Uniphar said that in the last 20 days, it has seen a significant spike in demand across all of its three divisions as the government and the wider healthcare sector ramp up preparations to deal with the forecasted increase in patients across Europe in the coming weeks.
In a trading update, the Irish pharmaceuticals group said its business performance is ahead of its expectations and there has been limited disruption from the Covid-19 outbreak to its business up to now.
Uniphar services the requirements of more than 200 multinational pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers.
The company is also a major wholesale provider in Ireland and owns the Allcare and Life pharmacy brands.
Uniphar said that as it prepares for the full impact of the Covid-19 crisis in the next 12 weeks, it expects to continue to see increased volumes across the group, with likely increases in cost to serve as it invests in additional resources to manage significantly higher volumes, while at the same time dealing with reduced availability of manpower due to potential sick leave or self-isolation/quarantine situations arising.
“Due to reprioritisation of resources within hospitals and other healthcare facilities we are preparing for a possible delay in medical device revenue, if certain ‘non-urgent’ elective surgeries have to be postponed,” the company said.
“The net impact of a three month disruption, should it occur, could result in a reduction of 2020 EBITDA in the region of €5m,” it stated.
