terms of marketing expenses for 2018 considering the investment needed for Neparvis and Enoxaparin?
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Javier López-Belmonte Encina, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO [23]
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Hello, Ignacio, this is Javier. With regards to your first question about the margins, we do expect in the next coming years to expand our margins due to increase of the sales of Enoxaparin and the rest of our current portfolio of products, as we do our expansion of margins always not taking into account R&D cost. Second, with regards to competitors, it's still early to say any data. We launched the product in Germany last September and the product was first able to prescribe in October last year. And so far what we can share, because still early, is that we are the most selling biosimilar Enoxaparin in Germany. Sales, as we disclosed, were EUR 1 million last December. So that means that we feel very confident to achieve our guidance for this year, although we still have to launch in many countries. And it's always very difficult to forecast our product just in launch. We don't have any info with regards to competitors to the Chinese biosimilar in other countries and apparently, it has not been launched in other countries yet apart from the U.K. and Germany. With regards to the marketing expenditure, especially related to Enoxaparin, we also have said that our subsidiaries will face a cost of around EUR 8 million and that includes all the setup cost, fixed cost and marketing expenditure. And overall, I would say that marketing expenditure with regards to Enoxaparin at least in these countries will not reach EUR 5 million.
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Operator [24]
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Thank you, and no further questions at this time. Please continue.
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Javier López-Belmonte Encina, Laboratorios Farmaceuticos ROVI, S.A. - Second VP & CFO [25]
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All right. Well, it seems that there are no more questions at this moment. So therefore, we finish our full year 2017 results conference call. Once again, thank you very much for taking your time to attend this conference call, and good afternoon to everyone. Bye-bye.
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Operator [26]
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Thank you. And that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect. Speakers, please standby. Thank you.
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