Presenting the results at the group and core company level, Krka management noted that they were affected by the declining prices of drugs as well as depreciation of the Russian rouble and the Ukrainian hryvnia.

While the group's volume sales increased by 9% year-on-year, sales revenues in the first nine months remained flat at EUR 858m due to the mentioned reasons. Sales generated by the core company were down by 2% to EUR 815.4m.

East Europe remains the biggest regional market for Krka with EUR 301.6m in sales revenues or 35.1% of total sales. Despite the depreciation of the Russian and Ukrainian currencies, sales in the region increased by 1% year-on-year.

Russia as the biggest individual market for the Novo mesto-based company saw a 2% growth in sales expressed in euros, or a 15% growth expressed in roubles.

The second biggest regional market is Central Europe (EUR 196.4m; a 4% drop year-on-year), which represents a 22.9% share in total sales, followed by Western Europe (EUR 177.3m; a 4% growth).

The group recorded the biggest relative growth in Southeast Europe, where sales increased by 8% to EUR 107m.

Sales on the Slovenian market were meanwhile down by 11% to EUR 58m.

The Krka management has assessed that this year's total sales will reach last year's EUR 1.2bn, which is somewhat less than planned. Profit has been projected to equal last year's profit of EUR 173m.

Krka chairman Jože Colarič said at the press conference that the sales in Ukraine dropped somewhat, which was compensated for with solid sales in Southeast Europe, in particular in Romania, and in Poland.

Plans for the next year are EUR 1.26bn in sales revenues and a net profit comparable to this year's profit, according to him.

Krka will invest EUR 165m in increasing and modernising its production capacities and infrastructure next year.

The number of employees in Slovenia and abroad is expected to increase by 4% next year and exceed 11,000, Colarič added.