(Reuters) – Swiss online drug retailer DocMorris met expectations on Thursday as it released its full-year results for 2023, helped by structural cost savings.
The firm reported a loss in adjusted earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 34.9 million Swiss francs ($39.42 million), in line with expectations for a loss of 34 million Swiss francs according to a company-compiled consensus.
For 2024, DocMorris expects adjusted EBITDA to come in between breakeven and a loss of 35 million Swiss francs, compared with analysts’ expectations of a loss of 13 million Swiss francs.
The company expects its earnings this year to be boosted by Germany’s mandate of compulsory e-prescriptions for publicly insured residents from Jan. 1, although its statement warned that the ramp-up of prescription medication in Germany was not “fully predictable”.
Online pharmacies such as DocMorris are relying on the rollout of e-prescriptions in Germany, a key element in their business model, in order to turn profitable.
Dutch-based peer Redcare Pharmacy earlier this month forecast higher sales for 2024 after it posted upbeat adjusted annual core earnings, supported by a growing number of prescription sales.
($1 = 0.8854 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Tristan Veyet and Louis van Boxel-Woolf in Gdansk; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Janane Venkatraman)
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